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Coffee May Hide Secret to Diabetes Management
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Compounds found in coffee beans could offer a new way to help people living with diabetes manage their condition.
Three compounds in particular have demonstrated significant inhibitory effects on α-glucosidase, a key enzyme in carbohydrate digestion.
This could lead to new functional food ingredients targeting type 2 diabetes, according to the study by the Kunming Institute of Botany in China.
Around 1 in 10 Americans (more than 38 million people) live with diabetes, of which 90–95 percent have type 2. This occurs when insulin doesn't work properly or there's not enough of it.
Current management methods include checking blood sugar (or glucose) levels and keeping them close to a personal target level to prevent or delay complications.
Healthy eating, being active and getting enough sleep may be enough to help manage the condition in some circumstances, or doctors may prescribe metformin, insulin or other medicines (along with lifestyle factors).
Coffee beans in the hand's of a worker.
Coffee beans in the hand's of a worker.
Schwede-Photodesign/Getty Images
Building on this, the new study shows promising anti-diabetic potential and helps to expand our understanding of coffee's functional components, according to the researchers.
Functional foods are known for both their nutritional value and for delivering "biologically active" compounds with potential health benefits, like antioxidant, neuroprotective, or glucose-lowering properties.
"Coffee diterpenes are a class of characteristic components in coffee, which have potential biological activities including the prevention of cancer, obesity, diabetes, and other diseases," the researchers wrote in their paper.
"Due to the complex chemical composition of roasted coffee beans, analyzing the composition and potential activity of coffee diterpenes has always been a challenge."
To solve this, scientists have been trying more advanced techniques called nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to speed up the discovery of the bioactive molecules, as found in "chemically diverse" systems like roasted coffee.
"Functional food ingredients could potentially help with managing glucose, in principle. But for an ingredient to be useful, we need to know the effective dose, safety, and bioavailability in humans," Signe Svanfeldt, lead nutritionist at Lifesum, told Newsweek.
"Many promising lab results never translate into practical benefits. So, while functional ingredients may support glucose management, they are always adjuncts to diet, activity, and medication—not replacements."
In this study, the team developed a three-step, activity-oriented strategy to efficiently identify bioactive diterpene esters in roasted coffee arabica beans. Arabica is the most popular of four main types of coffee beans, alongside Robusta, Liberica and Excelsa.
"The study isolated specific molecules from coffee beans, not brewed coffee itself. Normal coffee consumption has previously been linked in large population studies to a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes and better survival in people with diabetes. Both regular and decaf coffee show this, suggesting compounds beyond caffeine are beneficial," said Svanfeldt.
The scientists' goal was to discover both abundant and trace-level compounds with α-glucosidase inhibitory activity, while minimizing the use of solvents and analysis time.
"The structures of the three new compounds were determined through comprehensive spectral analysis," the researchers wrote.
The new isolated diterpene esters were named caffaldehydes A, B, and C. In the study, these compounds, differing in their fatty acid chains, showed a moderate α-glucosidase inhibitory activity with values more potent than the control drug acarbose.
Acarbose is sometimes used to help people with type 2 diabetes when changes to diet, or other medications have been unable to bring down blood sugar levels to their target range. It slows down the digestion of starchy foods like potatoes, pasta and rice from the gut, meaning blood sugar levels rise more slowly after meals.
"To explore trace active diterpene esters of the same type in coffee, a molecular network based on LC-MS/MS was constructed, and three novel coffee diterpene esters were identified," the authors added.
These three additional unknown compounds were closely related to caffaldehydes A–C, sharing "common fragment ions but featuring different fatty acids".
Their absence in compound databases confirmed their novelty.
The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach in discovering structurally diverse, biologically relevant compounds in complex food matrices (structures and interactions) like roasted coffee, according to the study.
It could also pave the way to developing new functional food ingredients or nutraceuticals derived from coffee, targeting glucose regulation and potentially aiding in diabetes management.
Happy mature woman checking blood sugar level at home with monitor.
Happy mature woman checking blood sugar level at home with monitor.
stefanamer/Getty Images
"The new compounds in this paper are not proven to have effects in humans yet. Drinking coffee is fine as part of a healthy lifestyle, but it shouldn't be seen as a treatment for diabetes," said Svanfeldt.
The researchers also said the strategy used in their study could be adapted for rapid screening of bioactive metabolites in other complex food matrices.
Next steps will include exploring the biological activity of the newly identified trace diterpenes and assessing their safety and efficacy in vivo.
While Svanfeldt said, if developed further, these findings would most likely lead to an "add-on to standard care", she emphasized: "Coffee, or these compounds, cannot replace CGMs, glucose testing, medications, or lifestyle measures.
"Caffeine tolerance is highly individual. While up to 400mg of caffeine per day—about three to four cups of brewed coffee, is generally considered safe for most healthy adults, some may experience side effects such as anxiety, sleep disturbances, or gastrointestinal discomfort at lower levels."
Newsweek has reached out to the researchers for additional comment.
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Reference
Hu, G., Quan, C., Al-Romaima, A., Dai, H., Qiu, M., Hu, G., Quan, C., Al-Romaima, A., Dai, H., & Qiu, M. (2024). Bioactive oriented discovery of diterpenoids in Coffea arabica basing on 1D NMR and LC-MS/MS molecular network. Beverage Plant Research, 5(1).
