According to scientists, drinking tea at least three times a week can be linked to a long and healthy life. New research has shown that consumption of “habitual” hot drinks is associated with a lower risk of heart disease. But the beneficial conclusion may not apply equally to black and green teas.
Research from a team in China looked at data from 100,902 participants, with no previous history of heart attack, stroke or cancer.
Participants were classified into two groups — permanent tea drinks, meaning those who drink tea three or more times a week, and never or non-habitual drinkers, meaning those who drink from three times a week Drink less, and chase for 4.3 years.
They found that a 50-year-old habitual tea drinker would develop coronary heart disease or stroke, on average, 1.61 years later and live for more than 1.24 years who never, or rarely, drank tea.
Compared with never or non-habitual tea drinkers, habitual tea consumers had a 20 per cent lower risk of incident heart disease and stroke, and a 22 per cent lower risk of fatal heart disease and stroke.
This study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, shows that the risk of all-cause death was also reduced by 15 per cent.
But Dr Xi’an Wang, the first author of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing, said: “The favourable health effects are most potent for green tea and long-term habitual tea drinkers.
However, no significant association was observed for black tea.
Researchers have suggested several reasons for this, including that green tea, is a rich source of polyphenols, which protects against heart disease.
But all hope is not lost for drinking black tea, as researchers say that the preference for green tea in East Asia (४ ९ 8 per cent of participants drank green tea compared to drinking black) means that there is less Were for the study of drinking black tea.
Dr Wang said that this small proportion could make it difficult to follow strong associations. The team said that two cups per week as a cut-off point was much lower than the average consumption of three to four cups per day in the UK.
“It is not clear from the study whether there is any benefit from high tea intake — and therefore, there is no potential benefit from increasing tea intake by the majority of the British public.
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