When it comes to coffee, its health benefits are not often considered. After all, it is a tasty beverage, that gives you a kick to start your morning off the right way, isn’t that enough? It sure is a good start, but what if you found out that coffee can help reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes? Surely, it would become a mainstay in your dietary regimen, right? Let’s explore how coffee can help possibly prevent type 2 diabetes development.
Type 2 diabetes is at epidemic levels in the United States thanks to high carb diets filled with unhealthy sugar filled junk and the staggering obesity rates, with 1/3 of US adults being obese.
How Can Coffee Prevent Type 2 Diabetes?
Coffee may reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes via various mechanisms. What is paradoxically strange, however, is the fact that coffee may temporarily raise blood sugar levels, even though overall it reduces diabetic risk factors.
One explanation for this phenomenon is the fact that caffeine raises adrenalin output, which among other effects leads to increased blood sugar levels. Regardless, there are probable reasons why coffee reduces diabetes risk.
Coffee Raises Adiponectin
Adiponectin is a protein found in blood that helps to signal and regulate when blood sugar levels are high, and acts to help keep it in check. However, in diabetic individuals, adiponectin levels are lower than normal, resulting in higher blood sugar values.
However, there is light at the end of that tunnel, as findings published in the Journal of clinical and diagnostic research (Bhakta et al.) found that individuals who consumed coffee had higher levels of adiponectin, as well as lower fasting blood sugar values and HbA1c, a protein indicative of blood sugar control over a long period of time.
Coffee Can Help Preserve Liver Function And Prevent Fatty Liver Disease
Fatty liver is typically associated with alcoholics, but can also occur in obese persons without a history of alcohol abuse. Fatty liver disease is associated with increased likelihood of insulin resistance and development of type 2 diabetes.
Coupled with the fact that coffee can help speed up metabolism and fat utilization for fuel, fatty liver can be easily overcome with some effort!
Coffee Increases SHBG
Although the immediate relationship between diabetes and SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) may not be apparent, it is interesting to know that insulin and SHBG share an inverse relationship. What this means is that one increases, the other decreases. Since coffee increases SHBG, it is able to reduce insulin in turn. While this is promising, the one issue is unpredictability, since it occurs in primarily post-menopausal women, and not in any statistically significant segment of male subjects.
Decaffeinated Coffee Is An Attractive Alternative
As outlined, the caffeine content of coffee can cause spikes in blood glucose levels, although it does not persist in everyone. However, if you are particularly sensitive, it may be a better option to consume decaffeinated varieties, as these contain little to no caffeine and would not result in the undesirable surge in blood sugar levels. Yet, many of the benefits in reducing type 2 diabetes risk persist.
Conclusion
A review of studies conducted between the periods of 2001-2011 and published in Current Diabetes Review Journal, which encompassed 13 studies. The conclusions drawn across the board were that coffee drinkers had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The amount of coffee drank to observe measurable benefit was observed to be minimally 4 cups per day, while those that consumed 2 or less daily did not observe significant benefits.