I found myself watching Saturday morning television in amazement last Saturday as they proceeded to talk about how it was National Diabetes Week and then began to talk about how following a diet high in antioxidants was good for this and your health in general, with specific reference to a variety of teas. They then carried on by saying a nice cup of tea with milk and sugar is good to increase your intake of antioxidants!

Yes, of course tea is good for you in theory as it does contain different types of antioxidants, depending on what type it is, but it also contains caffeine, when in excess may actually lead to imbalances in your blood sugar affecting conditions like diabetes, but the most worrying thing is to tell the public to have the tea with milk and sugar, as this is rather conflicting advice here and the diabetics out there that may know sugar is a no no may think twice, but the ones who are not so sure, or yet to be diagnosed, or the ones who may be in the developing stages of this are the most vulnerable. Many of us know though in the case of a diabetic and also in the case of many other people who have any kind of hormonal or inflammatory condition, sugar is not going to be helpful, but a lot do not!

Don’t get me wrong I am not against tea as such as a whole, I am just concerned about the amount of caffeine certain people are ingesting and some of the things these people add to their tea, such as sugar and milk (don’t even get me started on sweeteners). This is more so for anyone who the caffeine, sugar or milk is going to have a negative impact on, but excessive caffeine and sugar is not healthy for anyone in fact.

In relation to diabetics, milk may also have an impact on insulin levels due to the lactose (a type of sugar it contains), and milk is also inflammatory, so it is not so good for people with certain health conditions again and this even extends to IBS sufferers too… I could go on, but I am digressing .

Coming back to my original point here, sometimes that ritualistic and strangely soothing cup of tea with milk and sugar is going to win regardless of the situation, as it seems to be so ingrained in the British psyche no matter how it may affect some individuals health, but it sure as hell doesn’t help when people on television indulge this fantasy even more!

Any diabetics or people with a family history of diabetes if you fancy a nice cup of tea…try it with stevia or better still without any sweeteners at all and best of all would be black or the even better green tea!