You may have seen a couple of NZ articles recently that talk about conflicting health advice around food, beverages and supplements.
Who can we trust?
Jeremy Laurance compiles an A-Z of conflicting health advice. Under T is for Tea he writes:
“Good: Black tea reduces heart disease. It also reduces stress, boosts mental alertness and may boost the immune system and help prevent diabetes.
Bad: adding milk counteracts its effects, sugar makes it worse”
I remember that there was an article reported in the press here a while ago about the addition of milk to tea after a small study was carried out in Germany. My view is that this is misguided.
Amongst very positive news for tea and coffee drinkers during 2009 there was a recent review in the Journal of Nutrition and Food Science which sought to clarify and update some of the overall conclusions of health studies on black tea consumption, particularly in relation to the bioavailability of flavonoids (antioxidants) in black tea.
There were a couple of very interesting conclusions: “..the debate over the addition of milk to tea and the subsequent effect on the bioavailability of flavonoids finally seems to have been laid to rest. Many studies have found tea with milk has similar antioxidant potential to tea without milk.”
This is great news! One of the other key conclusions was around the optimal amount of tea to drink to get the most health benefits which was concluded to be 1-8 cups a day (or 5-6 mugs). This was thought to provide sufficient bioactive constituents to increase the likelihood of cardiovascular and potentially cancer and cognitive health benefits without exceeding a daily caffeine intake of 400mg per day and adversely affect hydration, sleep quality and blood pressure.
I drink up to 8 cups a day so no need to change there then!
Also as we’re on the subject and to support what I said earlier,
Researchers from the Netherlands have reported that drinking tea and/or coffee can reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes. 2 separate studies collected data from 40,000 men and women over 10 years and concluded that drinking more than 5 cups of tea per day reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by 32% independent of factors such as age, smoking, family history etc, moreover the studies also concluded that drinking at least 3 cups of tea and/or coffee reduced the risk of type-2 diabetes by approximately 42%. Given the large study population, design and comprehensive data collection about diet and lifestyle this study adds considerable weight to already published studies that have linked tea consumption to reduced risk of chronic health conditions.
I firmly believe that drinking tea as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle is good for you…trust me!
