Tea may have fallen out of favor with coffee-obsessed millennials, but scientists believe it can help you live longer.
A study of 500,000 persons in the United Kingdom found that those who drink two or more cups of coffee per day had a 13 percent lower risk of dying from any cause.
If you have a sweet craving, there is good news: the preventive impact persisted regardless of whether participants consumed sugar, despite its association with poor health.
According to experts, the findings are among the most complete to date because they were conducted on tea-loving Britons, as opposed to past studies conducted in Asia.
The antioxidant content of black tea is associated with enhanced heart, gastrointestinal, and brain health, as well as lower levels of “bad” cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar.
Brits use 100 million cups of tea each day, but demand, particularly among young people, has decreased in recent years.
According to retail experts Kantar, coffee sales more than doubled those of tea in 2021, reaching almost £1.5 billion, an increase of 10 percent.
The latest study conducted by the US National Institutes of Health utilized information from over 500,000 UK Biobank participants.
Eighty-five percent of men and women aged 40 to 69 reported drinking tea regularly.
About nine out of ten of them reported that they primarily sipped black tea.
The research was based on questionnaires administered between 2006 and 2010 and then tracked for a decade.
Compared to nondrinkers, those who drank two or more beers each day had a 9 to 13 percent decreased risk of dying during the study period.
The lowered risk persisted regardless of a person’s genetic makeup or preference for milky or unsweetened tea.
In addition, it did not matter whether they like their tea piping hot or chilled.
The findings, which were published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, imply that tea consumption can be a part of a healthy diet, according to the researchers.
The observational study cannot establish that tea, and not other lifestyle factors, was responsible for the lower mortality risk.
Professor Fernando Artalejo, a public health expert who was not engaged in the study, characterized the findings as a “significant development in the field.
He stated that the majority of research had been conducted in Asia, where green tea is more popular, and that those conducted in the West had “small sample sizes and unclear outcomes.”
Professor Artalejo from the Autonomous University of Madrid stated, “This article demonstrates that regular consumption of black tea is associated with a modest reduction in total and especially cardiovascular disease mortality over 10 years in a middle-aged, predominantly white adult general population.”
‘Studies should be conducted with repeated measurements of tea consumption over time and compare the mortality of those who do not consume tea consistently with those who have begun drinking tea or increased their consumption over time, and those who have been drinking tea for years,’ he said.
Tea is a rich source of healthful plant components known as polyphenols, which limit the harmful effects of cell-damaging substances within the body.
These protective acts have been associated with a decreased risk of numerous chronic diseases, such as heart disease and dementia.
They may also contribute to enhanced brain function, bone density, and mental health, and minimize the risk of brain aging.
Regular use of black tea may cut the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke by 10 to 20%, according to a study to be published in 2020 by Australian researchers.
These polyphenols treat or prevent heart disease in part by enhancing the health of the arteries, enlarging major arteries, and lowering the risk of blood clots.
It is believed that the caffeine in tea stimulates the release of digestive hormones that maintain gut health.
