Coffee and Tea May Slash Diabetes Risks

The numbers of people with Type 2 diabetes is expected to increase by 65% by 2025, affecting approximately 380 million people worldwide.  Rachel Huxley, from The University of Sydney (Australia), and colleagues have completed a review of 18 research studies involving nearly 1 million study subjects, to ascertain the associations between lifestyle factors, including coffee and tea consumption, and diabetes risk.  The team found that those individuals who drank more coffee, either regular or decaffeinated, or tea lowered their risks of developing Type 2 diabetes.  Specifically, each additional cup of coffee consumed per day was associated with a 7% lower risk of diabetes, and those who drank 3 to 4 cups daily lowered their risk by 25%.  Additionally, the researchers found that tea drinkers who consumed more than 3 to 4 cups of tea per day had about a one-fifth lower risk of diabetes (as compared to non-tea drinkers).  The researchers urge that: “High intakes of coffee, decaffeinated coffee, and tea are associated with reduced risk of diabetes. The putative protective effects of these beverages warrant further investigation in randomized trials.”