by Dr. Leo Galland The Archives of Internal Medicine, published
by the American Medical Association (AMA), has recently released
a comprehensive report on the benefits of coffee and tea for
prevention of type 2 diabetes.1 The report is a review of
published studies and a pooled analysis of all the data (called
a “meta-analysis”). Drinking coffee, decaf coffee, green tea or
black tea was associated with a reduction in the risk of
developing diabetes. For coffee, the reduction was dose-
dependent, which is to say that the more coffee or tea drunk,
the greater the reduction in risk, about 7% per cup up to six
cups a day. The authors state that the effects may be due to the
presence of phenolic compounds in coffee or tea that increase
sensitivity to the effects of insulin, the hormone responsible
for keeping blood sugar levels low. The research described in
this review is all observational: it follows the dietary habits
of people and observes what diseases they develop. Observational
research is sometimes inconclu