Nutty Popcorn Party Mix

• 3 quarts popped popcorn

• 1 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts

• 1 jar (3-1/2 ounces) macadamia nuts, halved

• 1/2 cup slivered almonds

• 1/4 cup flaked coconut

• 3/4 cup butter, cubed

• 1 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

• 1/4 cup light corn syrup

• 1/4 cup strong brewed coffee

• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• In a large bowl, combine the popcorn, nuts and coconut. In a large saucepan, combine the butter, sugars, corn syrup, coffee and cinnamon. Bring to a boil over medium heat; boil and stir for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Pour over popcorn mixture and stir until coated.

• Transfer to two greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pans. Bake, uncovered, at 250° for 45-55 minutes or until golden brown, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread onto waxed paper; cool completely. Store in airtight containers.

Yield: about 12 cups.

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Drinking coffee found to cut risk of Type 2 diabetes

People who drink more coffee -- either regular or decaf -- appear to have a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a review of research reported in this week's Archives of Internal Medicine.

An estimated 23.6 million Americans -- about 8 percent of the total population -- have diabetes.

And experts say the condition, which can lead to serious health problems and even death, is on the rise.

Researchers from Australia's George Institute for International Health at the University of Sydney, reviewed 18 studies involving 457,922 participants to assess the link between coffee consumption and diabetes risk.

They found that each additional cup of coffee consumed per day was associated with a 7 percent reduction in diabetes risk. Those who drank three to four cups a day had about a 25 percent lower risk than people who drank zero to two cups a day.

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Drinking cups of tea and coffee can prevent diabetes

Tea and coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a large body of evidence shows. And the protection may not be down to caffeine since decaf coffee has the greatest effect, say researchers in Archives of Internal Medicine.

They looked at 18 separate studies involving nearly 500,000 people.This analysis revealed that people who drink three or four cups of coffee or tea a day cut their risk by a fifth or more, say researchers. The same amount of decaffeinated coffee had an even bigger effect, lowering risk by a third.

Type 2 diabetes usually starts after the age of 40 and develops when the body can still make some insulin, but not enough, or when the insulin that is produced does not work properly. Type 2 diabetes is treated with a healthy diet and increased physical activity. In addition to this, medication and/or insulin is often required. If the findings prove true, doctors may well start advising people to put the kettle on as well as take more exercise and watch their weight, say the researchers.

When the authors combined and analysed the data, they found that each additional cup of coffee consumed in a day cut diabetes risk by 7%. Lead researcher Dr Rachel Huxley, from the University of Sydney in Australia, said because of the finding with decaffeinated coffee, the link is unlikely to be solely related to caffeine.

Instead, other compounds in coffee and tea - including magnesium and antioxidants known as lignans or chlorogenic acids - may be involved. Special brew"The identification of the active components of these beverages would open up new therapeutic pathways for the primary prevention of diabetes mellitus.

"If such beneficial effects were observed in interventional trials to be real, the implications for the millions of individuals who have diabetes mellitus, or who are at future risk of developing it, would be substantial." Dr Victoria King, of Diabetes UK, said: "Without full information about what other factors may be influencing the type 2 diabetes risk of the studies' participants - such as their physical activity levels and diet - as well as what the active ingredient in tea or coffee appears to be, we cannot be sure what, if anything, this observed effect is down to.

"What we can be sure of is that the development of type 2 diabetes is strongly linked to lifestyle, which means that many cases could be prevented by keeping active and eating a healthy balanced diet that is low in fat, salt and sugar with plenty of fruit and vegetables."

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Coffee, tea can prevent diabetes

Drinking tea or coffee reduces the risk of diabetes, according to a review of 18 studies that covered hundreds of thousands of people. Previous research had shown that people who drank the most coffee were one-third less likely to develop diabetes than those who drank the least. In the years since then, the amount of research on coffee and diabetes risk has more than doubled, and other studies have suggested that tea and decaffeinated coffee may also be effective in preventing diabetes.

To update the evidence, researchers reviewed 18 studies on coffee (including decaffeinated coffee) and tea and the risk of type 2 diabetes published between 1966 and 2009 covering about 4.6 lakh people. It was found that for every additional cup of coffee a person consumed each day, a person's risk of diabetes was reduced by 7 percent.

In the six studies that looked at decaffeinated coffee, the researchers found that people who consumed more than three or four cups a day were at 36 percent lower risk of diabetes. And in seven studies that examined tea drinking and diabetes risk, people who drank more than three or four cups daily were at 18 percent lower diabetes risk.

The above analysis could have overestimated the effect of these beverages on diabetes risk due to statistical issues with the smaller studies. It's also not possible to conclude from the current evidence that heavy coffee drinkers (and tea and decaffeinated drinkers) don't have other characteristics that might protect them against developing diabetes such as eating a healthier diet.

The fact that the effects were seen with decaffeinated as well as coffee and tea suggest that if the effects are real, they aren't just due to caffeine, but may be related to other substances found in these beverages for example magnesium, lignans (oestrogen-like chemicals found in plants), or chlorogenic acids, which are antioxidants that slow the release of sugar into the blood after a meal.

