Coffee Cuts Risk of Diabetes Development

The words "bad" and "habit" just seem to go together. People can have good habits, sure, but we typically associate habits with bad things. Coffee drinking is one such example. The brown libation stains teeth, is loaded with caffeine, and is a pesticide-riddled crop. What could be worse? But a new study from the University of Sydney shows how coffee drinking is a great habit to have for diabetes prevention.

Diabetes affects an astounding number of people today. According to the American Dietetic Association, 23.7 million people in the United States alone have it, and there's no indication the rate will lower any time soon. In fact, a study published in the journal Diabetes Care estimates that over 44 million people will have diabetes 25 years from now, more than tripling the cost diabetes treatment doles out in medical expenses (from $113 billion to $336 million).

So any news that shows even the potential of slashing diabetes risk is good news. The Australian researchers discovered this link after poring over 18 studies that looked into how much coffee was drunk by people with and without type II diabetes (type II diabetes is the clear leader in diabetes diagnosis, accounting for 95 percent of cases). The pool of participants included some 500,000 individuals with approximately 21,000 different types of type II diabetes.

Not only did researchers find that people who drank coffee had a lower risk for diabetes, but that every additional cup they drank brought a decreased risk. For example, if a participant drank two cups of coffee per day, they were about 14 percent less likely to have diabetes. But if people had five cups of coffee a day, they were 35 percent less likely to have diabetes. And this finding held true if people were drinking coffee with or without caffeine.

The Australian study piggybacks on one reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this year, which found that coffee decreased the risk of developing diabetes with every additional cup consumed.

Now, just because a study links coffee drinking to diabetes prevention doesn't mean that any old coffee brand will do. As aforementioned, many coffee brands are boiling over with pesticides. You don't want to be poisoning your body with pesticides, but perhaps more importantly, you don't want to be giving environmentally-unfriendly coffee growing practices the go-ahead. Because by purchasing non-organic brands of coffee, that's essentially what you're doing. So, so long as your coffee is organic-certified, may your cup overflow with joe! But not too much, or you're bound to get burned!

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Coffee risk confuses health staff

More than a third of health workers believe coffee causes cancer despite no evidence of a link, a survey has found. Health professionals are less likely to be clued up than the public, with 36% thinking coffee can cause the disease compared with 12% of the general population.

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) commissioned the survey of 143 NHS workers, including nurses, health visitors and GPs.

However, health professionals did score highly on knowing that poor diet increases risk of cancer (81%), compared with 63% for the general public.

Overall, 79% of workers were aware that being overweight increases the risk of cancer, compared with 60% of the public, and 78% knew of the link with alcohol, compared with 51% of the public. But the percentage who were aware that not exercising increases the risk of cancer dropped to 64% among NHS workers and 47% of the public.

Silvia Pastorino, health professionals publications manager for the WCRF, said the survey was small but revealed some health workers are still not aware what lifestyle factors increase the risk. She said: "There is no strong evidence that coffee increases the risk of cancer.

"In fact, we often suggest drinking unsweetened tea or coffee as an alternative to sugary drinks. "While I am not surprised that many of the general public are not aware of this, it is worrying to think this may also be the case for some health professionals."

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Coffee, tea house opens in Oroville

When Sandy Williams and her partner were thinking about opening a coffee house, they wanted to offer something different. The Good Earth Coffee and Tea House opened in Oroville on Dec. 4. It offers organic and free trade coffee and tea.

"We're very proud of our product and what we offer the community," said co-owner Williams. "We feel it's very unique, and so do our customers." Coffee and tea that bear organic certification are grown and processed without toxic chemicals. The to-go cups at Good Earth are also made from environmentally friendly products.

Certified fair trade coffee and tea helps ensure living wages and safe working conditions for farmers in the countries around the world where they are grown. "It means that everyone, from the farmers to the harvesters, gets a fair price," Williams said.

Williams and her partner, David Schlanser, knew that a coffee house would have plenty of competition, so they took a lot of things into consideration before opening. Williams had two daughters who were experienced in the restaurant business, and they wanted to make it a family affair.

With that in mind, they chose Numi, a business owned by a brother and sister in the Bay Area, to supply the coffee and tea. Numi's vision is to inspire well-being of mind, body and spirit through the simple art of tea.

"Tea is liquid meditation, reminding us to enter a time and space to find our own thoughts and visions," according to the Numi brochure.

said they planned the house to offer several areas where people could enjoy a quiet, relaxing cup of tea.
The coffee house serves four types of flowering teas, which burst into a flower when put in hot water.

Flowering teas are made from a combination of tea leaves that are hand-tied into pods. Each pod makes three pots of tea served in clear pots to display the flower. Flowering teas include golden jasmine, dragon lily and sunset oolong tea. Williams said people often come in to share one pot of tea and relax and talk with family or friends.

The Good Earth Coffee and Tea House serves a variety of black, green, white and herbal teas, including a loose-leaf tea with a combination of berries and fruits. Tea lattes have been popular with customers, Williams said, and each month the coffee house offers different specialty tea and coffee drinks.

Yerba Mata tea, which grows on a small tree in the holly family in subtropical forests of South America, has also been a recent favorite because of medicinal properties. Yerba Mata is supposed to have an assortment of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. It's also supposed to be high in antioxidants.

The business subscribes to several newspapers, which are on hand for customers to read. Williams, who is a school teacher, also has a library of books to read, and people can bring in books to trade. Children's books are also on hand for customers.

Williams said they wanted to offer an extensive line of teas, because there aren't too many places to drink tea. "I drink tea, and a lot of my friends drink tea, so I wanted to have a place where tea drinkers can go and relax," she said.

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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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