Coffee Preventing Diabetes?

I came across this article about coffee decreasing the risk of diabetes in those that drink it frequently. The article lists several different studies where it had been concluded that caffeine, which is the main ingredient in coffee, may have reduced/prevented symptoms of diabetes.

The one example included a case study of 28,000 women whom were all post-menopausal. The women were monitored for 11 years; some of the women drank no coffee while others drank up to six cups of coffee a day. The study concluded that the women who drank more than six cups a day were 22 percent less likely to develop diabetes compared to women who drank no coffee. At the end of the study, the article mentions that the insilin levels were changed regardless of whether or not the women drank decaffinated or caffeinated coffee, meaning that something other than caffeine could be causing these changes.


However, the article never gives a rather why the results are this way, only that the more coffee a person drank, the more positive results that were shown in the study. I would have liked to see a couple predictions as to what exactly it was about the coffee that could be so beneficial. Also, the study mentions that all of the women were post-menopausal but does not mention why this is relevant. I was especially struck by the section where the article mentions that there could be an ingredient in coffee other than caffeine that could be causing these results. I am really curious as to what this could be, especailly since the study involved such a great number of people.

This seems like a really interesting study, especially since coffee and caffeine gets such a bad repuatation, but the article did not provide enough information on this study for me.