JOIN USDrinking up to four cups of coffee a day can slash the risk of diabetes by 25 per cent, a new study has claimed.
To mark World Diabetes Day today, the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC) in Switzerland has published its annual diabetes report outlining the latest research on coffee and type 2 diabetes.
The research concludes that regular, moderate consumption of coffee may decrease an individual's risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Epidemiological evidence shows that drinking three to four cups of coffee per day is associated with an approximate 25 per cent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, compared to consuming none to less than two cups per day.
The research also suggested an inverse (ie favourable) association, with each additional cup of coffee reducing the relative risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 7-8 per cent.
The study indicates that caffeine is unlikely to be responsible for this effect.
A recent meta-analysis suggested that consumption of both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
Recent work suggests that the type of coffee may also affect the strength of the inverse (ie favourable) association, with filtered coffee exhibiting a greater protective effect than boiled coffee, and decaffeinated coffee exhibiting a greater protective effect than caffeinated coffee.
More than 380 million people worldwide have diabetes, with an economic burden of USD 548 billion, making it one of the most significant global health problems, the institute said.