Upping your coffee consumption by around one-and-a-half cups per day can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to new research.

In addition, cutting your coffee intake can increase your risk of developing diabetes, the researchers claim.

The US research shows that increasing coffee consumption by on average one-and-half cups per day (approx 360ml) over a four-year period reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes by 11%.

Researchers at Harvard University,Boston, looked at the associations between four-year changes in coffee and tea consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes in the subsequent four years after these changes were made.

They used observational data from three large US-based studies.  Data on diet, lifestyle, and medical conditions was collected every two to four years for over a 20-year-period on over 120,000 people.

The availability of these repeated measures and the long-duration of follow-up allowed the authors to look at the effects of four year changes in coffee and tea intake in relation to risk of diabetes in the following four years.

The authors recorded 7,269 type 2 diabetes cases, and found that those who increased their coffee consumption by more than one cup per day over a four-year period had a 11% lower risk of type 2 diabetes in the subsequent four -years compared to those who made no changes in coffee intake .

It was found that peoples who cut their coffee intake by one cup a day or more had a 17% higher risk for type 2 diabetes.

Changes in tea intake were not associated with type 2 diabetes risk.

The research is published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes).

Find out more about type 1 and type 2 diabetes here