Drinking tea every day could help slash your risk of diabetes – but you’ve got to prepare it just right
DRINKING tea every day could cut your risk of type 2 diabetes by half, a study shows.
People who enjoy at least one cup of dark tea daily were 47 per cent less likely to develop the killer condition than those who never drink it, researchers found.
The tea helped people better control their blood sugar thanks to its antioxidants and gut-boosting effects, they said.
Drinking any tea, including regular builder’s brew or green tea, daily reduced their risk by 28 per cent compared to those who never have a cup.
Professor Tonzhi Wu, of the University of Adelaide in Australia, said: “Our findings hint at the protective effects of habitual tea drinking on blood sugar management.
“These benefits were most pronounced among daily dark tea drinkers.”
More than five million Brits are thought to be living with diabetes, with cases doubling in the last 15 years.
The NHS spends at least £10billion annually on the disease — around 10 per cent of its entire budget.
It causes blood sugar levels to become too high because of problems with how the body produces the hormone insulin, which breaks down glucose.
Previous research has shown drinking tea can reduce your chances of diabetes and heart disease, but it has not been clear how this happens.
The latest study, presented at The European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Hamburg, looked at how the drink impacts diabetes risk.
They looked at 1,923 adults in China and asked them how often they drink tea, with answers including never, occasionally, often and every day.
Participants were also asked what type of tea they drank from green, black, dark — a type of fermented tea from the Far East — or other tea.
Researchers took blood and urine tests to see how much sugar was in both and measure insulin resistance.
Drinking more tea was linked with passing more sugar in urine, helping keep blood sugar under control and reducing the risk of diabetes.
People who drank just black tea — which includes types like English breakfast — were eight per cent less likely to develop diabetes.
Professor Zilin Sun, of Southeast University, said: “Drinking dark tea every day has the potential to lessen type 2 diabetes risk and progression through better blood sugar control.
“When you look at all the different biomarkers associated with habitual drinking of dark tea, it may be one simple step people can easily take to improve their diet and health.”