Influence of consuming coffee and other beverages in adolescence on risk of type 2 diabetes in adulthood.

Background: Dietary strategies for type 2 diabetes (T2DM) prevention have mainly focused on solid foods and nutrients. Emanating evidence suggests that beverage consumption in adulthood may also influence T2DM development, whereas the role of beverages during adolescence remains unknow.

Objective: To examine adolescent beverages consumption, and their changes from adolescence to adulthood in relation to T2DM risk in adulthood.

Methods: This prospective cohort study, conducted within the Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II), enrolled 41,317 women who completed a food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) regarding their diet in high school and had no diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer at baseline (1997). Beverage consumption including coffee, tea, regular or diet soda, fruit juice or milk, was assessed using the FFQ. Cox proportional hazards models were utilized to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the association between beverage consumption in adolescence and risk of incident type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in adulthood, adjusting for potential confounders.

Results: During 725,650 person-years of follow-up, 2,844 participants developed T2DM. After adjustment for demographic, lifestyle and dietary risk factors, comparing ≥ 1 serving/day with non-consumers, adolescent coffee [HR, 0.86 (95% confidence interval: 0.75 to 0.98); P-trend = 0.02)] and orange juice [HR, 0.83 (0.71 to 0.96); P-trend = 0.0008)] consumption was associated with lower T2DM risk, whereas, regular soda [HR, 1.37 (1.20 to 1.57); P-trend < 0.0001)] and iced tea [HR, 1.41 (1.21 to 1.65); P-trend < 0.0001)] intake was associated with higher T2DM risk. Increased coffee intake from adolescence to adulthood in 1991 was associated with a lower T2DM risk [HR, 0.70 (0.61 to 0.80); P-trend < 0.0001), comparing ≥ + 3 servings/day with no change], whereas the opposite was observed for increased regular soda [HR, 1.20 (1.06 to 1.35); P-trend = 0.004), comparing ≥ + 1 or more servings/week with no change)] and diet soda consumption [HR, 1.59 (1.41 to 1.80); P-trend = 0.0002), comparing ≥ + 2 servings/day with no change].

Conclusion: Adolescent consumption of coffee or orange juice intake was associated with a lower risk of T2DM, whereas the opposite was observed for intake of regular soda or iced tea. In addition, increased coffee intake was associated with a lower diabetes risk, whereas the opposite was observed for regular or diet soda intake. These data highlight a potentially important role of beverage intake at early life in the etiology of diabetes during adulthood.