Good news for coffee addicts. New research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that drinking two to three cups of coffee a day may help reduce your risk of obtaining type 2 diabetes.

The study included 80,000 women and 40,000 men and found that those who consumed coffee reduced their risk by about eight percent for women and four percent for men. The findings contradict previous metabolic research that suggested coffee increased blood glucose levels.

The Atlantic reports on more benefits of coffee:

“Coffee and caffeine have been inexorably intertwined in our thinking, but truth is coffee contains a whole lot of other stuff with biological benefits,” said Martin. And most concerns about caffeine’s negative effects on the heart have been dispelled. In June, a meta-analysis of ten years of research went so far as to find an inverse association between habitual, moderate consumption and risk of heart failure. The association peaked at four cups per day, and coffee didn’t stop being beneficial until subjects had increased their daily consumption to beyond ten cups. 

Caffeine might also function as a pain reliever. A study from September suggested as much when its authors stumbled across caffeinated coffee as a possible confounding variable in its study of the back, neck, and shoulder pains plaguing office drones: Those who reported drinking coffee before the experiment experienced less intense pain.

The data is even more intriguing — and more convincing — for caffeine’s effects as a salve against more existential pains. While a small study this month found that concentrated amounts of caffeine can increase positivity in the moment, last September the nurses’ cohort demonstrated a neat reduction in depression rates among women that became stronger with increased consumption of caffeinated coffee.

Coffee has also been linked to a decrease in some cancers, may reduce the risk of fibrosis, and can even aid in recovering alcoholics staying sober. And while doctors don’t recommend non-coffee drinkers start drinking it simply for the health benefits, an anecdotal study of hundreds of thousands of men and women published in New England Journal of Medicine found that people who drank coffee lived longer than those who didn’t.

Drink up!

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4 Comments

  1. One cup is enough. Falling in love with organic tea.

  2. What I want to know: does it HAVE to be caffeinated?

  3. It’s almost worth the dehydration, increased digestion acidity, and prevention of calcium absorption!

  4. I always drink coffee when I have a headache or neck pain. I thought it was just in my head, but I’m glad to see research is backing me up. I love a cup of black coffee.

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