Green tea supplements balance blood sugar

Taking your green tea supplements, or drinking green tea with your morning toast, may help to reduce blood sugar spikes. The antioxidant found in green tea, epigallocatechin-3-gallate or EGCG, was found to reduce blood sugar levels when starch was eaten concurrently. EGCG had no effect if sugars like glucose or maltose were consumed. This may be because the enzyme alpha-amylase produced in both the mouth and pancreas, which breaks down starch into maltose and glucose, has been found to be inhibited by ECGC by up to 34% in the pancreas. The dose sufficient to have this effect is just 1 ½ cups of green tea!

Forester SC, Gu Y, Lambert JD. Inhibition of starch digestion by the green tea polyphenol, (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research 2012;56(11):1647 DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.201200206

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