A recent study that examined data from half a million people around the world
has found that drinking coffee can bring down the risk of type 2 diabetes,
compared to non-coffee drinkers.
The report, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, revealed that people who drink
three or four cups of decaffeinated coffee every day have a 33 per cent decreased risk of type 2 diabetes,
while the same amount of tea brought the risk of type 2 diabetes down by 20 per cent.
This follows on from another piece of research from the Harvard School of Public Health,
which investigated the results of 15 different studies of coffee and type 2 diabetes involving
nearly 200,000 people across the US and Europe.
That study found that people who drank the most coffee about four to six cups daily
–had a 28 per cent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who drank the least coffee.
However, another important factor for diabetics is the levels of insulin in the body, so the use of milk,
cream or sugar in coffee can increase the ease at which insulin enters cells to control the level of blood sugar .
A Swedish study found that it was more difficult for insulin to enter cells when sugar was added,
but that milk and cream had no effect on the entry of insulin.
Research has also shown that only 35 per cent of people drink their coffee black,
and the current popularity for specialty coffees such as java is not great news for diabetics,
as it sometimes contain as much as 500 calories .
