Drinking several cups of coffee daily reduces type 2 diabetes risk because it inhibits a substance linked to the disease, UPI cited scientists in China as saying. Ling Zheng, Kun Huang and colleagues say previous studies show people who drink four or more cups of coffee daily have a 50 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Every additional cup of coffee decreases the risk by almost 7 percent, the researchers said. Scientists said the misfolding of the substance human islet amyloid polypeptide has been increasingly considered a pathogenic process in type 2 diabetes. The study, published in the Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry, identified two categories of compounds in coffee that significantly inhibited human islet amyloid polypeptide. The findings suggest this 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 concluded.
