Diabetes and Green Tea-What you need to know

There’s a lot of talk these days about diabetes and green tea.  It seems that drinking green tea is one of the best things a person with diabetes can do for their health.  This should come as no surprise, as green tea has been treasured by the Chinese people for its health benefits for centuries.  It seems that in many ways modern, Western medicine is just catching up to ancient wisdom from the far east.  Acupuncture is being taken more and more seriously for pain management and treatment for all sorts of conditions.  Yoga and Qui Gong are also being studied intensely because people who practice them report such great benefits.  And now it’s green tea’s turn.

If you’re dealing with diabetes, and green tea sounds like something you’d like to try to improve your health, one thing you should keep in mind is that you should never use boiling water to make green tea.  This can kill off a lot of the helpful compounds in the tea, making it pretty much useless for health purposes. One of the most helpful components in green tea is something called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG).  Some studies have shown it to be as effective as Avandia when it comes to maintaining blood sugar levels.  And it’s probably a lot better for you in other ways, too.

Another thing to consider  when it comes to diabetes and green tea is caffeine.  Too much caffeine is bad for diabetics, which is why diabetic coffee lovers are told to switch to decaf.  And green tea contain about 80% of the caffeine that coffee does.  One way to deal with this is to throw out the first batch of tea you brew with the leaves, and then brew another batch and drink it.  This greatly reduces the caffeine content.  Or you can buy decaf green tea, but you’ll probably need to drink more than the usual amount, because a certain percentage of the helpful components are destroyed during the decaffeinating process.  But no matter how you do it, if you’re diabetic you should add green tea to your daily routine.