Research

Hormonal

Frequent alcohol consumption (≥5 days/week) is inversely associated with the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, even when the total amount of alcohol consumed per day is low.

If you currently drink alcohol, spreading your consumption across at least 5 days a week appears to offer the greatest protection against type 2 diabetes, regardless of whether you drink a full drink or just a small amount on those days. The type of alcohol (beer, wine, liquor) does not significantly change this risk reduction. However, this does not mean you should start drinking if you don't already.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Consumption of alcohol on at least 5 days/week provided the greatest protection, even when less than one drink per drinking day was consumed (RR = 0.48, CI 0.27–0.86).
Katherine M. Conigrave et al. · Diabetes · 2001

Why this rating

Large prospective cohort (n=46,892), long follow-up (12 years), rigorous adjustment for confounders, though observational design limits causal inference.

Source

A Prospective Study of Drinking Patterns in Relation to Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Among Men

Katherine M. Conigrave et al. · Diabetes · 2001

DOI 10.2337/diabetes.50.10.2390

cohort · n=46892Cited 242×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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