Coffee, that (occasionally) sweet nectar of the gods, goddesses and their little babies, is good for you.

Admittedly I’m a touch biased. I love quality coffee and at thus stage should probably own shares in Gusto’s little subsidiary cafe outside the Examiner’s offices. But now I have science to back up my claims of caffeinated magnificence!

An experimental conference in Washington DC has heard claims that coffee can help ward off type-2 diabetes and even cut the risk of certain cancers.

That’s according to Dr Rob van Dam of the Harvard School of Public Health (not to be confused with the Whole F’N Show), who stresses “it’s not like we’re promoting coffee as the new health food and asking people who don’t like coffee to drink coffee for their health”.

Another delegate, Dr Lenore Arab of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said there’s evidence coffee may protect against colon, rectal and liver cancer. However, there’s evidence it may increase the risk of leukemia and stomach cancer.

More research is needed, although about 400 studies have been carried out on the substance, with more than 20 on the diabetes-preventing effects alone.

Dr van Dam, incidentally, has largely ruled out caffeine as the wonder element, as both regular and decaf seem to have the same great effects.

Is it wrong that I have a hankering for a mocha right about now?

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