Comparison of the Effect of Green and Sour Tea on Blood Glucose and Lipids Profile in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common endocrine disease its incidence of which in increasing for machine life development in most parts of the world. Dyslipidemia is one of the common disorders in this malady causing development and progression of short and long term complications. One of the usual approaches for controlling and preventing the complications of DM is using herbal products such as green and sour tea. The aim of this study was compare the effect of these teas on glucose and lipid profile in type 2 DM with overweight and obesity.

This randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 100 type 2 diabetic patients in Yazd Diabetes Research Center in 2011. The diabetic patients were randomly divided into green(GG) and sour tea(SG) groups. Two groups used tea for 4 weeks, three times a day, 150 ml two hours after each main meals. Fasting blood glucose (FBG), lipids and lipoproteins were measured at the beginning and the end of the intervention.

Ninety four patients completed the study. The mean of FBG, lipids and demographic variables did not significantly differ between two groups at the beginning and the end of intervention. Only the mean for HDL-C significantly increased at the end of intervention in both groups, so that in SG the mean from 37.1 ± 8.4 at the beginning reached 41.8 ± 8.8 mg/dl at the end of intervention (16.6% increase) and in GG the related figures were 38.7 ± 9.1 and 43 ± 13 mg/dl (14% increase) respectively.

This study revealed that both sour tea and green tea consumption caused significantly increase of HDL-C in both groups. Regarding this effect and another useful reported effects by similar studies, consumption of these can be recommended for dyslipidemic patients especially in patients with diabetes.