Prevalence of type 2 diabetes is rapidly increasing worldwide as the population sprints towards a future of poor blood sugar control, increased medication and a host of detrimental effects to health and well-being associated with this lifestyle illness. As one would expect the research on prevention and reduction of risk factors identified for the diabetes has been focused on lifestyle, nutrition and exercise in order to better understand how to slow and prevent the rapidly increasing prevalence.
A recent meta-analysis (Ding et al., 2014) on one of our favourite beverages has solidified previous evidence suggesting that it may demonstrate a dose response relationship between frequency of consumption and a reduction in risk of developing the condition.
Coffee was shown to significantly reduce risk of developing diabetes in a linear relationship up to 6 cups per day. That means no cups per day had the least effect and 6 cups per day had the highest effect on incidence of diabetes.
Whilst it wouldn’t be recommended to consume copious amounts of caffeinated drinks it may provide an argument for that daily cup.
Jack Barton (Researcher, Rescon Ltd)
References
Ding, M., Bhupathiraju, S. N., Chen, M., van Dam, R. M.and Hu, F. B. (2014). Caffeinated and Decaffeinated Coffee Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and a Dose-Response Meta-analysis. Diabetes Care, 37(2), 569-586.