These days it seems everyone’s giving out advice on how to manage your blood sugar. Most of us know that a whole-food diet that’s low in simple carbs is helpful. So are exercise and certain supplements and spices (chromium picolinate and cinnamon come to mind). But did you know that drinking either a morning coffee or tea seems to improve glucose metabolism?
We’ve previously reported on the benefits of green Rooibos, an herbal tea that comes from the fermented leaves of the Rooibos plant (Aspalathus linearis). These leaves contain aspalathin, which improved insulin activity in animal studies and may also help to lower blood glucose levels. (1) But it turns out there are more options, including one with some particularly impressive results.
Morning brew of coffee, tea and your health
If you’re a morning coffee drinker, you’ll be pleased to know that a study of younger and middle-aged women in the US found that those who drank coffee daily had a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes (T2D) than those who did not. Here are the numbers (2):
- Those who drank a single cup a day had 87% of the risk compared with those who didn’t drink coffee regularly (a 13% reduction).
- The group drinking 2-3 cups a day had 58% of the risk (a 42% reduction).
- The group drinking 4 or more cups daily had only 53% of the risk of nondrinkers (a 47% reduction).
Results were similar for filtered, instant, and – surprisingly – decaffeinated. So if caffeine gives you the jitters, you could try a nice organic decaf.
What about tea?
The researchers found no significant effects from tea consumption, even at four or more cups per day. However, a team from China and Australia disagrees with those findings.
At this year’s annual meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), researchers presented the results of a new, not-yet-published study suggesting that drinking tea habitually improves blood sugar management. (3)
They found that drinking tea daily, compared to not drinking it at all, was associated with increased excretion of glucose through the urine as well as reduced insulin resistance. As a group, daily tea drinkers had a 15% lower risk of prediabetes and a 28% lower risk of T2D than those who didn’t drink it.
That’s not bad… but that’s not all. When they crunched the numbers based on the type of tea consumed, they discovered that something called “dark tea” had a much greater impact than other types.
What in the world is “dark tea” and what makes it so powerful?
If you’ve never heard of dark tea, you’re not alone. What makes it special is a post-production fermentation process that can last anywhere from several months to years. (4) This process may be the reason for dark tea’s unique compounds and effects.
According to a news release from Diabetologia, dark tea exhibits potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, enhances the performance of beta cells in the pancreas, improves insulin sensitivity, and changes the composition of the bacteria in the gut. (3) Maybe that’s why people who drank dark tea daily were so much less likely to get T2D.
While daily tea drinkers had a 15% lower risk for prediabetes than nondrinkers, drinking dark tea daily brought that number up to 53%! And for T2D, the 28% lower risk associated with daily tea drinking increased to 47% for dark tea. The news release did not share any differences based on the number of cups per day or mention whether the researchers believed that caffeine was involved in the benefits.
If you’d like to try dark tea in the morning, search online for “hei cha tea”.
Coffee or Dark Tea?
It’s interesting to compare the numbers for dark tea and coffee. Daily dark tea drinkers have a 47% lower risk of T2D than those who don’t drink tea in the morning or regularly, and people who drink four or more cups of coffee a day have a 47% lower risk than non-coffee drinkers.
The advantage of coffee is that decaf will give you similar benefits to the caffeinated version, so you can drink it at night without worrying about keeping yourself awake. This might not be a problem for you, though, especially since tea usually contains less caffeine than the same amount of coffee.
Of course, if you’re really not sure, you could try both. Who knows – if they work in different ways, you might get an even greater benefit!
References
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(1) https://longevitylive.com/food/why-rooibos-tea-is-the-perfect-drink-for-people-with-diabetes/
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(2)Rob M. van Dam, Walter C. Willett, JoAnn E. Manson, Frank B. Hu; Coffee, Caffeine, and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes : A prospective cohort study in younger and middle-aged U.S. women. Diabetes Care 1 February 2006; 29 (2): 398–403. https://doi.org/10.2337/diacare.29.02.06.dc05-1512
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(3) https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1003267
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https://www.eatingwell.com/dark-tea-reduce-diabetes-risk-new-research-8348681
