Minnesota Magazine
September/October 2006

Coffee Drinkers Get a Break

By Meleah Maynard

Forget about drinking green tea and pomegranate juice. If you really want to enhance your health, have another cup of coffee. Two new studies by University of Minnesota researchers conclude that java is good for you.

The first study, led by Mark Pereira, an associate professor in the School of Public Health, links coffee consumption to a reduced risk of developing diabetes. During an 11-year study of nearly 29,000 postmenopausal women participating in the Iowa Women's Health Study, researchers found that women who drank six or more cups of regular coffee per day reduced their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 22 percent compared with women who drank none. The study, which was published in June in The Archives of Internal Medicine, also showed that those who drank decaf reaped an even greater risk reduction of 33 percent.

But, wait. It may be too soon to resign yourself to being caffeine free. Pereira is quick to point out that past studies have produced equally beneficial results for both regular and decaf coffee; decaf's more beneficial effect in this case may be the product of this study's design, in which participants self-reported their coffee consumption. "I suspect that regular coffee reduces risk as much as decaf," he says. "Perhaps in our study, older women with high intakes of regular coffee were switching to decaf or reducing their regular coffee intake over time."

Researchers have yet to pin down the ingredient or ingredients in coffee that may offer protection against diabetes, but Pereira says healthful benefits may be due to minerals and antioxidants that help prevent or delay illness. Good results can be had from drinking any kind of coffee brewed in any type of way, Pereira says. But he does suggest keeping coffee grounds and beans in airtight containers so it will stay fresh and full of antioxidants.

The second study, conducted by University epidemiologist David Jacobs and researchers from the University of Oslo in Norway, looked at how coffee drinking may help protect against cardiovascular disease and other inflammatory illnesses.

More than 27,000 postmenopausal women, also from the Iowa Women's Health Study, participated in the 15-year study, which focused explicitly on caffeinated coffee. According to findings published in May in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jacobs reported that women who drank moderate amounts of coffee, one to three cups daily, reduced their risk of death from inflammatory diseases by 24 percent compared to non-coffee drinkers.

Like Pereira and many other researchers, Jacobs attributes coffee's health-giving benefits to the fact that it is packed with antioxidants that may help the body ward off inflammation that is often related to disease. "We measure things crudely in epidemiology," Jacobs says. "But there certainly is an interesting association between increased coffee consumption and the lessening of the inflammatory process. Really, we are just beginning to learn how disease is caused and what food has to do with it."

That being the case, Jacobs wouldn't recommend people stampede to their local coffee house for a healing drink. But, with typical epidemiological caution, he does suggest that drinking a moderate amount might not be a bad idea.

Like Pereira, Jacobs doesn't think it matters what kind of caffeinated coffee you buy. But, in this case, brewing method is very important. Boiled and French Press coffee don't offer the same health benefits because they don't remove a cholesterol-elevating compound called cafestol from the coffee, Jacobs explains. "If you filter your coffee, you filter out the cafestol," which is good, Jacobs says, but also unfortunate. "Because I've had coffee in Norway made with the plunger [French Press] method and it was really delicious."

© Meleah Maynard