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Drinking tea at least three times a week is linked with a longer and healthier life, according to a study published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
"Habitual tea consumption is associated with lower risks of cardiovascular disease and all-cause death," said first author Dr. Xinyan Wang, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China. "The favourable health effects are the most robust for green tea and for long-term habitual tea drinkers."
The analysis included 100,902 participants of the China-PAR project with no history of heart attack, stroke, or cancer. Participants were classified into two groups: habitual tea drinkers (three or more times a week) and never or non-habitual tea drinkers (less than three times a week) and followed-up for a median of 7.3 years.
Habitual tea consumption was associated with more healthy years of life and longer life expectancy.
For example, the analyses estimated that 50-year-old habitual tea drinkers would develop coronary heart disease and stroke 1.41 years later and live 1.26 years longer than those who never or seldom drank tea.
Compared with never or non-habitual tea drinkers, habitual tea consumers had a 20% lower risk of incident heart disease and stroke, 22% lower risk of fatal heart disease and stroke, and 15% decreased risk of all-cause death.
The potential influence of changes in tea drinking behaviour were analysed in a subset of 14,081 participants with assessments at two time points. The average duration between the two surveys was 8.2 years, and the median follow-up after the second survey was 5.3 years.
Habitual tea drinkers who maintained their habit in both surveys had a 39% lower risk of incident heart disease and stroke, 56% lower risk of fatal heart disease and stroke, and 29% decreased risk of all-cause death compared to consistent never or non-habitual tea drinkers.
Senior author Dr. Dongfeng Gu, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said: "The protective effects of tea were most pronounced among the consistent habitual tea drinking group. Mechanism studies have suggested that the main bioactive compounds in tea, namely polyphenols, are not stored in the body long-term. Thus, frequent tea intake over an extended period may be necessary for the cardioprotective effect."
In a subanalysis by type of tea, drinking green tea was linked with approximately 25% lower risks for incident heart disease and stroke, fatal heart disease and stroke, and all-cause death. However, no significant associations were observed for black tea.
Journal Reference:
Xinyan Wang, Fangchao Liu, Jianxin Li, Xueli Yang, Jichun Chen, Jie Cao, Xigui Wu, Xiangfeng Lu, Jianfeng Huang, Ying Li, Liancheng Zhao, Chong Shen, Dongsheng Hu, Ling Yu, Xiaoqing Liu, Xianping Wu, Shouling Wu, Dongfeng Gu. Tea consumption and the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: The China-PAR project. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 2020; 204748731989468 DOI: 10.1177/2047487319894685
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday January 12 2020, @05:48AM (16 children)
There is always a caveat, I need milk in my tea. It's what makes it a civilized drink and not just flavored water -- or if you wanna be all racist about it you need the white to keep the black tolerable. That said green (and yellow) tea is disgusting and have the taste of hay or grass. Red is fine, White is to bland for my taste. Guess I'll just have to settle for possible minor health boosts instead of getting the full dosage (perhaps if I just drink more or it then it will even out).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:05AM (12 children)
If you think green tea tastes bad you haven't been getting the good stuff. Unfortunately the good stuff is expensive, so I mostly stick to my favorite Irish breakfast blend. The Twinings bags seem expensive but they're so concentrated you can steep them twice and get a good 16oz cup out of each use.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:22AM (2 children)
I like Irish Breakfast too -- strong and dark like coffee without being cloying the way coffee often is. I've been drinking Taylors though because it is a little less expensive and I drink 3-4 pints per day. However, when I make a pint, I use two tea bags. Nothing worse than weak tea. Anyway, no health benefit I guess and I doubt the sugar and half&half helps either, but I love it.
As others have said about green tea -- too much like grass and yes, I've had very good green tea (at least so I was told) in Japan. I don't mind gunpowder green tea but I wonder if the researchers differentiated between types of green tea. I suppose a mix of gunpowder and Irish Breakfast would be good.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday January 12 2020, @03:51PM
As far as green tea goes, I prefer the yinhao (loose leaf) variety over the powdered matcha. The latter is useful for making green confectionary though.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday January 13 2020, @05:06AM
Try Stash brand "Super Irish Breakfast". Strong yet it's all flavor, not just bitter sludge. I drink a lot of their "Moroccan Mint", and prefer their Green as more full-flavored than most.
I like gunpowder but haven't seen it on the cheapo local market in a long time. If I'm drinking a non-tea tea, Trader Joe's Mint Melange is good. TJ's Irish Breakfast makes a wonderfully refreshing fridge tea.
