Coffee - good for diabetes

farmeric February 5th, 2008

click image to see beautiful shots of coffee!

The morning of our childhood always began with a steaming hot, aromatic cup of coffee. Freshly brewed, barako coffee harvested, dried, and ground right in our home.

No one bothered to ask why we, children as tender as five or six years old, were allowed to drink the wicked brew so early in the day, and that early in our life. In Batangas, coffee-drinking is a daily, sometimes hourly, habit way of life, shared by entire families at breakfast, or at any time of night and day.

We drank coffee as we ate a breakfast of fried rice and dried fish before dashing off to school. We’d dunk our pandesal into it till the bread went soggy and unrecognizable but seductively delicious to our young taste.

Back then, we didn’t know coffee, like X-rated movies, was for adults only. We were just as clueless as to its effects on our healt. Innocently, it was probably coffee that kept us wide awake at school, active for the most part, and driven to succeed.

So, what’s wrong with coffee? If we ourselves took part of it as early as those pre-school years, why do today’s parents, including myself, discourage, if not prevent, their young kids from drinking it?

Coffee is said to be healthier than what we think of it, says study by US scientists, who claim coffee probably contributes far more healthy antioxidants to our diet that fruits and vegetables. click image to see beautiful shots of coffee!

According to a DPA report, scientists measured the antioxidant content of more than 100 different foods, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, spices, oils, and beverages. The findings were then combined with data from the US Department of Agriculture on each item’s contribution to the average American diet.

They found out that coffee was the biggest source of antioxidants per serving and level of of consumption. It was followed by black tea, bananas, dry beans, and corn.

Prof. Joe Vinson, head researcher at Scranton University in Pennsylvania said: ‘ Americans get more of their antioxidants from coffee that any other dietary source.

The study revealed that both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee appeared to providesimilar antioxidant levels.

Antioxidants are the body’s agents against harmful free radicals and destructive molecules that damage cells and DNA. They bring to the human body various health benefits such as protection against heart disease and cancer.

In recent years, studies have shown that coffee-drinking could help reduce risk of liver and colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease. Such an observation is shared by Dr. Gerry H. Tan, chief of the section of endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism of the College of Medicine at Cebu Doctors University.

Dr. Tan says, ‘I am not drinking coffee to prevent diabetes, but since I enjoy it every morning, the results of several studies that it can prevent diabetes is an extra -benefit to me’.

click image to see beautiful shots of coffee!

Some facts: A study of Finnish men and women published in the Journal of American Medical Association in 2004 said increased coffee consumption is associated with decreasing risk of developing type 2 diabetes.On the other hand, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study published in the American Journal of Epidimeology in September 2006, involving 12, 204 nondiabetic middle aged men and women showed a significant reduction in the risk of developing diabetes with coffee consumption.

Even the Harvard School of Medicine reported in its 2006 Diabetes Care that data collected from more than 80,000 female nurses showed that coffee consumption resulted in 50 percent reduction in the risk of developing diabetes.

The result merely echoed findings from an earlier research by the same institution conducted in 2004, also involving nurses. It was called the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital-Based Nurses Health Study published in the January 6, 2004 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The study, which involved 41,934 men and 84,276 women from 1980 to 1998 showed that men who drank more than six cups of caffeinated coffee per day reduced their risk of type 2 diabetes by more than 50 percent as compared to men who didn’t drink coffee.

The same study showed that women who drank six or more cups of coffee per day reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by nearly 30 percent.
click image to see beautiful shots of coffee!

Other studies pointing to the same conclusion were conducted by other medical researchers and published in the Archives of internal Medicine in 2006 and the Journal of American Medical Association between coffee and diabetes did not differ substantially according to sex, obesity, or region.Dr. Tan starts seeing patients as early as 7 a.m. To keep himself active, throughout the day, a cup of coffee keeps him company.

‘I also use my coffee to trick my tummy from growling for food, a trick I learned to maintain my weight,’ he says. Tan cites a March 2006 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition which showed that coffee intake can make one lose weight, albeit only minimal.

As doctor specializing in diabetes, Tan reminds that one has to take care of his diet and be physically active. Avoid stress, or have less of it, and get at least seven hours of sleep every night. Stress and sleep debt are the new major risk factors in the development of diabetes.