Last Updated on June 6, 2021 by Dr Sharon Baisil MD
Diabetes is one such body ailment that affects not only your physical health but also your lifestyle choices. With the diagnosis of diabetes, it is important to make better and healthier choices that suit your health and rising sugar issues.
Blood sugar issues need to be controlled and kept under safe margins at all times. It is linked to all functions and systems of the body and affects the individual’s overall well-being.
Today, we will discuss one of the most recurring questions in the minds of diabetics. A lot of the confusion related to food choices revolve around sugar and sweet beverages.
Are you wondering …?
- Does adding sugar to tea increase the chance of diabetes?
- What can be the effects of it on diabetic health?
- How to make diabetic-safe tea?
- What are some recommended teas for diabetics?
Let us look at these questions one by one and learn to make a difference in the regular lifestyles to help ourselves. Let us get straight into today’s discussion and reveal the secrets to a healthy diabetic life.
Here we go!
How does adding sugar to tea increase the chance of diabetes?
As a diabetic patient, it must not be a new thing for you to stay under sugar regulation. Sugar, in any way, especially in its direct form, is the worst for diabetic patients.
Similarly, adding sugar to tea is also going to make it harmful to your health. It will lead to increased blood sugar levels for Type 2 diabetes and other related risks.
Sugary drinks and beverages are a must-prevention item for anyone with diabetes. It is strictly advised to avoid adding sugar to drinks or consume artificially sweetened beverages.
Tea, as a beverage, must be added to your diabetic diets only when it is brewed without other additives, especially sugar.
Adding sugar to the tea can add not only direct carbohydrates but also calories. It is a very risky issue for diabetic patients as they have to regulate the total amount of carbs and calories consumed in a day.
Besides sugar alone, sugar mixed with caffeine can also have several harmful effects on the body. It can result in insulin insensitivity.
Any sugary drink or beverage, be it sodas, fruit juices, sweetened tea, or sugary coffee, can lead to health vulnerabilities.
Various teas are good for diabetics too. They may even have correcting qualities and numerous benefits to the diabetic body. We will have a look at what these are in detail as we move forward.
But before that, let us see what the effects of adding sugar to tea are.
What are the effects of adding sugar to tea?
As many critics and doctors would say – Adding sugar to your tea is like making it a sweet poison. Well, it is not wrong. This action does make the beverage tastier but at the cost of your health.
For diabetics, this can have an even greater effect as it adds on direct carbohydrates. It can create several new issues and fuel the worsening of the existing blood sugar levels of the body.
Here is a list of some harms that adding sugar to your tea can lead to:
- It can lead to an increase in weight – sugar is a direct carbohydrate that also increases calories in the body. These are the main reasons for weight gain.
An increase in weight can worsen the maintenance of health if not controlled. The occurrence of diabetes is also common in individuals with more than normal or obese weight margins.
- Too much sugar can reduce hydration – tea is a hydrating drink. Drinking regular tea without sugar can help increase moisture in the body and thus aid many other functions. It is also helpful in digestion and absorption, especially of sugars. Hence, it is advised to diabetes always to stay hydrated.
On the other hand, adding sugar to the tea can make it less hydrating and have the exact opposite effects. It can create dryness and add to the number of sugars in the body, making it harder for the metabolism to digest it.
- Can increase Insulin resistance in the body – In diabetic individuals, the production of insulin is improper. It is affected by the intake and accumulation of sugar as well. Adding more sugar can heighten this issue and create further resistance in the body.
When this sugar is mixed with caffeine, it can affect the production and release of insulin.
- Results in quick rises and spikes in blood sugar levels – as a direct carbohydrate source, adding sugar can lead to easy risks of blood sugar heightening and fluctuations.
When mixed with fluid or beverage, like tea, it is even easier for the body to develop higher glucose levels in the body.
Even one cup of tea with added sugar can tax the body heavily.
It is not advised to have sugar tea or other beverages for the above reasons and many others.
Moreover, adding milk to the tea and sugar can make it higher in calories, carbs, and calories.
So what is the right way to have tea as a diabetic patient? Well, let us find out.
How to make the diabetes friendly tea at home?
Well, this is not a very difficult process. Making tea is very easy in itself. Making tea as a diabetic patient or for a diabetic patient is even simpler.
All you have to do is minimize the extra ingredients.
- DO NOT add sugar. By now, you would have understood what the effect adding sugar to your tea can have. It is thus clear that you are not to add sugar to your tea, especially if you are a diabetic. You can use a natural sweetener like stevia or monk fruit, which wont raise your glucose levels.
- Skip the Milk. Tea lovers and perfectionists say that a perfect cup of tea is just good leaves brewed correctly in the water. Adding milk to tea is not helpful as it adds to the calories of this beverage. A cup of tea without milk is almost all medicinal; adding milk can change this.
- To make the perfect cup of tea, it is best to follow what the pack says, specific to the type of tea you use. Otherwise, you can resort to the universal procedure of boiling the water first and then brewing the tea leaves for 2 to 3 minutes in the boiled water.
- Add the extra benefits. You can make your tea even better for the health and suitable for your diabetic body by adding other ingredients like herbs. You can add in some basil, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, lemon, etc. It will not only enhance the flavor but also make it better for the overall body.
- DO NOT add honey, jaggery to your tea, as it has almost the same effect on the blood sugars.
Now you know how to make a good cup of tea, but as a diabetic, what are the recommended teas to use?
What are the best teas for diabetics?
Among the many tea varieties available, some are beneficial for diabetic patients. Here is a list of teas you can add to your beverage selection list:
- Green Tea
- Chamomile Tea
- Hibiscus Tea
- Black Tea
Besides the type of tea, it is very important to follow the correct steps and make a safe and healthy cup of tea. Make sure to keep the steps in mind to gain the right benefits.
Well, what are the various benefits of these teas?
What are the benefits of good diabetic teas?
Here is why you should include the mentioned variety of teas and replace them with your existing tea types:
- Herbal tea has many plant nutrients and compounds that help the body to stay healthy.
- Tea is a detoxifying agent and clears the body internally.
- The mentioned safe teas are great for weight loss and hydration.
- The pant compounds help in reducing cellular damage.
- They are rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents that prevent many ailments and infections.
- They also have diabetes-controlling qualities.
- They encourage healthy and proper insulin secretion.
References
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/mnfr.200500109
- https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/26/6/1714.short
- https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/abs/10.7326/0003-4819-144-8-200604180-00005
- https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/773949
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-nutrition/article/consumption-of-coffee-green-tea-oolong-tea-black-tea-chocolate-snacks-and-the-caffeine-content-in-relation-to-risk-of-diabetes-in-japanese-men-and-women/E262310C3485025A0D099FE04BF1BF73
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874102002179
- https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/88/4/979/4649859?login=true
- https://www.nature.com/articles/0802999
- https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/8/6/170
