What to eat to prevent diabetes? How does drinking tea help with diabetes? Below we will introduce them one by one.
Drinking tea daily for health preservation is a tradition that has been passed down in China for thousands of years. According to a recent report by the UK's Daily Mail, consuming at least four cups of tea per day can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. To uncover the mystery between tea drinking and diabetes, scientists from the Diabetes Research Center at the University of Düsseldorf conducted a large-scale study involving European populations.
The study involved 26 research centers across eight European countries, including 12,403 participants with type 2 diabetes and thousands of non-diabetic individuals. The survey showed that tea drinking habits varied across Europe, ranging from Spaniards who never drink tea to British people who consume four cups per day. The results found that the "tea drinking reduces diabetes risk" effect was most evident among those who drank the most tea daily. Drinking four cups of black tea per day can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 20%. However, drinking one to three cups of tea per day did not seem to have a preventive effect against diabetes.
Dr. Christian Herder, the lead researcher, analyzed that the reason tea drinking can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes is because it affects glucose metabolism, prevents elevated glucose levels, and also protects against free radical damage, safeguarding β-cells. These benefits of tea drinking are closely related to the polyphenols contained in tea leaves.