Changing your diet is key to controlling and sometimes even reversing type 2 diabetes.
People with type 2 diabetes cannot produce enough insulin, which regulates blood sugar - without it, blood sugar can reach dangerous highs. But researchers have found that drinking mulberry leaf tea can dramatically lower blood sugar levels.
Significant reduction
A study published in the Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences found that mulberry tea is able to balance the jumps that can occur after a meal. For the experiment, 20 patients with type 2 diabetes drank standard tea, and 28 received mulberry leaf tea.
Blood samples were taken after breakfast, and the glucose level was checked 90 minutes after 70 ml of tea with one teaspoon of sugar. The researchers noted that there was a "very large" reduction in blood sugar levels after drinking mulberry tea, saying it was "very significant."
"Mulberry tea suppresses the postprandial rise in blood glucose levels after 90 minutes of consumption."
Regulating your diet and monitoring what can cause sugar spikes is an easy way to keep type 2 diabetes under control. Knowing the importance of weight loss for those with type 2 diabetes, researchers led by the University of Glasgow wanted to conclude the most effective way to do it, by publishing their findings in the journal Diabetologia.
They considered a low-calorie diet, a low-carbohydrate diet, high in protein, vegetarian, Mediterranean, a diet high in healthy fats and low in GI. The only thing the researchers praised was the low-calorie diet consisting of between 500 and 1,500 calories a day.
How to recognize diabetes
Thousands of people probably live with type 2 diabetes without even knowing it. The condition can go undetected because its symptoms are difficult to spot, or easy to dismiss as something else. People can live up to 10 years with type 2 diabetes - the most common type - before they are diagnosed, say charities.
According to the NHS, the symptoms of type 2 diabetes to look out for include:
- you urinate more than usual, especially at night,
- constant feeling of thirst,
- feeling tired
- weight loss without dieting,
- itching around the genitals,
- healing of cuts or wounds takes longer,
- blurred vision.
These are the most common signs reported by those suffering from this condition.