Caffeine in Your Blood Could Affect Body Fat And Diabetes Risk, Study Finds - ScienceAlert

The levels of caffeine in your blood could affect the amount of body fat you carry, a factor that in turn could determine your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Those are the findings of a new study that used genetic markers to establish a more definitive link between caffeine levels, BMI, and type 2 diabetes risk.

"Genetically predicted higher plasma caffeine concentrations were associated with lower BMI and whole body fat mass," write the researchers in their published paper.

The study involved data from just under 10,000 people collected from existing genetic databases, focusing on variations in or near specific genes known to be associated with the speed at which caffeine is broken down.

An approach called Mendelian randomization was used to determine likely causal relationships between the presence of the variations, illnesses like diabetes, body mass, and lifestyle factors.

Previous studies have linked a moderate and relative increase in caffeine consumption to better heart health and a lower BMI, and the new research adds more detail to what we already know about the effects that coffee has on the body.