How joe beat "middle child syndrome" In the beverage family, you've got water -- the overachieving eldest sibling that sets an impossible standard for any other family member to live up to. Then you've got tea -- the attention-grabbing youngest that can do no wrong in the eyes of its family and whose every action is heralded as a triumph of epic proportion. And coffee? Well, coffee is the equivalent of the neglected middle child: It gets blamed for a lot of bad things, yet the good things it does are often overlooked or overshadowed by one of its limelight-hogging siblings. I feel bad for coffee. I think a lot of us in the U.S. do. Which is why so many of us make it our own personal mission to show our support by drinking at least a few cups of joe on a daily basis. But it looks like coffee might just return the favor by lowering our risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health investigated the relationship between coffee and Type 2 diabetes risk in over 12,000 middle-aged men and women. They found that those people who reported drinking at least four cups of coffee per day had a significantly lower risk of adult-onset diabetes than those who said they "almost never" drank coffee. Risk reduction was higher in men -- 23 percent lower risk in the 4+ cup drinkers. But women also fared well with an 11 percent lower chance of developing the potentially deadly disease. The researchers aren't sure why coffee has a positive impact on diabetes risk. One school of thought credits the caffeine, but this theory is one of the more controversial: Aside from the fact that mainstream physicians don't generally like to recommend or say anything favorable about any substance considered to be "bad" for you in any way (except prescription drugs, of course), other studies have shown even greater protective benefits from drinking decaf coffee. Although it doesn't specifically say, I'm assuming that none of the research showed benefits from coffee laden with sugar and cream. And the milkshakes masquerading as coffee at your local brewhouse don't count either. So whichever you choose -- decaf, caf, half-caf -- make sure to drink your diabetes prevention black. What is...an epidemiological study? An epidemiological study is one that investigates the distribution and causes of disease in a particular population.
Nutrition & Healing Sources:
"More support for coffee's anti-diabetes benefits," NutraIngredients (www.nutraingredients.com), 8/12/06
"Coffee and Sweetened Beverage Consumption and the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus," American Journal of Epidemiology 2006; 164(11): 1,075-1,084
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