A recent study published at Diabetes Care, Dr. Rob M. van Dam and and colleagues examined the effect of coffee consumption on the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The study was conducted in a sample of 88259 women that participated at the Nurses’ Health Study II. The researchers reported that coffee consumption lowered the risk of type 2 diabetes and that higher coffee consumption resulted in greater decrease of type 2 diabetes risk.

Consumption of 1 cup of coffee per day decreased the risk by 13% (however, this finding was statistically significant), consumption of two to three cups per day resulted in a decrease risk of 42% and finally consumption of four or more cups per day reduced the risk by 47%, almost half.

Other studies in the past has shown similar results, however the importance of this study is that it showed that both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee produce these results. I addition to that it was shown that although filtered coffee and instant coffee have similar beneficial results, the consumption of espresso or percolator coffee did not significantly reduce the risk.

diabetes, nutrition, risk, coffee, filtered, risk, reduction

A new study published in Diabetes Care indicates that US children have a high prevalence of diabetes risk factors.

The study was performed in 12 middle schools and had a total sample of approximately 1,740 eighth-graders. As expected, a large percentage of the sample was overweight or at risk of becoming overweight (almost 50%), the number one risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. It should also be noted that almost 41% of the students that participated in this study had Impared Fasting Glucose. That means that their glucose levels where borderline higher than normal when tested after a fast. However, if you combine this fact along with the finding that large percentage of the students had high insulin levels after fasting we get to the conclusion that a lot of these children have already started developing insulin resistance which is the main cause of type 2 diabetes.

diabetes, children, type 2