Type 2 diabetes rates lower in countries that drink black tea: study
After conducting a mathematical analysis of data from 50 countries, a team of international researchers say they have found a link between the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and the consumption of black tea.
While their study shows lower incidents of type 2 diabetes in countries where consumption of black tea is high such as Ireland, the UK and Turkey, scientists stop short of saying that drinking black tea can reduce the risk of developing the disease, noting that their findings come with a slew of caveats.
For instance, the quality and consistency of record keeping among the 50 countries analyzed may vary, while results at the population level may not be true at the individual level, researchers from Switzerland, France and England point out.
The study was published last week in the British Journal of Medicine.
Data used included 2009 sales figures collected by an independent specialist market research company, as well as World Health Organization numbers on the prevalence of respiratory, infectious and cardiovascular diseases like cancer and diabetes.
According to their analysis, meanwhile, Ireland has the highest rate of black tea consumption at more than 2 kg a year per person, followed by the UK and Turkey.
Conversely, South Korea, Brazil, China, Morocco and Mexico drank the least.
In the end, however, their number crunching does show a linear association between low rates of diabetes and black tea consumption, and supports previous research that looked at the positive link between the two.
In a 2009 study published in the Journal of Food Science, for example, researchers found that polysaccharides, a type of carbohydrate that helps delay the absorption of glucose, was the most effective in black tea.