It is well known that drinking tea is beneficial to health, this is largely down to the antioxidant properties of the polyphenols, minerals and vitamins that they contain.

Green tea and black tea differ in manufacturing process and this results in them having different polyphenols. Black tea is fermented and tends to have flavonols, theaflavins and catechins as its principle antioxidants, whilst Green tea contains a large amount of unoxidised catechins such as EGCG.

It is thought that the drinking of tea may be beneficial in the fight against adult onset diabetes (type II diabetes). This kind of diabetes is largely a result of bad diet and results when glucose and lipid metabolism becomes non responsive to insulin and there is a lowering in the production of insulin by b-cells in the pancreas.

Can Tea Help to Reduce the Risk and Control the Onset of Type II Diabetes?

It is thought that the tea catechin EGCG, which is a large component of green tea, is able to have anti-diabetic and anti-obesity aspects. In addition to this extracts from black tea have been shown to suppress the elevation of glucose levels following the intake of food in diabetic mice.

These two findings have led to the need for further research into the link between diabetes and tea.

Many components of tea may help to regulate biological pathways that are resulted in energy balance, metabolism of lipids and carbohydrates, and even in that of food intake.

Given that much research has strongly suggested that green tea is able to help in the control of obesity it is very likely that tea consumption may help to lower the risks of developing type II diabetes.

References

Kao et al (2006). Tea, obesity, and diabetes. Molecular Nutrition and Food Research 50: 188 to 210.
Khan and Mukhtar (2007) Tea polyphenols for health promotion. Life Sciences 81: 519 to 533.
Shoji and Nakashima (2006). Glucose-lowering effect of powder formulation of African black tea extract in KK-A(y)/TaJcl diabetic mouse. Archives of Pharmacal Research 29: 786 to 794.
Yang et al (2001). Green, Oolong and black tea extracts modulate lipid metabolism in hyperlipidemia rats fed high-sucrose diet. Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry 12: 14.