foodconsumer.org: Black tea helps fight diabetes

Black tea helps fight diabetes
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admin on 08/01/2009 14:29:00
 
By David Liu (davidl@foodconsumer.org)
Chinese researchers published a study report in the Journal of Food Science
suggesting that black tea may be used to control diabetes.
Haixia Chen and colleagues from Tianjin Key Laboratory in China found that
polysaccharides in black tea had the most glucose-inhibiting properties compared
to green and oolong teas.
The black tea polysaccharides are also found to have the highest scavenging
effect against free radicals, which are believed to lead to cancer and other
illnesses.
The study was meant to examine the therapeutically effect of the polysaccharides
of green, oolong and black teas on diabetes.
"Many efforts have been made to search for effective glucose inhibitors from
natural materials," says lead researcher Haixia Chen. "There is a potential for
exploitation of black tea polysaccharide in managing diabetes."
Tahrani AA and colleagues in Birmingham Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham, UK
said in the March 2009 issue of Advances in Therapy that the conventional
diabetes drugs such as metformin, sulfonylureas, glitazones, and insulin have
proved unsatisfactory,
The newly approved diabetes drug known as onglyza can result in side effects
like side effects including upper respiratory tract infection, urinary tract
infection, headache, and allergic-like reactions such as rash and hives, the
Food and Drug Administration said in a press release.
Supplements like chromium, magnesium and vanadium may be used to improve
diabetes control.  Foods including brewer's yeast, buckwheat, broccoli and other
related greens, okra, peas, fenugreek seeds and sage may also help, according to
webmd.com.