Are you a tea lover? If your answer is yes, then we have a good news for you. According to a study by Wuhan University, drinking four or more cups of black, green, or oolong tea daily can reduce the chances of having type 2 diabetes by 17%.
The study shows that about one million people from eight different countries who consume black, green, and oolong tea are at a lower risk of type two diabetes (T2D).
These findings were presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. The results suggest that T2D risks get lower over an average period of 10 years.
Neuroscience news quoted Xiaying Li from Wuhan University of Science and Technology in China "Our results are exciting because they suggest that people can do something as simple as drinking four cups of tea a day to potentially lessen their risk of developing type 2 diabetes."
The benefits of drinking regular tea have long been recognized, as it contains numerous antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, and anticarcinogenic compounds. So far, published cohort studies and meta-analyses have reported inconsistent findings.
To address this uncertainty, the researchers conducted a study and monitored the dose-reaction to better define the relationship between tea consumption and T2D risk.
Research:
Researchers studied 5,199 people (2583 men, 2616 women) with no history of T2D (average age 42) from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) who were recruited in 1997 and followed until 2009.
The participants were regularly questioned about their lifestyle factors like regular exercise, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Overall, 2,379 (46%) participants reported drinking tea, and by the end of the study, 522 (10%) participants had developed T2D.
The results showed similar risks for people and found that tea drinkers had a similar risk of developing T2D compared to non-drinkers. And the results did not change significantly when analysed by age and gender, or when the participants who developed diabetes during the first three years of follow-up were excluded.
The next step of the research was when they studied studies investigating tea drinking and the risk of T2D in adults (aged 18 or older) up to September 2021. Overall, in the dose-response meta-analysis, 19 cohort studies with 1,076,311 people from eight nations were considered.
Overall, the study discovered a link between tea consumption and T2D risks: drinking at least one cup of tea per day reduces the risk by 1%.
