Drinking coffee could help people slim down and avoid type 2 diabetes by helping the body burn off extra calories, according to researchers.
Scientists say a cup of the hot drink may kick-start brown fat into action – brown fat is active tissue which burns sugar and fat from food to warm up the body. It is different to white fat, which is what makes people look overweight. This is food fat stored by the body when people eat more energy than they use.
Caffeine is believed to be the part of coffee which takes the body's calorie-burning up a gear, but the scientists said more research is needed. More than two thirds of UK adults are overweight and around 3.4million people – one in 20 – have type 2 diabetes, which can lead to a stroke or heart disease. Researchers from the University of Nottingham tested their theory on nine healthy volunteers after finding it had worked in a lab.
The people were aged 27, on average, and had to refrain from exercising, drinking caffeine or taking drugs or alcohol for nine hours before the tests. They were then given a cup of Nescafé instant coffee, or water in an experiment for comparison, and their body scanned while the caffeine effects set in. The thermal scans showed the people's brown fat in their neck got hotter when they drank the coffee, showing it was working to burn calories.
