Drinking at least 4 cups of tea daily may reduce type 2 diabetes risk
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Drinking four or more cups of tea per day reduced the risk for developing type 2 diabetes by 17%, according to findings from a meta-analysis presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting.
“Previous cohort studies and meta-analyses have explored the relationship between drinking tea and diabetes,” Shaoyong Xu, MD, director of the department of endocrinology at Xiangyang Central Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Hubei University of Arts and Science in Xiangyang, China, said during a presentation. “However, the results were inconsistent, in particular two recent large studies conducted in China made opposite findings. A large amount of cohort studies have been published since 2014. Therefore, we analyzed data from a large cohort in China and updated the meta-analysis to define the relationship between tea consumption and diabetes risk.”
Researchers obtained data from 5,199 adults without diabetes who took part in the China Health and Nutrition Survey in 1997 and followed up in 2009. Participants reported whether they drank tea at baseline, any changes in tea drinking habits from 1997 to 2009, and the frequency they drank tea. Type 2 diabetes was identified using American Diabetes Association criteria.
In the cohort study, 45.76% of participants reported drinking tea and 10.04% had type 2 diabetes. Researchers observed no difference in risk for developing type 2 diabetes between tea drinkers and nondrinkers. The findings were similar in stratification and sensitivity analyses.
Researchers also performed a systematic literature search of studies examining associations between tea consumption and type 2 diabetes in the PubMed, Web of Science and Embase databases from inception until September 2021. A dose-response meta-analysis was performed on 19 cohort studies with 1,076,311 participants.
Compared with those who did not drink tea, adults drinking four or more cups of tea per day had a reduced risk for developing type 2 diabetes (HR = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.76-0.9). No reduced risk was observed for adults drinking less than one cup per day or one to three cups per day. There were also no associations observed in subgroups divided by sex, location or type of tea consumed.
Xu said the reason an association was not observed in the cohort study but was found in the meta-analysis may be that high levels of daily tea consumption were not investigated in the cohort study.
“Particular components in tea may reduce blood glucose,” Xu said of the possible mechanisms. “But a sufficient amount of the bioactive substance is required to be effective. In conclusion, tea is thought to be a component of a good diet, and daily tea consumption seems to have the potential clinically significant effect to reduce the risk of diabetes developing.”
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Li X, et al. SO 281. Presented at: European Association for the Study of Diabetes Annual Meeting; Sept. 19-23, 2022; Stockholm (hybrid meeting).
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