The BBC reports that daily consumption of caffeine in coffee, tea or soft drinks increases blood sugar levels for people with type 2 diabetes.
Caffeine pills equivalent to four cups of coffee a day increased blood sugar levels by 8% over the day, US researchers report in Diabetes Care.
A cup of coffee contains between two and three times more caffeine than a cup of tea (although, interestingly, coffee contains less caffeine than tea when measured in its dry form - anyone want to explain that?)
So if you’re a type 2 diabetic, take care.
Type 1 diabetics can presumably continue their caffeine intake with gay abandon.
But hang on!
What’s this, tucked away at the bottom of the article?
Cathy Moulton, care advisor at Diabetes UK, said: “Although this is interesting research, the study only examined a sample of 10 people for a 72-hour period, which proves very little.”
Too bloody right! This isn’t the first time that we’ve had “scientific evidence” touted as fact internationally when the tests have, in fact, been carried out on a pitifully small scale. There was that incident with the Germans, for example.
It’s just not on.
I’m off to do my own scientific study right now. I’ll report back once I’ve spoken to a couple of people.
He’d certainly like you to. The Salvation Army in the West of Scotland is promoting their Army Cup of Tea Strategy. They point out that within a short walk of the average town church in the UK there are likely to be 10,000 people, including:
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1,200 people living alone, of which 580 will be of pensionable age
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1,500 people who talk to their neighbours less then once a week
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50 people who have been divorced within the last year
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375 single parents
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18 pregnant teenagers
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150 recent or contemplated abortions
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250 people who are unemployed
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1,700 people living in low income households
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1,100 people with some kind of mental disorder
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100 bereavements within the last year
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2,700 people living in households without a car
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60 people in a residential care home
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1,280 people caring for a sick, disabled or elderly relative or friend
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2,800 people whohave been victims of crime in the past year
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40 homeless people
- 15 asylum seekers
Quite what all these people are doing hanging around churches, God only knows. Apart from the asylum seekers, obviously. They’re there to nick the lead off the roof.
Anyway, the Salvation Army believes that they should reach out to at least some of these people using a good old cup of tea as the catalyst. And I agree. There’s nothing better than a chat and a cuppa.
Nervous?
Don’t worry. Sally has this covered.
What do I do and say?
Be yourself and be really natural. Think about some things to chat about that you may have in common for example your school-age children or grandchidlren, your work etc. Don’t worry if God or the Army doesn’t come into the conversation - there is plenty of time.What if they want to know about Jesus?
This is great news! Don’t feel you need to go on a theology course just yet! The best way to talk to them is to share your own story, how you got to know about Jesus, what he is to you, also don’t worry about saying ‘I don’t know’ to some of their questions, just let them know you will find out and before you next have an Army Cup of Tea, find out the answer for them.
Ok, so they’re using a good old British cuppa as a means of recruiting people into their fold. Do you know what? I don’t care. They’re making an effort to go out there and talk to people. Ulterior motive or not, reaching out is better than not reaching out.
Maybe if we all started having an Army Cup of Tea with our friends and neighbours, the world might just - just - be a better place.
God bless you all.
A great piece on tea has been posted at http://wrightwilliam2000.wordpress.com/2008/01/07/tea-at-sea-by-ieuan-dolby.
Really interesting and well written piece on tea, its history and why its popular from an ex Merchant Navy officer.
People have been coming to teasite looking for statistics on tea. I love a good statistic. Not much makes me happier. So I thought I’d indulge those of you who have come here via the search engine and furnish you with lovely stats.
Teasite is based in the UK. Or Great Britain. There is a difference. One of them doesn’t include Northern Ireland. Whereas the British Isles includes Eire too. Anyway, I digress.
According to the United Kingdom Tea Council , in the UK, we drink 165 million cups of tea a day. Which is quite a lot, when you think about it. Since there are 60 million of us, that’s 2.5 cups per person. Even those who don’t drink tea. Incidentally, that information is exceptionally hard to find on the UK Tea Council site. But I did it for you.
Now, for worldwide figures we need to go to the Tea Industry Forum. They tell us that the UK accounts for 6% of world tea consumption. Now, let me just get my calculator out.
