Update: At breakfast, 5 units insulin & 6 oz. Green Tea. No insulin with lunch. B.S. was 166 two hrs after lunch. Pretty good, since lunch included toast. I normally can't have any bread (or any processed carb) without insulin.
So it's been a week or so on the Green Tea regime, Tony. What's your estimate on the Before/After daily dose of insulin? If I were in your position, I'd be pretty damned happy. And I'm curious...do you monitor your blood sugar with a finger prick or do you use the "Freestyle" sensors with the smartphone app?
Finger prick. I'd have to say it's an improvement. Usually, when any changes are made, it takes several weeks to see improvement. I stocked up on the tea; I found it on Amazon for $10.00 less per case.
Looks like Amazon has a case of that tea for $17.48 and free Prime shipping. They also have the same brand in tea bags... https://www.amazon.com/s?k=itoen+gr...refix=Itoen,aps,366&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_5
I just noticed this when Beth quoted it. You may want to read the ingredients. "Dark" might be from a higher % of black tea.
Yesterday at breakfast I drank 1/2 cup of Green Tea & I reduced my insulin to 4 Units & ate 1/2 banana & lots of pineapple (both high sugar foods) Interesting reading at 2.5 hours: Normally that type of meal would put me around 350 - 400 without extra insulin.
I wish I could cultivate a taste for hot tea; I just don't like it. I can drink it with enough honey and cream in it to make it unrecognizable, but that kind of defeats the "benefits for blood sugar" thing. (I do like iced tea, though.)
I subscribe to Consumerlab.com and came across an article stating that "Green tea can affect the absorption of certain statin medications, depending on the dose of green tea, the type of statin medication, and individual differences." There are so many caveats to the observations that I hesitate to mention it, except that you should be aware of potential issues (green tea might trigger the classic muscle pain if you're taking a statin.) I've moved the timing of my daily cup from after dinner (when I take my daily statin) to mid-day. I only drink one cup a day. Regarding @Don Alaska asking about matcha: the article mentioned that it may interfere with blood thinners because the brewed product contains high amounts of Vitamin K (20mcg.) Apparently, other green tea leaves contain Vit K, but it's nearly completely lost during the brewing process. For the products they tested, there was no real difference in the amount of polyphenols in matcha versus other green teas. I cannot link to the article because it's behind a paywall, and the ConsumerLab website prevents you from copying blocks of text to paste elsewhere. But I grabbed this screenshot because it pertains to the topic of this thread: But there's always that "individual physiology" thing. And the effect on diabetics versus the non-diabetic population may be different. It may be like some blood pressure meds you take for other benefits, but they do not affect a normal blood pressure.