A study has suggested that drinking tea could be associated with a lower risk of mortality.
The study, funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, compared those who consume two or more cups of tea every day, to those who do not. When compared, researchers found that those who did consume two or more cups a day had between a 9% and 13% lower risk of death.
Additionally, the study also found that those associated with drinking the beverage also had a lesser risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases.
The findings suggested that results were the same regardless of genetic variants and whether the person included milk or sugar and the temperature they preferred their drink.
The study was conducted with a questionnaire answered by around 500,000 people within the UK between 2006 and 2010 and then followed up 14 years later.
Conclusiveness
Professor of preventive medicine and public health at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Fernando Rodriguez Artalejo, said: “This article shows that regular consumption of black tea (the most widely consumed tea in Europe) is associated with a modest reduction in total and, especially, cardiovascular disease mortality over 10 years in a middle-aged, mostly white, adult general population.”
He added that this study does not conclusively establish that tea was the reason for participants having a lower risk of mortality because it could not exclude that this was not as a result of other health factors connected with tea consumption.
Marion Nestle, a professor of food studies at New York University, said: “Observational studies like this always raise the question: Is there something else about tea drinkers that makes them healthier?”
“I like tea. It’s great to drink. But a cautious interpretation seems like a good idea.”
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