However, further clinical trials are needed to investigate whether these beverages do indeed help prevent diabetes. If the benefits turn out to be real, health care providers might begin advising patients at risk for diabetes not only to exercise and lose weight, but to drink more tea and coffee, too.

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Coffee, tea cut diabetes risk

The finding is based on the analysis of previous studies reported in the December 14/28 issues of Archives of Internal Medicine, JAMA.

To reach the conclusion, Rachel Huxley, D.Phil, of The George Institute for International Health, University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues identified 18 studies involving 457,922 participants and assessing.

The association between coffee consumption and diabetes risk published between 1966 and 2009. Six studies involving 225,516 individuals also included information about decaffeinated coffee, whereas seven studies with 286,701 participants reported on tea consumption. When the authors combined and analyzed the data, they found that each additional cup of coffee consumed in a day was associated with a 7 percent reduction in the excess risk of diabetes.

Individuals who drank three to four cups per day had an approximately 25 percent lower risk than those who drank between zero and two cups per day. Additionally, in the studies that assessed decaffeinated coffee consumption, those who drank more than three to four cups per day had about a one-third lower risk of diabetes than those who drank none. Those who drank more than three to four cups of tea had a one-fifth lower risk than those who drank no tea.

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Study Shows Coffees Benefits

The consumption of coffee and vigorous exercise may have a hand in decreasing the risk of prostate cancer, according to separate findings recently presented by two researchers affiliated with the Harvard School of Public Health.

Kathryn M. Wilson, a research fellow in the epidemiology department at HSPH, found a correlation between the consumption of coffee and a decreased risk of the cancer, which afflicts more men than any other cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, Stacey A. Kenfield, a research associate in the department, determined that vigorous exercise may reduce the risk of mortality due to the same disease.

For her study, Wilson tracked the coffee consumption habits of 50,000 men ranging in age from their mid-50s to mid-70s, finding that men who regularly drank coffee over the 20-year span of the study developed advanced prostate cancer at a lower rate than non-coffee drinkers.

Subjects who reported consuming six or more cups of coffee every day were found to have a 60 percent lower chance of advanced or lethal prostate cancer than those who did not drink coffee. Both regular and decaffeinated coffee elicited the same results.

The study also found that men who drink large amounts of coffee are more likely to smoke, exercise less, and be overweight—factors that have been shown to increase the risk of prostate cancer. Wilson said these findings added support to her belief that coffee itself—and not, for instance, the life style choices related to the drink—may be responsible for the link between coffee consumption and the lower risk of prostate cancer.

But Wilson said that the study did not investigate the reasons behind the coffee-cancer connection.

“You can’t really say that this is a direct cause-and-effect relationship,” Wilson said, adding that she thinks the results may be somehow related to coffee’s association with a lower risk of Type II diabetes.

Other studies have shown that drinking coffee potentially decreases the risk of liver and endometrial cancer as well, according to Wilson. But despite all the potential benefits of coffee, more research needs to be done before people are encouraged to reevaluate their drinking choices, Wilson said. “I don’t think there is a reason to change your coffee drinking habits in either direction,” she said.

Kenfield’s study which followed 2,686 men who had already been diagnosed with prostate cancer and quantified their exercise habits after their diagnoses—found that vigorous activity decreased the risk of mortality due to prostate cancer.

Those who participated in non-vigorous activities equivalent to about 30 minutes of jogging, biking, or swimming per week, saw a 35 percent reduction in overall mortality, according to Kenfield. But these exercises had no measurable effect on the risk of mortality due to prostate cancer.

By contrast, those who participated in vigorous activities experienced a 12 percent decreased risk of mortality specifically due to prostate cancer. Kenfield said she plans to do more research to determine the cause of the results, focusing on insulin pathways and insulin growth factors.

Though the causality of the study’s results has yet to be determined, Kenfield said that the positive health benefits attributed to exercise make it a sensible habit for men with prostate cancer to adopt. Wilson and Kenfield presented their findings last Monday in Houston at the American Association for Cancer Research’s “Frontiers in Cancer Prevention” Research Conference.

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Coffee won't cure your hangover, and may lead to poor decision-making - study

Coffee may wake you up, but it won’t sober you up, a new study shows. Researchers have concluded that while drinking coffee after consuming alcohol may make you feel more awake, it doesn’t actually make you more sober - and that combination could lead to poor decision-making.

“Coffee may reduce the sedative effects of alcohol, which could give the false impression that people are not as intoxicated as they really are.

Gould added that people who have only consumed alcohol are more likely to feel “tired and intoxicated,” and more importantly, acknowledge that they’re drunk.

The researchers, who published their findings in the journal “Behavioral Neuroscience,” first compared the drunk behavior of mice to that of mice given only a saline solution. The drunk and sober mice were tested on their ability to learn a maze while trying to avoid bright lights or sounds. The drunk mice did significantly less well.

After being drunk, the mice were given the equivalent of six to eight cups of coffee. While the caffeine and alcohol combination seemed to make the mice less anxious, it failed to reverse the negative effects that alcohol had on them learning the maze.

Alcohol also calmed the “caffeine jitters,” reports WebMD.com, which made the mice less able to avoid potential threats. In a press release, Gould concluded that “the bottom line is that, despite the appeal of being able to stay up all night and drink, all evidence points to serious risks associated with caffeine-alcohol combinations.”

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