Results of a large new U.S. study confirm that sugary
drinks are linked to a heightened risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, but shed
little light on whether caffeine helps or hinders the process.
Among more than 100,000 men and women followed for 22
years, those who drank sugar-sweetened drinks were as much as 23 percent more
likely to develop diabetes than those who didn't, but the risk was about the
same whether the drinks contained caffeine or not. And drinkers of both
caffeinated coffee and decaf had slightly lowered diabetes risk. "We found
that caffeine doesn't make a difference at all," said the study's lead
author Dr. Frank Hu of Harvard University. "Coffee can be beneficial and
the caffeine doesn't appear to have a positive or negative effect on diabetes
risk," Hu told Reuters Health.
Numerous past studies have linked regular consumption
of soft drinks - both sugar- and artificially-sweetened - to an increased risk
of diabetes. Research over the past decade has also suggested that caffeine temporarily
prevents the body from processing sugar efficiently. Those who live with
diabetes deal with this problem all the time.
That at least suggests that caffeine in conjunction
with sweetened drinks might raise diabetes risk even further. However, other
research has found a protective effect from coffee and tea, suggesting caffeine
does the opposite. Hu and his coauthors wanted to know if people who regularly
drink sugary and caffeinated beverages might only be exaggerating their risk of
developing a disease that affects nearly 26 million adults and children, or
about eight percent of the U.S. population, according to the American Diabetes
Association.
They examined the health habits of 75,000 women and
39,000 men involved in long-term health studies that began in the mid-1980s. Compared
to people who didn't consume sugary drinks, the likelihood of developing
diabetes over the years for those who did was higher by 13 percent
(caffeinated) or 11 percent (decaffeinated) among women, and by 16 percent (caffeinated)
or 23 percent (decaffeinated) among men.
Caffeine-free artificially sweetened drinks were also
linked to a slight (six percent) increase in risk among women. However, coffee
drinkers showed slightly lower risk compared to non-drinkers. The chances of
developing diabetes were eight percent lower among women, whether they drank
decaf or regular coffee, and for men, four percent lower with caffeinated
coffee and seven percent lower with decaf.
Hu and his team have used this same dataset, which
contains the health habits of mostly white health professionals, to suggest
that regular coffee drinking in general is tied to lower diabetes risk. But
past studies, like the current one, have also found that the risk falls even
lower if adults drink decaffeinated coffee. "Our understanding of the
body's tolerance to caffeine is not complete," said James Lane of Duke
University. Lane has done short-term studies that linked caffeine to a
disruption of the body's ability to process glucose, or "blood
sugar."
This latest study suggests that people who currently
drink sugary beverages could substitute unsweetened coffee or tea - though tea
was associated with fewer benefits - instead. Such advice could be important,
since the number of Americans who develop diabetes has steadily increased,
according to a study released earlier this month by the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Diabetes can only be managed, not cured and its side
effects range from high blood pressure to debilitating blindness. "I'm
disappointed that they are essentially repeating something they published
several years ago. The bit about including sugar sweetened beverages and
caffeine's possible interaction with sugar and diabetes does not add something
of great value," Lane told Reuters Health.
Others agree more research is necessary to untangle
caffeinated coffee's complicated relationship with diabetes risk. At least one
small, randomized two-month-long trial led last year by Rob Martinus van Dam of
the National University of Singapore, also a co-author of the current study,
found that caffeinated coffee did not seem to affect glucose levels in the
blood.
Van Dam told Reuters Health that the next step toward
establishing a direct link between caffeinated coffee and reduced diabetes risk
would require a much larger study. "We still don't advise people to start
drinking coffee if they do not already," van Dam said. People who want to
lower their risk of developing diabetes could follow advice that has been
better substantiated, such as eating large amounts of fruits and vegetables and
exercising regularly.
Source: Chicago Tribune
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