Note from Carolyn:
It is always good to hear that one of my favorite 'vices' isn't that bad for me after all. Since both my parents had cancer, and Mom died from dementia, Alzheimer's to be exact, it is good to know that when I indulge in my favorite beverage I am actually helping myself. I will also quit nagging my husband to cut back on his coffee drinking, because it is helping him prevent cancer as well.
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Lots of coffee.
There are benefits to lots of coffee. A little over a year
ago I told you about the Australian study that showed a 7 percent reduction
in diabetes risk for every daily cup of coffee.
So
each morning, as I fill up the first of several daily cups, I think to
myself, "Well, I guess I'm getting plenty of diabetes protection today."
(And if I were a man, there'd be one more: a lower risk of prostate
cancer.)
Until
now, scientists haven't known why coffee has the effect it does on diabetes
risk. A new report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry gets
to the bottom of the mystery.
The report explains that people who drink
four or more cups of coffee per day have a 50 percent lower risk of
developing type 2 diabetes than people who don't partake. And like I said,
every additional cup tacks on another approximately 7 percent decrease in
risk.
Coffee's power against type 2 diabetes could lie in its effect on
a substance called human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP). The "misfolding"
of this substance is linked to the development of diabetes, which got
some scientists thinking: Does coffee do anything to block hIAPP?
Yep!
In fact, there are two categories of compounds in coffee
that freeze hIAPP in its misfolding tracks. Thus, the benefit enjoyed by
regular drinkers of coffee.
So now I don't feel so bad that I'm on
my 3rd cup and it's not even noon.
Yours in good health,
Christine O'Brien
Sources:
http://wrightnewsletter.com/2009/12/30/coffee-diabetes/
http://wrightnewsletter.com/2010/02/17/coffee-drinkers/
