Researchers say they have found further evidence that drinking coffee may dramatically reduce the risk of non-insulin dependent diabetes.
The investigation was conducted in Finland, which has the highest per capita coffee consumption in the world.
Researchers pooled data from three surveys involving a total of 6,974 men and 7,655 women aged 35 to 64.
They found that the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes decreased with increasing amounts of coffee drunk.
Women who drank three to four cups of coffee a day had a 29-percent lower risk of diabetes than those who drank no coffee. If they drank 10 or more cups the risk plummeted by 79 per cent.
For men, drinking three to four cups of coffee was associated with a 27-percent lower diabetes risk, and 10 cups with a 55-per-cent reduced risk.
Dr. Jaakko Tuomilehto, from the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, led the study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The researchers wrote, "This study revealed unequivocal evidence for an inverse and graded association between coffee consumption and Type 2 DM (diabetes mellitus) independent of other risk factors for Type 2 DM.
Type 2 diabetes normally appears after the age of about 40 and occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin, which enables cells to absorb energy-giving glucose.
The other form of diabetes, Type 1, is an auto-immune disease which destroys the pancreatic cells that produce insulin.
Patients with Type 1 have to give themselves insulin artificially through daily injections.
A number of other studies have also shown a link between drinking coffee and a lowered risk of Type 2 diabetes.
In January, US scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health published research which suggested that the risk of Type 2 diabetes could be halved by drinking at least six cups of coffee a day.
The scientists said potassium, niacin and magnesium in coffee may combat the loss of a person's ability to use insulin.
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