Drinking coffee can cut your risk of developing diabetes, insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome by 50% or more.

Major health studies show that drinking 6, 7 or more cups of coffee per day tend to dramatically improve the health of both men and women. These studies, performed in Sweden, Finland and Italy, involved tens of thousands of men and women and studied their health parameter over periods of many years. Some studies are still ongoing, and the results continue to endorse 'heavy coffee drinking' patterns, or 'frequent coffee consumption.'

See the full scientific report of the recent Finnish study, "Joint association of coffee consumption and other factors to the risk of type 2 diabetes: a prospective study in Finland," International Journal of Obesity30, 1742–1749. doi:10.1038/sj.ijo.0803341; published online 25 April 2006. You can read the FULL REPORT at: http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v30/n12/full/0803341a.html

This important study was performed by the National Health Service of Finland, and involved 21,385 adults with a followup of their health over a period of over 13 years. That's about a quarter million man/woman years of health statistics that supported drinking high quantities of coffee every day of your life!

Here is the breakdown of what the study found:

1. Drinking 0-2 cups of coffee per day: Little or no effect in reducing diabetes, insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome for either men or women.

Interestingly, a FEW studies actually showed that coffee consumption of only one or two cups per day INCREASES risks for metabolic diseases and increases inflammation. These studies were usually focused on smaller groups of people and less well designed than the larger studies, which focused on a wider range of coffee consumption including groups of 0-2 cup/day, 3-6 and 7 or more cups/day. These smaller studies that merely looked at 'general coffee consumption' of any amount at all compared only to none, have caused a lot of confusion in the public.

While drinking only 1 or 2 cups/day may not help you or might actually harm you in some cases, drinking more than 2 cups per day will definitely improve your health. Why this is true? There is an odd 's' shaped curve of negative benefits leading to positive benefits as coffee/day increases. We need new studies to examine the reasons why light consumption may harm you while heavy consumption helps you.

2. Drinking 3-6 cups of coffee per day: Reduced the probability of developing diabetes and related conditions by 23% in men and 29% in women

3. Drinking 7 or more cups of coffee per day: Reduced the probabiliy of developing diabetes and related conditions by 34% in men and 48% in women

4. OVERALL: Averaging the two groups, drinking 7 or more cups of coffee per day reduced the typical person's health risks by 39%

These effects were shown after all other factors, including BMI or obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption, and other dietary factors were accounted for statistically.

FAT PEOPLE GET EVEN MORE BENEFIT FROM COFFEE DRINKING

Importantly, when the researchers looked ONLY AT OBESE AND INACTIVE PEOPLE, they found even more dramatic results -- for those men and women, risks of disease were reduced by yet ANOTHER 10% in absolute measurements, so that -- their health risks for diabetes and metabolic disease was lowered by an average of more than 50%!

At Level1diet.com, we summarize more research studies that show similar, dramatic reduction of CANCER risks associated with coffee drinking, demonstrating that risks of cancer decrease significantly as coffee drinking increases. And, like the Finnish study reporting reduced risks for diabetes above, these major studies also show reductions of breast and other cancers that tend to favor heavy or very frequent coffee drinking. Consumption of 6 or more cups of coffee per day tend to be associated with the best levels of health.

CONFLICTING RESEARCH ON CAFFEINE AND COFFEE OR TEA

You have undoubtedly read many other reports about coffee and tea, or heard of anti-coffee 'scientific findings' on radio or TV. Why is there so much confusion about coffee, tea and caffeine?

This is because the negative studies are not being conducted on large populations, and are not focused on the overall risks for major diseases and death. They are not focused on the number of major diseases developed over decades like the studies we quote here are. Instead you will hear that coffee tends to be associated with extremely small increases in blood pressure, or with other particular symptoms which are often associated with a particular disease like increases in inflammation, changes in neuropeptides in the brain, and so on.

However, dispite any of these negative findings about specific biological processes that when examined in isolation in the lab or even in human studies may show undesirable trends, the OVERALL EFFECTS of coffee drinking tend to improve health. This is true for all people, both men and women, all around the world. And, when you examine all the studies of risk for major diseases, risk of premature death due to cancer, diabetes, heart attacks or strokes, you find that drinking coffee tends to reduce such risks in direct proportion to the amount of the drink consumed. The more coffee you drink, the longer you live and the less disease you suffer from.

Coffee helps you enjoy your life and live longer!

That's why our Level1diet.com health program encourages drinking coffee and tea for most dieters. Caffeinated coffee or tea also helps lose weight, but that's another essay.

So, drink your coffee, and drink it often. The more you drink, the healthier you're likely to get. Cheers!