Why do we drink coffee? Maybe it's your genes, or your friends

If we are surrounded by colleagues and friends who drink coffee, we are more likely to drink it too. — AFP

New US research has found that how much coffee we drink is partly due to genetics, and partly influenced by how much coffee our family, friends and colleagues are drinking.

Carried out by Paul Williams, a statistician at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the new study looked at 4,788 child-parent pairs and 2,380 siblings, who were asked to report on their diet, exercise, medication use and medical history every three to five years as part of the Framingham Study, which investigates how lifestyle and genetics can affect the risk of cardiovascular disease.