Sure a cup of black coffee may give you a jolt of energy, but when it comes to overcoming you diabetic symptoms, perhaps a cup of tea is more what your body needs and craves. Well, if you believe researchers from Thailand, drinking black tea has the capacity to help diabetics stabilize blood sugar levels.
In the Thai study, researchers provided participants with a sugary beverage containing either low doses of black tea polyphenols—micronutrients that function as antioxidants—high doses of the polyphenols, or a placebo beverage void of any polyphenols.
Well, guess what happened? The participants who drank the sugary beverage with the polyphenols had more balanced blood sugar levels than those who consumed the sham drink.
Your blood sugar naturally rises after you eat or drink something. And depending on how much fiber the meal contains will determine how quickly it is digested. But when you eat simple carbs, like the sugary solution the participants drank, a person’s blood sugar rises more quickly. So your pancreas has to crank out more insulin to help your body absorb that extra blood sugar for energy.
Now here is the fascinating thing about black tea. The consumption its polyphenols appears to reduce the blood sugar rise normally experience after drinking a sweet drink or eating carbs. The reason may occur as a result of the black tea polyphenols that alter certain enzymes in your body that aid in carbohydrate absorption, the researchers say.
Consequently, carb absorption is slowed down so much that the typical blood sugar spike that comes after ingesting carbs or sugary food, doesn’t occur.
Although researchers insist that more research needs to be done on a larger scale to confirm the benefits of black tea on blood sugar. But that doesn’t mean, you can’t reduce your diabetes risks by consuming black tea right now.
So the next time you want to prepare a cup of coffee, consider tea instead. You’ll appreciate how it improves your blood sugar control.
