ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION Coffee Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Among Middle-aged Finnish Men and Women

CENTURIES OF COFFEE DRINK-ing hasmade it themost con-sumed beverage in theworld.During the last decade, re-search has attempted to make clear health benefits or detriments received from coffee drinking. Effects of coffee and caffeine on cardiovascular dis-ease,1 hypertension,2 neurological dis-eases,3 different types of cancer,4 hor-monal changes,5-7 gallstones,8 renal stones,9 as well as diabetes mellitus (DM)10-12 have been studied through epidemiological, clinical, or experimen-tal research. Type 2 DM is one of the diseases that is largely determined by lifestyle factors.13,14 The role of coffee in relation to DM has not been investigated thoroughly. A large Dutch cohort study12 recently showed an inverse association between coffee consumption and the risk of DM. It is well known that caffeine stimu-lates insulin secretion of the pancreatic beta cells in vivo. However, coffee with its complex compounds may influence many other processes thatmay take part in the development of DM. According to international statis-tics, the Finnish population has the highest per capita coffee consumption in the world with 11.3 kg in 2000.15 Therefore, research into potential health effects of coffee in this population is of particular interest. Our large prospec-tive study aimed at determining whether the suggested inverse relation-ship between coffee and type 2 DM ex-ists among the Finnish population. I