Black Tea Benefits – Lower Plasma Sugar Levels

When next you’ve got the chance to drink black tea – Forget the 5,000 years of use in China and think instead about the many health benefits that Black Tea could bring to your body, which include reduced blood sugar levels.

You’ve most likely heard about how black tea improves protection and heart health, now studies appearing in the June 30, 2009 issue of the book of Food Science, adds diabetes treatment to the list of illnesses where a cup of dark tea ( without milk or sugar ) might be just what you want.

The up to date research out of Tianjin University in China revealed that black tea contains a substance that works just like oral medicines Precose and Glyset – prescribed drugs now used to manage blood sugar levels for patients with type 2 diabetes.

The natural polysaccharide compound in black tea is at levels greater than in either green or oolong tea.

Haixia Chen and comrades report the polysaccharides discovered in black tea limit the activity of an enzyme known as alpha-glucosidase that changes complex carbohydrates to sugar.

This is how the prescription drugs work also.

Research has demonstrated for some time that polysaccharides might be of value to those with diabetes because they help to stop the absorption of sugar. According to the researchers, the black assortment of tea was also found to possess the best scavenging effect on free radicals, those stressful substances assumed by many to be concerned in the development of cancer and other illnesses.

So are you able to drink black tea in place of an oral diabetic medication?

No – Never make a change without speaking with your own doctor.

Chen’s team must not say for certain that just drinking the tea would be enough . The study used chemical extraction techniques, not the brewing as you could at home, to get the polysaccharides from the teas they’d bought at local marketplaces.

Traditional teas come from the same plant. It’s actually the quantity of processing that makes the difference in the color, the black having oxidized ( interacted with oxygen until the leaves darkened ) as it is going thru all the steps in the tea creation processes. Traditional processing of the black variety is not anything like fermenting, there is no yeast concerned, just the tea leaves and oxygen.

It’s important to understand that due to the way black tea is processed, it does have a far higher caffeine content than the other teas – green, white or oolong. One cup of black tea has about fifty milligrams of caffeine compared to coffee, which has from 65 to 175 milligrams of caffeine per cup.

In fact, in numerous parts of the world tea, not coffee is utilized as the wake-me-up at the beginning of the day.

You can purchase teas at most grocery stores, or try the organic types from online ( or local ) natural health food stores.

Black varieties can be packed as a single tea or as a part of a blend – you’ll be dazzled at the numerous selections. You’ll want to try several brands to find the flavor and depth of color you like best, and be certain to brew the leaves lose in a nice, pot-bellied teapot so they can unfurl all of the way to make a drink that’s's powerful and delicious, and likely good for you too!

The black tea benefits are certainly impressive, and with this research we could be close to another breakthrough for controlling blood sugar levels.

Next – just head on over to the Daily Health Bulletin for more information on how to lower blood sugar, plus for a limited time get 5 free fantastic health reports. Click here for more details on how to lower blood sugar.

About The American Diabetes Association

With children and adults being diagnosed with one of the two different types of diabetes, it is important to know that there is help out there and that there is an organization dedicated to answering questions and raising money.

The American Diabetes Association is a nonprofit organization that is focused on providing the public with information and research on diabetes. This diabetes association was founded in 1940 and their programs can be found in all of the fifty states and also the District of Columbia.

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