Why Coffee Drinking Reduces the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Tuesday, January 17, 2012Scientists are offering a new solution to the long-standing mystery of why heavy coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes in a report in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry.

Scientists have implicated the misfolding of a substance called human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) in causing type 2 diabetes, and some are seeking ways to block that process. Zheng and Huang decided to see if coffee’s beneficial effects might be due to substances that block hIAPP.
Indeed, they identified two categories of compounds in coffee that significantly inhibited hIAPP. They suggest that this effect explains why coffee drinkers show a lower risk for developing diabetes. “A beneficial effect may thus be expected for a regular coffee drinker,” the researchers conclude.
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