Highlights
Coffee
- Coffee, especially decaf, helps reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, suggests a 2006 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Postmenopausal women who drank 6 cups of coffee a day had a 22% lower risk of diabetes than women who did not drink coffee. Decaffeinated coffee drinkers had a 33% lower risk compared to non-coffee drinkers.
- A 2005 review in the Journal of the American Medical Association also found that drinking coffee on a regular basis helps reduce diabetes risk. The preventive effect was greatest for people who drank at least 4 cups of coffee a day.
Red Meat
- Eating lots of red meat does more than boost unhealthy blood fats. It also increases heme iron intake, which can raise the risk of type 2 diabetes. In a 20-year study of 85,000 women, the risk of diabetes increased along with heme iron intake. Women with the highest intakes had a 28% increased risk compared to those with the lowest intakes.
- Replacing red meat with chicken may help improve kidney function in patients with type 2 diabetes, suggests a small study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E supplements do not help prevent cancer or heart disease and may increase the risk of heart failure for patients with diabetes, according to a 2005 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Folic Acid and B Vitamins
Vitamin B supplements do not help prevent heart disease, according to several 2006 studies in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) trial, researchers assigned over 5,500 patients with diabetes or vascular disease to receive either a folic acid - vitamin B6 - vitamin B12 combination or placebo for 5 years. The vitamins did not reduce the risk of heart disease or heart attack.
