Drink up! - coffee helps prevent diabetes

The latest research on the topic says coffee may help prevent diabetes.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota say decaffeinated coffee in particular appears to offer protection against adult-onset diabetes, but how it does so is unclear.

They suggest that it is possible that the minerals and non-nutritive plant chemicals found in abundance in the coffee bean may have a beneficial effect on blood-sugar levels or protect the pancreas from stress.

The finding was based on a ten year study of more than 28,000 women in Iowa, USA, after they had gone through the menopause.

When the study began, more than 14,000 of them drank one to three cups of coffee per day, 2,875 drank more than six cups, 5,554 four to five cups, 3,231 less than one cup and 2,928 none.

Over the 11 years of the study 1,418 of the women reported on surveys that they had been newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

The research showed that women who drank six or more cups of coffee a day experienced a 33 per cent less risk of developing type 2 diabetes than other women and decaffeinated coffee seemed to be especially effective.

An earlier study in Finland, which has the highest coffee consumption in the world, has also found that men and women who drank 10 or more cups of coffee per day had the lowest risk of adult onset diabetes.

Researcher Dr. Mark Pereira says that having a healthy diet, controlling your weight, and exercising are essential to preventing the onset of diabetes, but drinking coffee has the potential to further reduce risk.

He says the idea that coffee does more harm than good may have to be revised.

The study is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.