As if we needed another reason to love coffee, science now says it may lower the risk of diabetes

Studies have found that coffee may lower your risk for chronic disease and even lengthen your life span.

Love coffee? Then we have some great news for all you coffee addicts out there. Your favorite brew might be doing wonders for your health. 

In the past, coffee wasn’t looked kindly upon by health experts. In 1991, for instance, it was included on a list of possible carcinogens by the World Health Organization. 

By 2016 this was debunked, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, as research found that it was not associated with an increased risk of cancer. Quite the opposite, there was a decreased risk of certain cancers among those who drink coffee regularly.

A recent article on The Washington Post by health columnist Anahad O’Connor sheds light on more health benefits from drinking coffee, one of which is lower risk for diabetes.

Protective effects against diabetes

According to O’Connor, studies have found that a cup or two of your favorite coffee, whether it’s caffeinated or decaffeinated, “may lengthen your life span and lower risk for chronic disease.”

We all know that coffee has health benefits including boosting energy levels, supporting gut health, lowering the risk of depression, among others. One of the most striking findings mentioned in The Washington Post article, however, is that coffee drinkers are less prone to developing Type 2 diabetes. 

It goes on to say that “many large studies have found that people who drink three to four cups of coffee daily have about a 25 percent lower risk of the disease compared with people who drink little or no coffee.” 

Take note that your likelihood of developing diabetes decreases about six percent for each cup of coffee you consume daily—but only up to about six cups.

And to make the great news even better, coffee’s protective effect against diabetes persists even when scientists take other lifestyle behaviors into consideration. 

“The effect has been found in dozens of studies involving more than a million participants across Europe, North America, and Asia. It’s been found in women and men, in young and old people, in smokers and nonsmokers, and in people with and without obesity,” O’Connor writes. 

Also interesting is how research has shown that the risk “rises and falls with changes in coffee consumption.” In longitudinal studies that tracked thousands of coffee drinkers over 20 years, scientists found that when they increased their coffee intake by a cup or two a day, their risk of diabetes fell 11 percent. 

When people decreased their coffee intake by roughly the same amount, on the other hand, their likelihood of developing diabetes rose by 17 percent. 

Other benefits for long time coffee drinkers

Those of you who have been coffee drinkers for a long time may also enjoy other health benefits, according to O’Connor’s article. 

When you’ve been regularly drinking coffee for quite some time already, your body builds up a tolerance to its stimulating effects, meaning “the jittery, unpleasant, and seemingly detrimental physiological response becomes less pronounced.”

When this happens, coffee’s other beneficial properties begin to exert its wonders on the body. Coffee, for example, is a rich source of polyphenols. These are compounds in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains known for their health benefits.

A cup of coffee contains about double the concentration of polyphenols in a cup of green or black tea. It also has fiber, about half the amount in one serving of broccoli.

Hubert Kolb, a visiting scientist at the West-German Center of Diabetes and Health in Düsseldorf, even describes coffee as akin to a “liquid vegetable.” He says: “One helping of vegetables is a small cup of coffee if you compare the amounts of polyphenols they contain.”

Moreover, coffee has chlorogenic acid, one of the most potent and abundant polyphenols, which has been shown in some studies to improve insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control. 

Chlorogenic acid and other polyphenols in coffee help reduce inflammation and increase the production of proteins needed to repair and protect cells and their DNA.

Studies indicate that these effects occur in organs throughout the body, but in particular in the liver and pancreas, which produce insulin and play a critical role in the development of Type 2 diabetes. 

According to Kolb and his colleagues, the habitual drinking of coffee probably lowers the risk of diabetes because it helps prevent the deterioration of liver and beta cell function.

Drink in moderation!

While there are clear health benefits to drinking coffee, it doesn’t mean you have to consume copious amounts of your go-to brew or force yourself to drink even if it’s not your cup of—erm—tea. 

Coffee also has some disadvantages. According to the same article on the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health website, “some individuals may not tolerate higher amounts of caffeine due to symptoms of jitteriness, anxiety, and insomnia.” 

It also cautions those who have difficulty controlling their blood pressure to moderate their coffee intake. 

Those who are pregnant are also advised to aim for less than 200 mg of caffeine daily, the amount in two cups of coffee, as drinking more than this has been associated with pregnancy loss and low birth weight.

Health authorities recommend that healthy adults consume no more than about 400 mg of caffeine every day, which is equivalent to four or five cups of brewed coffee—you may want to keep your daily visit to your fave coffee shop to these numbers. 

Two to five cups daily is the range in which people are most likely to see health benefits such as a reduced risk of diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers.

But that amount may still be too much for some people, so doctors may recommend reducing your coffee intake if you have a sleep disorder, heart issues, or glaucoma.

Love coffee? Then I’m sure you love it even more now if you’ve reached this part of the article.

Knowing that your everyday cuppa can be more than just a pick-me-up and that it can do your health some wonders, will make you want to order your next cup—just make sure you don’t go beyond five!