Millions of UK households who have instant coffee in their kitchen warned

Scientists have discovered it could cause a disease that destroys your eye sight, with millions of UK households warned.

A warning has been issued for UK households with instant coffee in the kitchen cupboards. Scientists have discovered it could cause a disease that destroys your eye sight, with millions of UK households warned.

The Hubei University of Medicine in China said chemicals in instant coffee may increase the risk of AMD. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common condition that affects the middle part of your vision.

It usually first affects people in their 50s. It does not cause total blindness, but it can make things like reading and recognising faces difficult. A study used genetic data from more than 500,000 people and found a statistically significant link between instant coffee intake and the risk of dry AMD.

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“Our results revealed a genetic correlation between instant coffee consumption and dry AMD,” wrote corresponding author Siwei Liu, from the Department of Ophthalmology in Shiyan Taihe Hospital at the Hubei University of Medicine.

“Instant coffee may increase the risk of AMD, and reducing its intake could help prevent dry AMD. People at high-risk for AMD should avoid instant coffee.”

AMD is a common eye disease and “one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness”, researchers said. “Epidemiological studies indicate that AMD affects nearly 200 million people worldwide, with the number expected to reach 290 million by 2040,” the study authors wrote in Food Science and Nutrition.

“Research has shown that genetic factors play a major role in the development of AMD. However, given the unclear disease mechanisms and the complexity of treatment, slowing disease progression and timely prevention are particularly important.”

“In contrast, our study provided a more detailed stratification of coffee types and yielded different results, indicating potential biases in previous research,” the study authors stated. Their results showed “a potential genetic correlation between instant coffee consumption and both dry and wet AMD”.

“We found that instant coffee significantly increases the risk of AMD,” researchers said.