[pushes virtual buttons]
That means that worldwide, 2,750,000,000 cups of tea are drunk every day. That’s a very big number. It could be over a billion, depending on where you live. But it’s definitely a lot.
Incidentally, Australia, which is essentially still part of the Empire and home to many of the UK’s historical criminal famlies, only represents 0.4% of world tea consumption. Perhaps if they drank a bit less beer and brawled a little less, they’d have time to sit down in a civilised manner with a nice cuppa.
The other place that I might have got statistics from is the International Tea Committee, but since they want in excess of 150 quid a year for what is, presumably, Very Important Information, I’ll have to pass for now.
Until next time, statistic fans. And tea fans.
x
I’ve been drinking a lot of herbal teas since Christmas, as part of my January detox programme. I’m sure others are doing the same.
Is drinking green tea with echinacea or green tea with ginseng going to help detox me? I don’t honestly know. The BBC reports not. But there can’t be anything wrong with ingesting herbs, and we know green tea contains anti-oxidants. Additionally, it means I’m not drinking tea with milk, so I’d imagine the lack of dairy is helping too.
Anyway, my number one tip for drinking green tea is to put a small amount of honey in.
I don’t have sugar in normal tea, but a third of a teaspoon of honey in green tea really makes it much more refreshing. Although honey apparently isn’t any better than sugar, it seems like it to me, and that, after all, is what matters, non?
The BBC reports that putting milk in tea prevents molecules in the tea (called catechins) from helping dilate the blood vessels by producing a chemical called nitric oxide. Milk, it turns out, has caseins in it, and caseins are bad for catechins.
But hang on … what’s this I read? The detailed scientific study that determined this groundbreaking news was carried out on 16 people. And some rat tissue. And, as if this wasn’t bad enough, the 16 people were German.
Now, call me old fashioned.
Thank you.
But is 16 people enough for a scientific study?
Especially 16 Germans?
I think not. Us British, for example, may have naturally evolved so that our caseins don’t affect out catechins. These things happen after centuries. Honest.
So “pah” to you Germans and BBC people. This “information” will now be touted as fact amongst polite society when I could have done a more detailed scientific study on my friends.
Milk in Tea = Good. And that’s what made Britian great.
Well, it’s Christmas Day, and my present to you is to present George Orwell’s 1946 article in the London Evening Standard, A Nice Cup of Tea. Merry Christmas.
A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell
If you look up “tea” in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.
This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.
When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than 11 outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own 11 rules, every one of which I regard as golden:
First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays - it is economical, and one can drink it without milk -but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase “a nice cup of tea” invariably means Indian tea.
Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities -that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.
Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.
Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes - a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.
Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.
Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.
Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.
Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup - that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one’s tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.
Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.
Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.
Lastly, tea - unless one is drinking it in the Russian style - should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.
Some people would answer that they don’t like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.
These are not the only controversial points to arise in connection with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole business has become.
There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tealeaves, such as telling fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet.
It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one’s ration the 20 good, strong cups that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.
Orwell is, of course, wrong about putting the milk in last. The milk should always be put in first …
Last night I went out with my good mate Wilf and his charming missus, EJ. We went to one of my favourite restaurants, Joe Allen, in Covent Garden.
After a lovely meal, we came to coffee time. Wilf doesn’t drink coffee, so he ordered a tea.
I ordered a Tia Maria to go with my coffee. So Wilf ordered a Tia Maria to go with his tea.
The waitress stood and looked at him for a few seconds, just to check that he was serious. She obviously realised that she’d had far more stupid orders in the past, and agreed, slowly shaking her head as she walked away.
Wilf argued that we stick to conventions too much. Why shouldn’t one have a liquer in a cup of tea? I argued that tea comes from the leaf, whereas coffee comes from the fruit and the two are, therefore, completely different and incomparable.
Anyway, eventually, his tea with Tia Maria arrived, and I, being a cheeky sort, poured the Tia Maria into his tea.
And the taste?
It tasted like strong, sweet tea. Wilf said it tasted like coffee.
Anyway, mine was nicer.