The number of cases of diabetes is increasing due to a sedentary lifestyle, the aging of the population and the current trend towards obesity, however, there are some habits that can help us keep it away. One of them, simple and relaxing, according to a study by the Wuhan University of Science and Technology (China) is that drinking at least four cups of tea a day could help reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes during 10 years.
Research has indicated that drinking four or more cups of tea a day could reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by up to 17% over 10 years, which could be a simple, low-cost intervention to combat the growing number of cases of diabetes, and against the serious health effects that the disease can cause.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers carried out a meta-analysis in which they analyzed 19 studies that included data on daily tea consumption and diabetes rates in almost 1.1 million adults from eight countries in Asia, America and Europe. .
Black tea, green tea and Oolong tea to prevent diabetes
The results, which have been presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Stockholm, indicated that the best benefits were obtained from three specific types of tea, green tea, black tea and Oolong tea. Furthermore, Xiaying Li, lead author of the study, revealed that these effects against diabetes could be even better if milk is added to the tea.
“It is possible that particular components of tea, such as polyphenols, may lower blood glucose levels”
Many people replace coffee in the morning with tea or follow the English custom of tea time, however, research has been clear that the number of cups to drink to ward off diabetes is at least four. In those who drank less, for example, two or three cups a day, a 4% reduced risk of type 2 diabetes was found, compared to those who did not drink this type of beverage.
“It is possible that particular components of tea, such as polyphenols, can lower blood glucose levels, but sufficient amounts of these bioactive compounds may be needed for them to be effective. It may also explain why we didn’t find an association between tea consumption and type 2 diabetes in our cohort study, because we didn’t observe higher tea consumption.”
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