I've spent the last 3 days reviewing studies of non-pharmacologic options based upon human outcomes, so I thought I'd end the week looking at the effect of beverage choices on
diabetes risk. Given that the risk (prevalance) of diabetes continues to increase, it seems appropriate to consider what we can
easily do to minimize risk, since no one seems to be interested in
healthy eating &
regular physical activity, but rather in quick fixes such as pills & dietary supplements.
It turns out that an
observational study was published early online 2 weeks ago in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in which the
authors concluded that sugar-sweetened beverages were associated with higher risk of diabetes while coffee, regardless of caffeine content, was associated w/lower risk of diabetes. To arrive at their conclusions, the authors followed 74,749 women from the Nurses' Healthy Study & 39,059 men from the Professionals Follow-Up Study for over two decades. Beverage consumption was divided into caffeine vs caffeine-free as well as sub-groupings of sugar-sweetened vs artificially sweetened beverages, basically a 2x2 analysis performed separately for both men & women.
When all was said and done, the only anomalous finding that stood out was the consumption of caffeine-free artificially sweetened beverages being associated with higher risk of diabetes in women. Bottom line: caffeine vs caffeine-free isn't as important a distinction as sugar-sweetened vs artificially sweetened beverages when it comes to diabetes risk in both men & women. But remember that this was an observational study and as such, is only good for developing hypotheses as it cannot prove cause & effect. Regardless, I think it prudent to err on the side of caution and consider switching to coffee (not
Starbucks' frappuccinos). And in case you've forgotten, don't forget that coffee consumption has also been linked to lower risk of
heart failure,
prostate cancer and
basal cell skin cancer!
No comments:
Post a Comment