Tea is one of the most popular beverages that humans drink. For centuries, tea has been known for its medicinal properties.
Many different types of tea are available in the market, for example, dark tea, black tea, oolong tea, etc. All the tea in the world comes from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant.
Dark Tea
Dark tea is somewhat different from black tea due to its fermentation process. In black tea, the endogenous enzymes oxidize the tea, whereas, in dark tea, the heat passivizes the endogenous enzymes, followed by the commencement of microbial fermentation. This microbial fermentation causes unique changes in the tea leaves metabolite while producing the new ones. The metabolites make the tea rich in smoothness and sweetness. The same changes are also responsible for the medicinal properties of the dark tea.
With the wave of holistic living in the generation, it is time we understand the science behind our grandparents’ way of living. We are here trying to understand the secret behind their happy and long life while also looking for ways to incorporate it into our lives. One such goal is to study if there’s any relationship between their tea routine and a stress-free lifestyle. In this generation of coffee drinkers, we are looking to find answers in past generations of tea.
Many of our grandparents have or had a strong bond with tea. The wake-up tea, fire-up-brain tea, relax-after-work tea and, of course, spend-time-with-family tea, were part of their lives. They had a disease-free life we are looking forward to building.
Diabetes
Much of our generation has diabetes. This number is only growing. Infants, young people, adults in their prime and older people all are vulnerable to diabetes.
We are searching for reasons and solutions using futuristic and advanced technology. But it is worthwhile to also search for them in our history, where our ancestors seldom knew the existence of such diseases.
Diabetes has many causes. There is a disturbance in the balance of glucose in the body. It is a characteristic feature of diabetes. The beta cells are responsible for releasing insulin. Insulin regulates the uptake, utilization and storage of glucose in the body.
Beta cells may not be secreting enough insulin for the body, the target tissues may have become resistant to insulin, or there might be destruction of beta cells. Due to all of these reasons, insulin can’t act on glucose. Hence, the metabolic system is disturbed.
Dark Tea and Your Blood Sugar Level
Many scientists are trying to find if there is any truth in the hypothesis that dark tea help manage blood sugar level. There was a presentation on one such research at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Hamburg, Germany. This research stated that daily consumers of dark tea had a 53% lower risk for prediabetes and a 47% reduced risk for diabetes type 2.
The researchers talked about the protective effects of habitual tea drinking on blood sugar management. According to them, the process happens via increased glucose excretion in urine and improved insulin resistance. They also said the benefits were most pronounced among daily dark tea drinkers.
The dark tea mimics the new diabetic SGLT-2 inhibitor drugs. But the evidence put forth right now is not enough to establish this as a fact.
Tea drinking has substantial benefits for our health. It helps maintain a healthy cardiovascular system, gut flora and metabolism. Some say it helps improve focus and also helps reduce the vulnerability to cancer.
The bottom line remains that a healthy diet is essential for our health and wellness. A healthy diet reflects upon our skin, mind and thoughts. We may not yet have all the proof and evidence regarding the benefits of tea drinking but it can’t be ignored that a simple step such as tea drinking immensely helps our mental and physical health.
Take a moment for yourself.
