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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 The report was described as "not surprising" by Rob van Dam, a research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was part of a research team in the Netherlands who first reported the protective effect of coffee in 2002. Several other studies, including one done at the Harvard School of Public Health, have backed up those original findings.
"We found exactly the same protective effect of decaffeinated coffee," van Dam said. "People think that if coffee causes it, it must be the caffeine, but coffee is a very complex mixture," he added.
One component of coffee that has caught van Dam's attention is chlorogenic acid, which seems to be able to slow the absorption of sugar by cells. Studies in rats found that the molecule lowered blood-sugar levels, he said.
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There's another reason to hope that chlorogenic acid is beneficial: According to van Dam, it's abundant in both red wine and chocolate. "People think that nutritionists are always recommending things they don't like, but that's not true," he said.
Still, he and Pereira agreed that it's much too early to single out any one component of coffee as beneficial.
"Clearly, the next step is experimental studies in humans," van Dam said.
"It's going to take some really meticulous clinical trials," Pereira added.
The study was funded by a grant from the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
Meanwhile, in a joint statement released Monday, The American Diabetes
Association and American Heart Association called for greater
prevention and treatment efforts to stem the continuous rise in diabetes and in cardiovascular-related deaths that related to under-treated risk factors.
"The importance of identifying a core set of risk factors such as pre-diabetes and diabetes, prehypertension and hypertension, dyslipidemia and obesity cannot be overstated," said Dr. Robert H. Eckel, president of the AHA. "It is long past time to start getting these risk factors under control through lifestyle changes and medication. It's not as if we
don't know how. The research is there," he said.
More information
Find out if you're at risk for type 2 diabetes at the American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org ).
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