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Risk of type 2 diabetes reduced by coffee consumption – Protection is independent of caffeine, expert tells health editors

New York, NY – Nov. 1 –  “If you were to eat burgers every day – don’t you think this would this impact your health?” Dr. Jane Shearer asked the science and health editors she was addressing. “We know about vegetables – we know that they impact our health in a positive way. Do you think that coffee consumed on a daily basis is any different?”

“Being plant derived,” the Canadian scientist went on, “coffee contains many of the same beneficial compounds as those found in vegetables, including antioxidants.” Furthermore, “About 60% of American adults consume coffee on a regular basis. This equates to an average intake of about 3.5 cups of coffee per day, every day of the year!”

Dr. Shearer spoke at the science and health editors’ symposium, Coffee: Breaking News about Health, Fitness and Performance, held at the Reebok Sports Club here. She explained that because of coffee’s widespread consumption, scientists have examined its health effects in relation to numerous diseases. She told the attendees about the new field of nutrigenomics, which  “…seeks to provide a genetic understanding for how common dietary chemicals (i.e., nutrition) alter the balance between health and disease by altering the expression and/or structure of an individual’s genetic makeup.”

Looking at coffee in terms of nutrigenomics, Dr. Shearer said, leads us to ask, “Does the daily consumption of coffee alter risks associated with the development of chronic disease? What effects are attributable to caffeine versus coffee? How are these effects mediated? What are the pathways responsible?”

Dr Shearer’s research has shown that the effects of coffee are primarily mediated by the liver, an organ essential to maintaining glucose levels, immune function and the removal of toxins from the body. Absorbed nutrients enter the liver’s circulation and must pass through the liver prior to hitting the general circulation. As a result, the liver “sees” the highest concentration of coffee.

We cannot live without a functioning liver. “We now know that liver dysfunction, cirrhosis and cancer are reduced with regular coffee consumption,” Dr. Shearer said. “The incidence of liver cancer is 547.2 cases per 100,000 in individuals who rarely consume coffee, versus 214.6 per 100,000 of those who consume coffee on a regular basis.”

Dr. Shearer noted that besides having positive effects on diabetes and cancer, regular coffee consumption is associated with improvements in liver function, important to diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a precursor to more serious complications such as cirrhosis. In cirrhosis of the liver, scar tissue replaces normal, healthy tissue, blocking the flow of blood through the organ and preventing it from working as it should.  Diabetes and obesity both increase the risks of developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. According to the scientist, present estimates show that up to 50% of obese individuals have some form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.  

She described an earlier study in which she infused the liver with a concentrated coffee extract that contained no caffeine, in order to ascertain whether the coffee action was independent of caffeine. Her group found that coffee increased the amount of glucose utilized by the body. She said, “Such an effect would be beneficial to those with diabetes. This experiment clearly demonstrated that coffee had such an effect.”

The biochemist went on to describe a current research study on which she and her group are working. The preliminary data show that the negative effects of caffeine on glucose and insulin sensitivity are not as pronounced when caffeine is consumed as a part of coffee. Dr. Shearer emphasized that the “greatest benefit on diabetes was with decaffeinated coffee.”   

She said that regular coffee consumption specifically, has been shown to reduce the risk of diabetes by 20%-50% depending on the population studied and the amount of coffee consumed. In men, risk reductions of 1.00, 0.98, 0.93, 0.71, 0.46 were noted with the consumption of 0, 1, 3-4, 5, and 6 cups of coffee, respectively. The researcher told the editors that these protective effects were dramatic and critically important, in light of today’s escalating rates of obesity and diabetes.