"ucsd" news and stories

A Finnish study that was conducted several years ago linked a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes with increased coffee consumption. It showed that people who drank 3-4 cups of cups a day had a 30% lower risk, while those women who drank 10 cups had a 79% reduction in risk. This study was reported in 2004, and the results of the study were similar to the conclusions of a recently-published study from researchers at UC San Diego that has been going on for the past 8 years.

The UCSD study said that their testing showed that current or past drinkers of caffeinated coffee had a 60% diabetes risk reduction, while those who never drank coffee did not. Apparently, not enough of the participants were decaf-only drinkers, so no conclusions could be made about them. The scientists do not think it is the caffeine that plays the crucial role in the risk-lowering, but that it is due to other compounds in the coffee.

The important thing to note from this study, according to the researchers, is that "people with diabetes and those at risk for developing diabetes have enough to worry about" and that coffee isn't one of those things.

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Nicole recently posted about fingerprint scanners used by school cafeterias to ensure that kids are eating healthy meals. Well, some graduate students have now used similar technology to make getting junk food easier. An engineering professor at the University of California San Diego started the "biometric soda machine" project and students in his department have since outfitted a regular snack machine with thumbprint and facial recognition, as well as a bar code scanner, CR80 News reported. The goal of the project, known as SodaVision, is an easy, debit-based system where people can walk up to the machine, be recognized, choose their snack and walk away. A visit to the SodaVision site also has examples of the machine's interface, which looks like a screen from Star Trek.

[Via Pure Pedantry]