Drinking dark tea might regulate blood sugar

Drinking black tea every day can help reduce the risk and progression of type 2 diabetes in people by improving blood sugar control, according to new research. Researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia and Southeast University in China discovered that daily dark tea drinkers had a 53 per cent lower risk of prediabetes and a 47 per cent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes, even after controlling for established risk factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), average arterial blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, and cholesterol. “The substantial health benefits of tea, including a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, have been reported in several studies over recent years, but the mechanisms underlying these benefits have been unclear”, notes the study’s co-lead author Associate Professor Tongzhi Wu from the University of Adelaide and The Hospital Research Foundation Group Mid-Career Fellow. “Our findings hint at the protective effects of habitual tea drinking on blood sugar management via increased glucose excretion in urine, improved insulin resistance and thus better control of blood sugar. These benefits were most pronounced among daily dark tea drinkers.” These beneficial effects on metabolic control may lie in the unique way dark tea is produced, which involves microbial fermentation, a process that may yield unique bioactive compounds (including alkaloids, free amino acids, polyphenols, polysaccharides, and their derivatives) to exhibit potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, improve both insulin sensitivity and the performance of beta cells in the pancreas, and change the composition of the bacteria in the gut.