If you are coffee addict and cannot cut down on your daily caffeine intake, there is a good news for you. According to a latest study, moderately scaling up coffee consumption can avert the risk of type 2 diabetes. As per Dr Frank Hu and Dr Shilpa Bhupathiraju from the department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, who led the research team, showed that by increasing the daily coffee intake by just one and a half cups (360 ml, approximately) over a four year span proves beneficial in cutting down the risk of type 2 diabetes by 11 percent.
Earlier studies have also confirmed that consumption of coffee and tea reduces the danger of type 2 diabetes. But these studies were unable to find an answer for how altering tea and coffee intake can influence type 2 diabetes risk.
For the study, researchers employed observational data derived from three different US based studies: data from the Health Professionals, Nurse’s Health Study (NHS) and the Nurse’s Health Study II. The Health Professional study was conducted for the year 1986 till 2006 and collected information about male professional ranging from 40-75 years of age. The NHS was conducted from 1986-2006 and gathered data about female nurses aging between 30-35 years, while NHS II was conducted between 1991-2007 for young female nurses, aging between 25-42 years. At an interval of every 2 to 4 years, information related to food habits, lifestyle, medical condition and other major disease was continuously gathered for 20 years.
Researchers also analyzed whether the prevalence of diabetes varied in caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee. In total 7,269 cases of type 2 diabetes were identified during the study. The study showed that individuals who added more than an extra cup of coffee in their daily schedule over a time of 4 years were 11 percent less prone to type 2 diabetes in caparison the individuals with no changes in their coffee consumptions. Whereas, individuals who cut down their coffee intake by 1 cup/day were 17 percent more prone to type 2 diabetes.
The study also revealed that any change in tea habits were not related to the risk of type 2 diabetes. This was also because there were less number of individuals who made any drastic changes in their tea habits during the 4 year span and therefore there was not enough data to find any relation between tea consumption and type 2 diabetes risk.
The individuals who consumed 3 or more cups of coffee each day were regarded as high stable consumers. Such individuals were 37 percent lower danger of type 2 diabetes than low stable consumers, who had just one cup or less each day.
The study also showed that caffeinated coffee were associated with the changes in the danger of type 2 diabetes and not decaffeinated coffee. Nevertheless, the findings from the study confirms that alteration in coffee consumption in relatively short duration of time, seem to directly influence the risk of diabetes. Therefore, think before if you are planning to change your coffee intake habits because it does just associated with reducing the type 2 diabetes, but also certain cancers, cardiovascular diseases and is also associated with boosting long term memory. But remember coffee is just one element that affect diabetes and it is also highly essential for individuals to indulge in a healthy, balanced diet, healthy lifestyle habits and maintain body weight.
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