Diabetes:
In 2004, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that drinking coffee cut the risk of developing the most common form of diabetes: Men who drank more than six 8-ounce cups of caffeinated coffee per day lowered their risk of type 2 diabetes by about half, and women reduced their risk by nearly 30 percent, compared with people who did not drink coffee, according to the study in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Liver Cancer:
In February 2005, a team of Japanese researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that people who drank coffee daily, or nearly every day, had half the liver cancer risk of those who never drank it. The protective effect occurred in people who drank one to two cups a day and increased at three to four cups.
-Randolph E. Schmid, AP Science Writer 8/29/2005
Antioxidants:
Coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up your energy, it also provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet, according to a recently released study:
Joe A. Vinson, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania and his team analyzed the antioxidant content of more than 100 different food items: vegetables, fruits, nuts, spices, oils and common beverages. They then used Agriculture Department data on typical food consumption patterns to calculate how much antioxidant each food contributes to a person's diet.
They concluded that the average adult consumes 1.64 cups of coffee daily, which contains 1,299 milligrams of antioxidants. The closest competitor was tea at 294 milligrams. Rounding out the top five sources were bananas, 76 milligrams; dry beans, 72 milligrams; and corn, 48 milligrams.
"We think that antioxidants can be good for you in a number of ways, including affecting enzymes and genes, though more research is needed," Vinson said.
"If I say more coffee is better, then I would have to tell you to spread it out to keep the levels of antioxidants up," Vinson said. "We always talk about moderation in anything."
His findings were released in conjunction with the annual convention of the American Chemical Society in Washington.
-Randolph E. Schmid, AP Science Writer 8/29/2005
