Want to reduce your chance of developing diabetes? Make it a venti!

Just saw this at Healthy Aging for Women:

There is more evidence that the American love affair with coffee is helping to reduce the risk of diabetes. Drinking caffeinated coffee was found to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 60% in a newly published study that included people at high risk for the disease.

Even those who used to drink coffee but quit were less likely to develop diabetes than those who never drank it.

From a report in the June 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine:

In summary, we observed an inverse association between coffee consumption, especially decaffeinated coffee consumption, and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus over an 11-year period in postmenopausal women residing in the state of Iowa," the authors conclude. "Although the first line of prevention for diabetes is exercise and diet, in light of the popularity of coffee consumption and high rates of type 2 diabetes mellitus in older adults, these findings may carry high public health significance."

After adjusting the data for some of the other diabetes risk factors, women who drank more than six cups of any type of coffee per day were 22 percent less likely than those who drank no coffee to be diagnosed with diabetes; those who drank more than six cups of decaffeinated coffee per day had a 33 percent reduction in risk compared with those who drank none.

The newly released reports are not the first to find that coffee drinkers may be receiving some level of protection from diabetes:

A Finnish study, reported in 2004, suggested a 30% reduction in type 2 diabetes risk among people who drank three or four cups of coffee a day. Women in the study who drank 10 or more cups a day showed a 79% reduction in risk.

And combined results from 15 studies involving more than 200,000 participants suggested a similar protective effect. People who drank the most coffee had the lowest diabetes risk in the review, conducted by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Given the amount of coffee consumed at the LifeTwo offices, the chances of any of us developing type 2 diabetes is now greatly dimminished. As noted above, drinking coffee is not a diabetes panacea and proper exercise, nutrition and weight maintenance should all be part of one's lifestyle, but it's nice to feel a little less guilt as I head down the hall for my third cup of the morning.

For additional information on diabetes read the related stories below and take a minute to register to receive our monthly newsletter and other benefits.