Lowering the Blood Sugar with the Green Tea Extract EGCG

This article discussed the blood sugar-lowering effect of EGCG, a supplement present in green tea.

Previously, I wrote about the importance of controlling the rise of blood sugar one hour after eating.

1. A High One-hour After-Meal Blood Sugar Test can Lead to Several Deadly Conditions.
2. After-meal blood sugar spikes as a cause of vascular failure
3. A surprising reason why people get heart attacks

And the many ways to prevent blood sugar from spiking after a meal.

1. Veggies Meat Carbohydrate Sequence Prevents After Meal Sugar Spike
2. A Tool Box of Strategies to Prevent Blood Sugar Spikes When Eating High Glycemic Index Foods
3. The Blood Sugar Lowering and Metabolic Effects of Vinegar
4. Walk After Meals to Prevent Sky High Blood Sugars
5. Ways to Lower After-Meal Blood Sugar when Eating White Bread
6. A High-Protein Breakfast Can Lower Blood Sugar the Whole Day
7. Eating rather than skipping breakfast results in lower blood sugars the whole day
8. Pistachios improve insulin resistance and inflammatory markers
9. Pistachios decrease after-meal blood sugar
10. After-meal high blood sugar predicts Atherosclerosis better than Fasting blood sugar and HbA1c
11. Blood Glucose Spike and its Prevention

The mentioned strategies to lower blood sugar can easily be done at home. However, what if you are eating out?

This is what the authors of Acute Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate Supplementation Alters Postprandial Lipids after a Fast-Food Meal in Healthy Young Women tried to answer. [1]

Can 800 mg of EGCG before a fast food meal lower the after-meal blood sugar?

Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or EGCG, is a green tea polyphenol with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. A previous study has shown that it can lower body weight, total cholesterol, and LDL in women. [2]

A typical cup of green tea contains 144 to 150 mg of EGCG.[3]

^{The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study included fourteen healthy young women 21 ± 1 years with a normal body mass index.}

The fast-food meal consisted of 80 g of McDonald’s® french fries, 130 g of bacon cooked for 5 min without adding oil, and 60 g of grated Parmesan cheese.

The meal contained 20.57 g of carbohydrate, 47.41 g of protein, and 83.90 g of fat, of which 37.17 g was saturated fat, adding to a total of 1027 kcal.

All participants were instructed to abstain from fresh fruit and vegetables, alcohol, herbal teas, fruit juices, and physical exercise for at least 24 hours before the trials.

The study measured the total cholesterol, HDL, triglycerides, insulin, and blood sugar after the meals. I will focus only on the after-meal blood sugar results for easier reading.

The outcome showed a greater decrease in blood sugar at 90 minutes in the EGCG group. The results below show the placebo group on the left and the study group on the right.

Note the study group’s lower blood sugar (-5.78) compared to almost no change in the placebo group (-0.86) 90 minutes after the meals.

At 120 minutes, there was a lesser decrease in blood sugar (-0.07) in the EGCG group, while the blood sugar increased (2.57) in the placebo group.

Statistically, the difference was only marginally significant. iAUC: the incremental area under the curve.  ^† p = 0.05 to < 0.10 (marginal significance) and * p < 0.05 between treatments.

The difference may be marginal, but the huge difference in the area under the curve or total measure of blood sugar 120 minutes after the meal (-348±122) is impressive.

Their findings align with another study in humans that showed that 1.5 grams of green tea can improve oral glucose tolerance in humans.[4]

To obtain 800 mg of EGCG from tea may require drinking  5 to eight cups of green tea. It will be hard to sleep after that. I will take a supplement instead and bring with me when I go out.

NOW Supplements contain 400 mg of EGCg Green Tea Extract 

So there you have it—another tool we can use to lower after-meal blood sugar and prevent cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes.

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Reference:

1. de Morais Junior AC, Schincaglia RM, Passarelli M, Pimentel GD, Mota JF. Acute Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate Supplementation Alters Postprandial Lipids after a Fast-Food Meal in Healthy Young Women: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Crossover Study. Nutrients. 2020 Aug 21;12(9):2533. doi: 10.3390/nu12092533. PMID: 32825556; PMCID: PMC7551107.
2. Chen I.-J., Liu C.-Y., Chiu J.-P., Hsu C.-H. Therapeutic effect of high-dose green tea extract on weight reduction: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Clin. Nutr. 2015;35:592–599. Doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2015.05.003
3. Bhagwat S., Haytowitz D.B. USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods Release 3.2. Agricultural Research Service; Beltsville, MD, USA: 2015.[3]
4. Tsuneki H, Ishizuka M, Terasawa M, Wu JB, Sasaoka T, Kimura I. Effect of green tea on blood glucose levels and serum proteomic patterns in diabetic (db/db) mice and on glucose metabolism in healthy humans. BMC Pharmacol. 2004 Aug 26;4:18. Doi: 10.1186/1471-2210-4-18. PMID: 15331020; PMCID: PMC517497.

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