According to the CNN website reported on August 31, brewing a cup of hot tea with a beloved cup seems to heal the soul. And a new study finds that it may be good for your body too.
According to the report, the study, published on August 29 in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, said that drinking at least two cups of black tea a day may reduce the risk of death from all causes.
The study looked at nearly half a million men and women aged 40 to 69 who participated between 2006 and 2010 in the UK Biomedical Database, which is rich in genetic and health information. The study said the database included information about the participants' self-reported tea drinking habits, such as how often they drank tea and whether other ingredients were added.
Some of the participants didn't drink black tea at all, but many also drank it regularly, with some drinking as many as 10 cups a day, said the study's lead author, Shinki Inoue, an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute.
The UK Biomedical Database followed up about 10 years after the initial survey was completed. The researchers found that people who drank two or more cups of black tea a day during this period were less likely to die from causes such as cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease and stroke.
Howard Seto, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said this is an exciting finding for studying tea drinking habits, but he believes more research is needed before people can be advised to adjust their eating habits accordingly.
"The authors attempted to control for other dietary factors, but tea drinkers generally differed from non-tea drinkers in other ways, which may undermine the study's conclusions," Seto said in an email.
For many tea drinkers, the process of brewing tea is critical. What temperature does the water need to reach? Would you add milk and sugar? How much?
If you don't like drinking pure tea drinks, don't worry. According to the study, adding milk or sugar did not significantly reduce the health benefits of drinking tea.
However, Inoue said that health experts strongly recommend limiting sugar intake, as well as the saturated fat in milk.
So should you switch to black tea from now on? While it's hard to tell from the current research, Inoue says there are some good reasons why black tea may be beneficial.
"There are multiple possible mechanisms at play," she said. "Tea is rich in bioactive compounds ... which have the potential to reduce oxidative stress and inflammation. This can prevent problems like cancer and heart disease."
There has been a lot of research on the health benefits of green tea, but few previous studies have investigated the effects of drinking black tea. "This study doesn't prove that drinking tea reduces mortality, but it does suggest that if you're currently drinking tea -- especially black tea -- you might as well keep doing it," Seto said.
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