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In today's fast-moving world, it's not easy to stick to a healthy diet. And that's as true for doctors as it is for the rest of us. GP Camilla Stokholm admits that, while she

knows a great deal about health and nutrition, she made some very poor choices after she first qualified as a doctor. She told The Times that she decided she was too busy to cook meals form

scratch and plumped for "fancy ready-made meals" more often than not. The constant diet of ultra-processed foods wracked havoc with Camilla's gut microbiome. "Within a

couple of months, I'd jumped two dress sizes," she explained. Plunging into the "terrible" world of diet culture only made matters worse. She suffered a flurry of

hormonal skin breakouts as well as IBS, fatigue, brain fog, insomnia and depression. So Camilla developed her own independent system of nutrition, learning again to manage her cholesterol,

blood pressure, blood sugar, and general physical and mental health. And she found one important key was knowing the right thing to drink between meals. Camilla no longer snacks between

meals, drinks sugary cola-type drinks or even chews gum as it will encourage your body to secrete insulin. "Your pancreas will release more insulin each time you are exposed to flavour,

turning that fat-storing switch to on mode all day," Camilla explained. To make matters worse, if you trigger that metabolic response without consuming any actual food – for example by

chewing bubblegum – insulin will flood your bloodstream without having anywhere to go, with very bad consequences. "If you spike your insulin but you don't have any calories

coming in, that can then cause a paradoxical blood sugar dip," she added. So to combat these issues, the doctor said sticking to "anything bitter", like black coffee or green

tea during meal times (as well as the usual water), is best as they don't spike insulin. GREEN TEA While there is a lack of long-term evidence in human clinical trials, various studies

have suggested green tea has a beneficial impact on blood pressure. A 2020 review found that green tea may help reduce blood sugar while fasting in the short term but does not seem to have

an effect on blood sugar or insulin in the long term. Meanwhile, a 2021 study on Chinese adults also suggested a 10% lower chance of death from type 2 diabetes for those who drink it daily.

Bethan Crouse, a performance nutritionist from Loughborough University, told the Guardian that caffeinated drinks such as tea and coffee will tend to oxidise, or "burn" body fat.

"Caffeine – which is found in green tea – in relatively high doses has, in some circumstances, been shown to increase fat oxidation," she explained. While detailed data on green

tea consumption is still relatively scarce, because it's a comparatively new phenomenon in the UK, it's known to be rich in antioxidants, particularly catechins, which are thought

to reduce inflammation, lower cholesterol, and boost the immune system. It's believed to offer numerous other health benefits, including promoting heart health, supporting cognitive

function, and promoting weight loss. BLACK COFFEE Nutritionist Cory Rodriguez says that drinking black coffee is particularly effective on a fatty liver "because it contains chlorogenic

acid, which helps to lower oxidative stress and inflammation on the liver". Professor Sarah Berry offers a word of caution, suggesting that while coffee does have health benefits,

it's best not to consume it too late in the day. "People do become tolerant to coffee over time, but caffeine can still disrupt your sleep if you drink it in the evening," she

advised in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. "As a rule of thumb, I'd suggest that everyone stops drinking caffeinated coffee at 5pm and either switches to decaf coffee or

something else that's caffeine free." She added: "Apart from the caffeine, the chemical make-up of decaffeinated coffee is very similar to caffeinated coffee and it is still

packed with those beneficial polyphenols." Some even suggest coffee could potentially increase your lifespan, following a study that found participants who drank between two to four

cups of coffee per day over a number of years and had a lower risk of dying. BLACK TEA A 2022 paper from the scientific journal Annals of Internal Medicine says that drinking at least two

cups of black tea daily lowers the risk of death from any cause by almost 13% compared to people who do not drink tea. It's known to be particularly high in healthy antioxidants,

including flavonoids like theaflavins and thearubigins Unlike herbal teas, black tea contains caffeine - between 50 and 90 milligrams per cup. Overdoing it on the caffeine can leave you

anxious, restless and disturb sleep. Tea and coffee drinkers are advised to keep their overall daily caffeine intake – including caffeine present in any medications – to under 400

milligrams.