Coffee and Cigarettes: The Most Well-Balanced Meal?

The New England Journal of Medicine is out with some research from the National Cancer Institute (with the bourgeois-esque title of "Association of Coffee Drinking with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality") which concludes drinking coffee -- caffeinated or not -- may extend life expectancy.

Data showed consuming two to three cups o' joe per day led drinkers to having a 10 percent longer lifespan than those who stick to water. Diseases coffee seems to put off include heart disease, diabetes, and respiratory illness.

The NCI cautioned the study was more "observational" and required follow up to determine the cause and effect.

The study observed 402,000 people who participated in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study, with ages ranging from 50 to 71 years old at the start. From 1995 to 2008, 33,731 men and 18,784 women died. Participants with cancer, heart disease and stroke were excluded from the study.

Does this mean cigarette smokers, notorious for getting cancer, are better off pairing up their breaks with a steaming, hot cup of cancer-fighting elixir?

Stocks to watch:

• J.M. Smucker (NYSE: SJM);
  
• Green Mountain (Nasdaq: GMCR);
  
• Peet's Coffee & Tea (Nasdaq: PEET);
  
• Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX);
  
• Dunkin' Brands (Nasdaq: DNKN);
  
• Coffee Holding (Nasdaq: JVA); and
  
• Caribou Coffee (Nasdaq: CBOU).

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