Drinking coffee may help prevent diabetes
Attention coffee lovers! That habit may not be so bad.
Drinking coffee, a lots of it, may help prevent type 2 diabetes, a disease affecting millions and on the rise across the globe, according to a new study published in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
It's the caffine, say scientists from Nagoya University in Japan.
The scientists fed either water or coffee to a group of lab mice, a common stand-in for people in such studies. The coffee consumption prevented development of high-blood sugar and improved insulin sensitivity in the mice. That mean lower risk of diabetes.
There were also other benefits from drinking coffee, including improvements in fatty liver, which is a disorder where fat builds up in liver cells, primarily in obese people. That further reduces the risk of diabetes, the scientists said.
Other studies in the lab showed that caffeine may be “one of the most effective anti-diabetic compounds in coffee,” according to the scientists.
Keep sipping, there's more study to come.
Photo courtesy of the American Chemical Soceity
Comments
Glad to see more studies confirming coffee may have health benefits. I am trying to prevent diabetes but I also realize that too much caffeine is not good for me. I have switched to 50% caffeinated coffee and luckily do not like sugar added to my coffee so do not have to worry about the extra calories and weight gain.
Posted by: Karen Marschel, RD | June 14, 2010 2:12 PM
Great news. I don't think the researchers have narrowed coffee's beneficial effects on diabetes to caffeine, though. It could be host of things, including magnesium and the assorted anti-oxidants in coffee. Perhaps that same benefits will be found in tea as well.
Posted by: Don | June 28, 2010 4:05 PM