<p>Scientists claim to have found the best way to slash the risk of developing diabetes — to drink at least four cups of tea a day.<br /><br /></p>.<p>A study examining tea-drinking habits of more than 12,000 Type 2 diabetes sufferers in across Europe found that drinking four cups tea a day had a 20 per cent lower risk of developing the illness. The study found that benefits seemed to be most obvious among heavy tea drinkers — drinking a mere one to three cups a day doesn’t lower the risk.<br /><br />However, drinking excessive tea prepared with milk and sugar could be quite harmful to health, according to experts.<br /><br />“Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes, but dietary factors may also play a role. One dietary factor of interest is tea consumption,” said study author Christian Herder of the Leibniz Center for Diabetes Research at Heinrich Heine University in Germany.<br /><br />“Tea consumption may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes by influencing glucose digestion, glucose uptake, and by protecting beta-cells from free-radical damage. This beneficial effect may be due to the polyphenols present in tea,” Herder was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.<br /><br />According to Herder, drinking at least four cups of tea per day was linked to a 20 per cent lower risk, while drinking one to three cups per day did not lower the risk of diabetes compared with non-tea drinkers.<br /><br />But it was unclear if tea is associated inversely over the entire range of intake, he said.<br /><br />“Therefore, we investigated the association between tea consumption and incidence of type 2 diabetes in a European population,” he said.<br /><br />“It was done in 26 centres in eight European countries, and consisted of 12,403 incident type 2 diabetes cases plus thousands of others without the disease. Tea drinking ranged from an average of none a day in Spain to four a day in UK.”<br /><br />Herder added: “Increasing our understanding of modifiable lifestyle factors associated with the development of type 2 diabetes is important, as the prevalence of diabetes is increasing rapidly.<br /><br />“In line with this, no association was observed when tea consumption was studied as continuous variable. This may indicate that the protective effect of tea is restricted to people with a high tea consumption.” <br /><br /></p>
<p>Scientists claim to have found the best way to slash the risk of developing diabetes — to drink at least four cups of tea a day.<br /><br /></p>.<p>A study examining tea-drinking habits of more than 12,000 Type 2 diabetes sufferers in across Europe found that drinking four cups tea a day had a 20 per cent lower risk of developing the illness. The study found that benefits seemed to be most obvious among heavy tea drinkers — drinking a mere one to three cups a day doesn’t lower the risk.<br /><br />However, drinking excessive tea prepared with milk and sugar could be quite harmful to health, according to experts.<br /><br />“Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes, but dietary factors may also play a role. One dietary factor of interest is tea consumption,” said study author Christian Herder of the Leibniz Center for Diabetes Research at Heinrich Heine University in Germany.<br /><br />“Tea consumption may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes by influencing glucose digestion, glucose uptake, and by protecting beta-cells from free-radical damage. This beneficial effect may be due to the polyphenols present in tea,” Herder was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.<br /><br />According to Herder, drinking at least four cups of tea per day was linked to a 20 per cent lower risk, while drinking one to three cups per day did not lower the risk of diabetes compared with non-tea drinkers.<br /><br />But it was unclear if tea is associated inversely over the entire range of intake, he said.<br /><br />“Therefore, we investigated the association between tea consumption and incidence of type 2 diabetes in a European population,” he said.<br /><br />“It was done in 26 centres in eight European countries, and consisted of 12,403 incident type 2 diabetes cases plus thousands of others without the disease. Tea drinking ranged from an average of none a day in Spain to four a day in UK.”<br /><br />Herder added: “Increasing our understanding of modifiable lifestyle factors associated with the development of type 2 diabetes is important, as the prevalence of diabetes is increasing rapidly.<br /><br />“In line with this, no association was observed when tea consumption was studied as continuous variable. This may indicate that the protective effect of tea is restricted to people with a high tea consumption.” <br /><br /></p>