Fight diabetes risk with coffee

“Two Joes” is a fan book about two of The Three Stooges, Joe Besser and Joe DeRita, who stepped into the madcap act many years after it first debuted. Besser arrived in 1955 after the death of an original Stooge, and DeRita followed Besser 15 years later.

The two Joes’ longevity echoes what researchers found in a study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

The study indicated that consuming two cups of filtered Joe daily over a seven-year period slashed a person’s risk of Type 2 diabetes by 60% compared with folks who drank less than a cup of filtered coffee daily! Seems coffee brewed with filter paper strains out a chemical — diterpenes — that raises levels of lousy LDL cholesterol.

Boiled, drip, French press and espresso brews don’t offer the anti-diabetes, heart-friendly benefit.

This finding comes after a 2013 study in Diabetologia that showed folks who reduced their coffee intake by a cup or more a day over a four-year period upped their risk for Type 2 diabetes by 17%.

Other health benefits of coffee, say physicians from Johns Hopkins Medicine, include a reduced risk for Parkinson’s disease, heart failure, colon cancer,

Alzheimer’s disease and stroke, and healthier kidneys and liver.

So enjoy two or more cups daily, if you can do it without experiencing a headache, gastric upset, an abnormal heartbeat or anxiety within an hour of drinking a cup. (Decaf provides some of coffee’s health boosters.) But stay clear of sugary, fatty additives that negate coffee’s benefits.

Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic. To live your healthiest, tune into “The Dr. Oz Show” or visit www.sharecare. com.