Planning to hit the local coffeehouse, or meet a friend for tea? Here’s another reason to reach for your favorite cup.
A large new scientific analysis of coffee and tea drinkers has found that these favorites—even the decaf versions – can help reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes.
The recent research, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that every additional cup of coffee each day was associated with a seven percent reduction in the excess risk of diabetes.
The more tea or coffee a person consumed, the more diabetes risk declined. Drinking three to four cups a day meant about a 25 percent reduced diabetes risk when compared with those who drank between none and two cups day.
Even decaf made a difference.
Those who drank three to four cups of decaf coffee each day had about a one-third lower risk than people who didn’t drink any. And tea drinkers who sipped more than three to four cups a day had about a one-fifth lower diabetes risk than non-tea drinkers. Researchers, further detailing their findings, noted that an ingredient other than caffeine, such as magnesium or plant-based antioxidant compounds, might give coffee and tea properties that reduce diabetes risk.
The study, a type of scientific inquiry called a meta-analysis, is especially interesting because of its breadth. The findings were compiled from 18 individual studies that included almost 458,000 people and spanned more than 40 years, giving the research a particularly comprehensive perspective. Earlier research had pointed to similar benefits from coffee and tea, but this meta-analysis gives them greater credibility. It’s also important to note, though, that coffee or tea can cause health problems for some people, so it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor before dramatically increasing your daily cup count.
Type 2 diabetes is one of the most common health problems in the United States – more than 25 percent of American adults will develop the condition over the course of their lifetime. At Navigenics, we include genetic predisposition for type 2 diabetes in our genetic testing service, as about 64 percent of a person’s risk is genetic.
But everyday choices, such as diet, also play a big role. Knowing your genetic predisposition can help guide those decisions. And when you are making a choice about what to drink, this research indicates, adding in coffee or tea may do more than get you going in the morning—it may give your health a boost as well.