How Not to Age: The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older

by Michael Greger

You can also drink your spices. Have some ginger tea with two slices of refined flour white bread, and you drop the bread’s glycemic index by nearly 30 percent. Cinnamon tea works even better, with nearly a 40 percent drop in glycemic response. Even regular unsweetened green tea cuts the glycemic impact by about 20 percent.810 Of course, not eating white bread in the first place would work even better. What about drinking herbs? Chamomile is one of the most widely used medicinal plants in the world—and for good reason.811 When type 2 diabetics drank a small cup of chamomile tea after their meals for a few months, they got significant improvement in long-term blood sugar control compared to drinking the same volume of warm water812 or when pitted head-to-head against black tea.813 And the side effects? All good—lower LDL cholesterol and triglycerides,814 a decrease in inflammation,815 and improved sleep, mood,816 and antioxidant status.817 Chamomile tea and green tea appear to share the same mechanisms for blood sugar control: blocking the transport of sugars through the intestinal wall.818