Effects of Coffee and Tea on Diabetes
Tea also has an effect on diabetes. Drinking tea can improve insulin activity up to 15 times, and it can be black, green or oolong. Herbal teas don’t have any effect. The active compounds don’t last long in the body, so you would have to drink a cup or more of tea every few hours to maintain the benefit. The catch is that you should drink it without milk (even soy milk), because milk seems to interact with the necessary chemicals and render them unavailable to your body. A number of older studies have shown that caffeine may increase your risk of developing diabetes. The theory is that the beneficial chemicals are able to offset the damage done by the caffeine. So drinking decaffeinated coffee would be the best bet if you are thinking of drinking coffee to prevent diabetes.
What is the problem and what is known about it so far?
Some research suggests that drinking coffee and tea may reduce the chances of a person getting type 2 diabetes. Drinks with caffeine may help the body use up energy faster, possibly leading to weight loss. However, it isn’t clear what ingredient in coffee or tea if any is responsible for lowering the chances of getting type 2 diabetes.
Drinking Tea and Coffee is of great problem to diabetics. Drinking coffee raises the blood sugar level. It does to by enhancing the effect of the two hormones that is adrenaline and glucagons. These two hormones releases stored sugar from the liver resulting in high blood sugar. The side effects of caffeine, the principle constituent of both tea and coffee, may affects the nervous system. It keeps the patient awake at night and may cause a temporary rise in the blood pressure. Excessive caffeine consumption can also lead to headaches, poor concentration, irritability and nervousness. Coffee has been considered as “comfort in a cup” but other warm non-caffeinated drinks can also be comforting. For eg: - Hot water and lemon is equally comfortable as Tea or coffee.
Higher coffee consumption was associated with higher body mass index, occupational physical activity and cigarette smoking, and lower blood pressure, education level, leisure time physical activity, tea consumption and alcohol use. Age, body mass index, systolic blood pressure and current smoking were positively associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes, however, education, and occupational, commuting and leisure time physical activity were inversely associated.
Hypoglycaemia is a characteristic short-term metabolic complication of diabetes. Any agent that improves the perception of hypoglycaemic symptoms or increases the effectiveness of the counter-regulatory hormonal responses designed to raise the blood glucose concentration would be valuable in the management of diabetes. After 72 hours abstinence, ingestion of 250-400 mg caffeine improved the perception of hypoglycaemic symptoms and the counter-regulatory responses in non-diabetics and type 1 diabetics. However, the longer-term effects of caffeine are more complex. When the effects of abstinence were compared with ingestion of 400 mg caffeine/day for 7 days it was found that counter-regulatory responses were unaffected. At onset the perception of hypoglycaemic symptoms was greater after caffeine abstinence but as the symptoms continued perception was greater in response to caffeine.
