Green tea’s main antioxidant, EGCG, could make you up to 4 times less likely to develop Type 1 diabetes, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia who actually made the discovery by accident.

From fighting cancer to strengthening your teeth, there are several benefits to drinking green tea. To find out more, Click Here: Green Tea Health Benefits

When we eat, carbohydrates are turned into glucose or sugar and used by the body for energy. The pancreas produces a hormone known as insulin that manages the body’s blood sugar and moves it throughout the cells – but in Type 1 diabetes, also called insulin dependent diabetes, the immune system attacks and destroys the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, for reasons that cannot be explained.

The pancreas stops producing insulin, so that glucose remains in the blood stream instead of being transported to the cells. This can have serious consequences for the body’s organs, so people with type 1 diabetes need to inject insulin to regulate glucose and check their blood sugar levels several times daily in order to function properly and stay alive. Type 1 diabetes, more rare than Type 2, usually first appears in children and teenagers.

Now, it seems that drinking green tea could help prevent Type 1 Diabetes, or at least delay it.

'Learning that EGCG can prevent and delay insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes was a big surprise,' says researcher Dr. Stephen Hsu.

If not kept under control, Type 1 diabetes can lead to organ damage, possibly resulting in blindness, arm and leg amputations, heart disease and kidney failure – so finding a way to prevent or delay Type 1 diabetes could have serious health benefits.

'The benefit of using green tea in preventing or slowing these autoimmune diseases is that it’s natural and not known to harm the body,' says Dr. Gillespie, periodontics chief resident at Fort Gordon’s Tingay Dental Clinic. 'EGCG doesn’t have the negative side-effects that can be associated with steroids or other medications that could otherwise be prescribed.'

To find out more about Type 1 diabetes, the causes of Type 1 diabetes and what it’s like living with Type 1 diabetes, Click Here: Living With Type 1 Diabetes