Decaffeinated Coffee May Better Guard Off Women Diabetes

From Reuters

What causes the apparent effect is unclear, the report from the University of Minnesota said, but it is possible that minerals and non-nutritive plant chemicals found in rich amounts in the coffee bean may favorably affect blood-sugar levels or protect the pancreas from stress.

When the study of the Iowa women began, more than 14,000 of them -- about half -- drank one to three cups of coffee per day, 2,875 drank more than six cups, 5,554 four to five cups, 3,231 less than one cup and 2,928 none.

Over the 11 years of the study 1,418 of the women reported on surveys that they had been newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Women who drank more than six cups of any type of coffee per day were 22 percent less likely than those who drank no coffee to be diagnosed with diabetes, the study found. Those who drank more than six cups of decaffeinated coffee daily had a 33 percent risk reduction compared with those who drank no coffee at all, it said.

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