I used to drink sweet tea until I tried gunpowder, and oddly, preferred that bitter tea straight. Now I drink it all plain.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday January 12 2020, @07:13AM
I can't rule that out, I have mostly had the green stuff that my friends that were born in Hong Kong drinks. Since they drink it and seem to enjoy it I assumed it was at least ok or good enough. I still think it tasted like grass. That said I'm not to snobby about it -- Twinings or Lipton Earl Grey is fine for me, usually just buy the one that happens to be the best deal when I restock. Add some honey if you want to feel extra special and then a touch of milk and I'm happy. On most days I'll swig down 4-5 mugs of about 0,4l each.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Sunday January 12 2020, @07:14AM (3 children)
Irish breakfast is a lovely black blend, stout and hearty, with a bit of a malty taste that moves it just a hair closer to a coffee taste. Twinings is the D'Addario of tea - not the best, but at least consistent and prolific, so it provides a yardstick by which others may be judged. Fortnum and Mason makes an exceptional Irish Breakfast I would recommend however, it's significantly more /Irish Breakfast/ than the Twinings version.
Another one you should try if you like stout black teas is the Lapsang Souchong. A strong black tea with a smokey-menthol overtone, and no bitterness.
The ancient legend in China says that tea appeared when Bodhidharma plucked off his own eyelids to prevent sleeping; after having fallen asleep while meditating. The tea leaves look a bit like eyelids, and when boiled helped the monks stay awake while retaining their eyelids, so you can see why the story caught on and persists.
The more serious scientific sort of thinking on the subject is that tea became widespread as a relatively inexpensive way to make bad water drinkable. There was certainly plenty of bad water in medieval china, and plenty of people needing to drink. Simply boiling the water suffices to kill most common health threats but it does little for the taste.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 12 2020, @08:02AM (2 children)
No mention of caravan? That's the good stuff! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Caravan [wikipedia.org]
Jasmine is one of my favorites, it needs no sweetener.
I don't guess I've ever tried Lapsang Souchong, I'll have to get some.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @05:17PM (1 child)
Russian Caravan is soo good. Perhaps you're a redeemable after all. :-)
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 12 2020, @08:26PM
Geez, I hope not. ;^)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @10:43AM
Someone I know said he didn't like green tea for that very reason, so I said "you must really 'love' fresh sugar cane juice then". Sure enough he hates that stuff too.
tldr; different people have different ideas of what tastes bad.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:12PM
Irish Breakfast is where its at. Even if you forget and leave the bag in too long it doesn't get bitter or astringent. I tried PG Tips once and its trash. Later in the mornings or afternoon I might have a cup of coffee.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Sunday January 12 2020, @10:55PM
Real matcha, the powdered stuff, is expensive but a little goes a long way (1/2 tsp for a 2-cup sized mug). It tastes great, too, like green tea ice cream (without the sweetness, of course). You need the traditional bamboo whisk, which is stupid expensive also, but essential to getting the best taste and mileage out of the powder.
You really can't find it outside an authentic Japanese market. Sunrise Mart is a chain in the Northeast that carries it. Regular stores carry teas that claim to be matcha, but they're always in tea bags.
The best thing about matcha is you can drink it all day for an even, mellow alertness. Coffee always winds up like a day of chasing the dragon.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by cykros on Monday January 13 2020, @03:16AM
This. Ceremonial Matcha can be gotten within reason, but it's definitely still 10-20x as expensive as run of the mill decent black tea (closer to the cost of coffee). Though, the big benefit with matcha is that even compared to most green teas, the benefits are multiplied, because rather than merely drinking an infusion, you're drinking a suspension of whole tea leaves ground up in the water. I personally also like Genmaicha (toasted brown rice Japanese green tea), and this one luckily fits the budget a bit better, as the brown rice is used to help alleviate the flavor of what otherwise would be considered fairly low end, at least by Japanese standards. This one is common in sushi restaurants in my experience.
I personally when I'm good try to have a cup of matcha in the morning before leaving for work, and then black tea and coffee throughout the rest of the day, perhaps with licorice or turmeric ginger tea at the end of the day (yea, I drink a lot of caffeine...). Relying on matcha for all of one's caffeine throughout the day could get pricey, but mixing it in with a variety of other intake methods lets you maximize the green tea benefits while then enjoying other alternatives based on your flavor or budgetary preferences.
OR....you could just get culinary matcha, and make milky sugary delicious beverages and still get all those benefits. It's pretty gross stuff if you just brew it up traditionally as it's more bitter than ceremonial matcha, but it makes for a very cheap alternative that still makes great products as long as you mask the bitterness. It's not half bad to cook with either, if you fancy some caffeinated oatmeal or oatbran in the morning, or perhaps some nice green pancakes...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:31AM
Tea, earl grey, hot.
(Score: 3, Touché) by dwilson on Sunday January 12 2020, @04:26PM (1 child)
I find the taste of green tea to be horrible. I try it again every few years, but the last few times I've barely choked down half a cup and feel ill to my stomach - to the point of vomiting. I also find the taste of black tea and most breakfast teas to be pretty bad.
So I drink coffee instead, black without additives - and I enjoy it.
Taste is a funny thing.
- D
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday January 13 2020, @05:12AM
Green tea is mildly toxic, tho most people won't notice any effects. Friend was drinking 3 cups a day (due to some report that it could prevent cancer) and was getting symptoms like you do, except more so. Turns out in some people it stresses the liver and that makes you feel sick.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.