I recently learned of the specific health benefits of drinking black tea and decided to add it to my regular diet. However, I don't enjoy drinking it.

Here’s how I get the benefit of five “cups” of black tea daily. It’s a matter of process over preference.

​But why bother?

The micronutrients in both black tea and green tea are associated with a range of health benefits, particularly related to cardiovascular health. Studies have shown that drinking black tea on a regular basis helps to reduce the chances of onset of cardiovascular disorders.

​Both teas have anti-cancer properties and are good for diabetic patients (since polyphenols present in tea inhibit obesity by suppressing the digestion and absorption of fat and complex carbohydrates).

They also both reduce the risk of dementia. The research supporting tea’s dementia-fighting benefits isn’t as extensive as research on coffee. But so far, it seems that tea may offer similar benefits to coffee.

The disease of diabetes has dire consequences for the health of our vascular system - our arteries, veins and capillaries. These vital pipelines become clogged up with excess sugar in our blood. This clogging results in nerves, cells and organs dying, e.g. hairs falling out, nerve pain as they die, blindness, kidney failure.

Every cell in our body relies on efficient blood flow, including our muscles. If we can increase the number of capillaries in our muscles, we can improve the blood flow and offset some of the adverse effects of diabetes.

Skipping meals has become more common - and more faddish. Breakfast is often a casualty of our modern lifestyle, and rising interest in the health benefits of fasting have pushed out other meals, such as dinner.

The most common set meal to be lost is breakfast. But is that always the best choice? The consequences of missing breakfast versus missing dinner are different. If you knew the different health consequences, would you make a different choice?

What choice would you make it you are diabetic like me, or potentially diabetic? Here's what I learnt from the research. 

In the Western world, citrus peels are mostly just byproducts of juicing and treated as waste. That's a pity, as they contain many phenolic compounds which are proven to be beneficial to our Western lifestyle and diet-induced diseases.

By consuming the whole citrus fruit, we gain far more health benefits than by just eating the flesh. There are more health benefits from compounds in the skin and membranes than from just those in the flesh.

The compounds in the non-flesh parts of oranges are so powerful that in some parts of the world they are used as traditional medicine to cure fungal and bacterial infections, human colon and breast cancer by alternative therapists.

Pistachio nuts are often regarded simply as a salty snack - calorie-heavy and salted to tempt you to drink more. That's unfortunate, as there is a lot more to pistachios than just being a great beer snack.

They are one of healthiest nuts that you can eat, along with almonds and walnuts and Brazil nuts. And they can help you better manage your weight.