ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION Habitual consumption of coffee and green tea in relation to serum adipokines: a cross-sectional study Ngoc Minh Pham • Akiko Nanri • Kazuki Yasuda • Kayo Kurotani • Keisuke Kuwahara • Shamima Akter • Masao Sato • Hitomi Hayabuchi • Tetsuya Mizoue Received: 26 September 2013 / Accepted: 8 April 2014 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Abstract Purpose Coffee and green tea consumption may be associated with circulating adipokines, but data are inconsistent, scarce or lacking. We examined the associa- tion of coffee and green tea consumption with serum adiponectin, leptin, visfatin, resistin and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) among a Japanese working population. Methods The authors analyzed data (n = 509) from a cross-sectional survey among Japanese workers aged 20–68 years. Serum adipokines were measured using a Luminex suspension bead-based multiplexed array. Coffee and green tea consumption was assessed using a validated diet history questionnaire, and caffeine consumption from these beverages was estimated. Multiple regression analysis was performed with adjustment for potential confounding variables. Results Coffee consumption was significantly, inversely associated with leptin and PAI-1 (P for trend = 0.007 and 0.02, respectively); compared with subjects consuming \ 1 cup per day, those consuming C4 cups per day had 13 and 10 % lower means of leptin and PAI-1, respectively. Similar associations were observed for caffeine consump- tion (P for trend = 0.02 for both leptin and PAI-1). Additionally, we noted a significant positive association between coffee consumption and adiponectin in men (P for trend = 0.046), but not in women (P for trend = 0.43, P for interaction = 0.11). Moreover, there was a positive association between coffee consumption and resistin in current male smokers (P for trend = 0.01), but not in male non-smokers (P for trend = 0.35, P for interac- tion = 0.11). Green tea consumption was not associated with any adipokine. Conclusions Higher consumption of coffee and caffeine but not green tea was associated with lower serum levels of leptin and PAI-1 in Japanese adults. Keywords Coffee Á Green tea Á Adipokines Á Japanese Introduction Coffee and tea are the two most popular beverages worldwide, and their health effects have attracted increas- ing attention [1, 2]. Accumulating evidence suggests that coffee consumption affords protection against type 2 dia- betes (T2D) [3] and cancer [4]. Likewise, habitual green tea consumption, a widely consumed tea among Asians, is reportedly associated with lower risk of some types of cancer, such as colorectal cancer [5]. Attempts have been Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00394-014-0701-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. N. M. Pham (&) Á A. Nanri Á K. Kurotani Á K. Kuwahara Á S. Akter Á T. Mizoue Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, Center for Clinical Sciences, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Toyama 1-21-1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8655, Japan e-mail: minh.pn@tnu.edu.vn K. Yasuda Department of Metabolic Disorder, Diabetes Research Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan M. Sato Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan H. Hayabuchi Graduate School of Nutrition and Health Science, Fukuoka Women’s University, Fukuoka, Japan 123 Eur J Nutr DOI 10.1007/s00394-014-0701-4