Yerba Mate, good for glucose control?

(re-posted from my d-blog here)

I like to brew anything. A few years ago I was enticed by the exotic nature of Yerba Mate, and I bought a pound of it. After tasting it, about twice, I left it alone. It wasn't black tea or coffee, that's for sure.

Yesterday I noticed it in the cabinet at work and for some reason decided to brew some up in the French press. The package states that one serving size is 14 teaspoons. I thought it seemed like a lot, so I dumped about 6 into the carafe for my single mug. I drank it and did feel sufficiently stimulated throughout the day. However, I was also feeling great because I had super stable blood sugar for the rest of the night. No big deal, sometimes you have better days...

Well, today I had Yerba Mate again, and again my blood sugar has been great and maybe just a tad lower than usual. I thought maybe it was a known thing so I looked it up online and found that it does seem to stabilize blood glucose levels as well as positively impact lipid profiles. Hmmm.

I'm going to keep having a mug of it in the middle of the day and see where it goes. If you try it, keep in mind that I'm steeping a lot of the bulk tea, and you might have to use more than a tea bag to get the same effect.


I'm a tea drinker, hot or iced. Never heard of that before. Thanks for the heads up I'll have to look for some on my next shopping spree.

It's Argentine. So you'll have to look for it in an international market or store where South American products are imported.

I found it on Amazon for a pretty good price. I used to be able to buy 500 grams for pretty cheap locally, but not anymore. A kilogram runs about $15 with shipping. Once I knew I liked it and that it seemed beneficial, I was okay with buying that much. I like the smoky flavor of Rosamonte brand. I sweeten it a bit with stevia. I like it iced too.