Drinking tea at least three times every week could help reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and it is linked with a healthier and longer life, at least in China, according to a new study.
Chinese researchers were able to find the health benefits linked to drinking tea, and they were more pronounced for those who drink green tea instead of black tea, and for those who had been drinking tea regularly over the years. The benefits of drinking tea were also more clear among men, the study shows.
Researchers looked at numerous data from 100,902 Chinese people with no history of any cardiovascular disease, cancer or stroke. The researchers then divided them into three groups, those who drink tea three or more times every week, those who never drank tea and those who drank it less regularly. The researchers followed up with them after seven years.
Their analysis found out that regular tea drinkers had a 20% lower risk of having heart ailments and stroke, and a 22% lower risk of dying from stroke and heart disease. They found that people who drink tea regularly could expect to love 1.26 years longer at age 50 than those who did not drink tea regularly or those who do not drink tea at all.
Tea consumption
Dr. Dongfeng Gu from China's National Center for Cardiovascular Disease, the Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College said that they found that the protective effects of habitual tea consumption were very pronounced and robust across the different outcomes for men, but only modest for women.
Gu stated that the one reason might be that the proportion of habitual tea consumers among men was around two and a half times as high as that among women. Some 48% of the men in the research were regular tea drinkers, compared with 20% of women. Gu stated that Chinese women were more likely to drink herbal tea made from lotus leaves or rosebuds but this information was not included.
In the study's analysis, the researchers controlled for some factors like drinking, smoking, physical activity and diet that could have explained the link between longevity and tea drinking. But, as an observational study, it can't establish cause and effect, only association.
Jodie Relf, a registered dietitian, and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association said that other things that must be considered that are not mentioned in the study are what those who were not drinking tea were drinking, was the tea replaced by caffeinated and sugary drinks and was that what increased their risk of having a stroke or cardiovascular disease?
Black vs. green
The benefits linked with drinking black tea were not significant, Gu stated, but that could be due to having far fewer black tea drinkers who were included in the study. Only 8% of the tea drinkers who participated in the study preferred black tea over green tea.
Gu also stated that green tea is a better source of flavonoids, especially tea polyphenols and these bioactive compounds can be protective against any cardiovascular disease. While from the same plant and have the same amount of caffeine, black tea is processed in a much different way from green tea after picking.
Gu also said that black tea is fully fermented and tea polyphenols may be oxidized into pigments and it can be inactive during fermentation. This makes green tea more effective than black tea when it comes to improving blood lipid profile, anti-oxidation and it is more effective in protecting you from cardiovascular diseases.
