Coffee consumption linked to lower diabetes risk

Editor's note: This is a new review study that suggests that drinking coffee may help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Please be aware that the studies are not trials meaning that the results should not be considered evidence that coffee indeed reduces diabetes risk.

By Jimmy Downs

Drinking coffee may help reduce the risk of diabetes, according to a new study.

Pimentel GD and colleagues from Federal University of Sao Paulo in Brazil reviewed studies on coffee consumption and diabetes and found that there is an inverse association between high intake of coffee and reduced risk of diabetes.

The researchers published their report in the Sept 2009 issue of Diabetology and Metabolic Syndrome saying that at least fourteen out of 18 cohort studies revealed a substantially lower risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in those who drank coffee often.

Generally, moderate coffee intake defined as 4 or more cups of coffee per day or more than 400 mg of caffeine per day had been associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

However, the researchers warned it is too early to recommend drinking coffee as a public health strategy to prevent type diabetes mellitus and more population-based surveys are needed to clarify the long term effects of decaffeinated and caffeinated coffee intake on risk of type 2 diabetes.

Researchers in Australia also meta-analyzed data from 18 studies conducted between 1966 and July 2009 and found drinking 3 or four cups of coffee per day was associated with 25 percent reduced risk of diabetes.

Dr. Rachel Huxley of the George Institute for international Health in Sydney Australia and colleagues also found similar correlations between decaffeinated coffee and tea drinking and reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

Their findings suggest that caffeine may not have direct impact on the risk of diabetes.

Possible factors that affect risk of diabetes include eating eggs, restaurant-served meals like hamburger, fried fish, fried chicken, too much sugar laced cola, high fat diet, fruit juice, and radiation.

About 20 million people in the United States are believed to live with diabetes.  Diabetes is linked to diet.  It has been recently found that eating restaurant-served meals was associated with increased risk of diabetes.