6 healthy reasons to have more tea in your life

Fire up the kettle. It turns out all types pack a healthy dose of important nutrients and compounds. These are just six reasons why you should drink more tea.

• Tea outranks even the best vegetables in terms of antioxidant wallop. Remember that antioxidants protect against everything from cancer to stroke to heart disease.
• Studies show that tea can boost insulin activity more than 15-fold.  Almost all of that power comes from the naturally occurring antioxidant compound EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) in tea.
• Research has found that all types of tea — green, black and oolong — have the ability to enhance insulin activity, which means lower blood sugar. All thanks to antioxidants.

• Drinking tea could benefit people already being treated for diabetes.
• In a Taiwanese study of 20 people with type 2 diabetes, drinking a lot of oolong tea — about six 250-millilitre (one-cup) glasses a day was linked with a 29 percent drop in blood sugar.
• Most of us won't want to drink that much, but even a serving or two should benefit you.
• Some research suggests that tea may even speed up the body's metabolism and help control weight. By itself, it could help lower your risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

• One study found that green tea can increase the number of calories you burn in a day.
• A study found that people who drank tea at least once a week for more than 10 years had almost 20 per cent lower body fat than people who seldom drank tea.
• This is even after taking into account other lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise.

• Want to make tea even better for your blood sugar? Brew a cup of chai, which combines tea with spices such as cinnamon.
• Watch out for the chai lattes you get at coffee shops. They're usually made with premixed liquids that include milk and are generously sweetened.
• Ask for a chai tea bag instead, and don't add anything except a small amount of sugar (if you must).

• If you're used to sweetening your tea, try black teas — not herbal teas — that taste better plain, such as ginger-peach or black mint tea.
• A cup of tea has about half the caffeine of a cup of coffee.
• Skip the milk. Adding milk may decrease this insulin-activating power by as much as 90 percent.

While drinking a cup of hot tea is the obvious way to consume this food, tea is actually a more versatile plant than you might imagine.

• Grind oolong tea leaves in a pepper mill and blend them with freshly ground white pepper to sprinkle on chicken or pork.
• Tea also works wonders in a marinade; just add ground leaves to the mixture.
• Add tea leaves to chicken broth or stock for a dish with an Asian nuance.

Tea is packed with all sorts of great nutrients that can help control blood sugar, increase your calorie burn and make diabetes a little easier. And since it comes in almost infinite flavours, you can stay healthy without your taste buds ever complaining.