Regular coffee drinking after pregnancy reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes for those who have had gestational diabetes.
For women with gestational diabetes mellitus, coffee may be the right drink to prevent and/or delay progression.
Diabetes during pregnancy is commonly known as gestational diabetes mellitus or gestational diabetes. Compared to the general healthy female population, pregnant women with the condition are ten times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Ongoing research has found that, instead of sugary and artificial drinks, drinking two to five cups of caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee a day is potentially a healthier substitute for delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes or preventing it. . This is likely due to bioactive components in coffee, such as polyphenols, which are naturally occurring plant micronutrients. Bioactive compounds are types of chemicals found in small amounts in plants and some foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, oils, and whole grains.
This common and popular drink appears to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes in the general population. However, it was not known whether it could also be beneficial for women with gestational diabetes. To investigate this aspect, Professor Cuilin Zhang, director of the Global Center for Asian Women’s Health (GloW) and lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine of the National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), together with His GloW team, in collaboration with the Harvard Chan School of Public Health and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), examined the role of long-term coffee consumption after a complicated pregnancy and the resulting risk of type 2 diabetes among women with a history of gestational diabetes.
The team also looked at coffee consumption with type 2 diabetes by replacing commonly consumed sugary drinks with coffee. The results of the study were recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In their study, the researchers followed more than 4,500 predominantly white female participants with a history of gestational diabetes for more than 25 years and examined associations between long-term coffee consumption and subsequent diabetes risk. type 2. Consumption of caffeinated coffee among women after pregnancy was found to have an inverse linear association with risk of type 2 diabetes. Compared with those who did not drink caffeinated coffee at all, among those who drank a cup of coffee with or without caffeine, two to three cups and four or more cups a day, the risk of type 2 diabetes was reduced by 10%, 17% and 53%, respectively.
With or without sugar?
Replacing artificially sweetened and sugary beverages with caffeinated coffee also reduces the risk, by 10% for one cup of artificially sweetened beverage and 17% for one cup of sugary beverage. “So far, the overall findings suggest that caffeinated coffee, when consumed properly (two to five cups per day, no sugar , and no full-fat or high-fat dairy products), could be incorporated into a relatively healthy lifestyle for certain populations,” noted Professor Zhang.
Confirming what Professor Zhang said, Dr Jiaxi Yang, first author of the study and researcher at GloW and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at NUS Medicine, said: “Although coffee presents itself as a potentially healthier alternative to sugary drinks, its health benefits vary and depend largely on the type and amount of condiments, such as sugar and milk, that are added to the coffee.
It should be stressed that you still need to be careful about coffee consumption since not much is known yet about the effects of coffee on pregnancy, fetus and child.
- Habitual coffee consumption and subsequent risk of type 2 diabetes in individuals with a history of gestational diabetes – a prospective study