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