Thee
tegen staar en tegen suikerziekte.*
Iedere dag 4 koppen thee, groene of zwarte, en de kans op diabetes zowel als staar worden duidelijk minder. Belangrijkste ingrediënten hiervoor verantwoordelijk zijn de bioactieve stoffen catechines.
Tea
fights cataracts, boosts insulin activity
New research in animals suggests that tea may be a simple, inexpensive
means of preventing diabetes and its ensuing complications, including cataracts.
Researchers fed green and black tea to diabetic rats for three months and then
monitored the chemical composition of the rats' blood and eye lenses.
At levels that would be equivalent to less than five cups of tea per day for a
human, both teas significantly inhibited cataract formation relative to a
control group which did not get tea, according to Joe Vinson, Ph.D., a chemist
at the University of Scranton (Penn.) and lead author of the paper.
Another study on tea, done by researchers from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, found that the popular beverage may increase insulin activity.
Using black, green and oolong teas, the scientists found that tea increased
insulin activity by about 15-fold in tests using fat cells obtain from rats.
The effect was primarily due to epigallocatechin gallate, an active compound
found in tea, says study leader Richard A. Anderson, Ph.D., of the USDA's
Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md.
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization, chartered by the U.S.
Congress, with a multidisciplinary membership of more than 158,000 chemists and
chemical engineers. It publishes numerous scientific journals and databases,
convenes major research conferences and provides educational, science policy and
career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and
Columbus, Ohio.
Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
American Chemical Society
http://www.acs.org (November
2005)
