Study: Coffee Not Linked to Obesity or Diabetes

14 Jul 2015 --- A new study has shown that coffee neither increases nor decreases the risk of lifestyle diseases, such as obesity or diabetes. The study has been published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

The research, from the University of Copenhagen and Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, analysed 93,000 Danes from the Copenhagen General Population Study. The study concluded that drinking coffee in itself is not associated with lifestyle diseases. 

The research team are also one of the world’s first to have used genes to investigate the impact of coffee on the body. For this study, the researchers looked into a number of genes that affect people’s desire for coffee. 

If a person has special ‘coffee genes’ he or she may be drinking more coffee than those who don’t have these genes. This detail allowed the researchers to see whether a higher coffee consumption increases or decreases the risk of developing lifestyle diseases. 

“These genes are completely independent of other lifestyle factors, and therefore drinking coffee is in itself not associated with lifestyle diseases, said Ask Tybjaeg Nordestgaard from the department of clinical biochemistry at Herlev and Gentofte Hospital in Denmark. “We are the first in the world to have investigated the relationship with genes associated with a lifelong high consumption of coffee.

“We can now see that the coffee genes are surprisingly not associated with a risk of developing type 2 diabetes or obesity.”