Straight Tea Best for Heart
My favorite English black tea is Yorkshire Gold. Before moving to London, I usually drank it straight but now I’ve taken to adding milk to my tea. Bad idea.
A very small study of 16 post-menopausal women published in the European Heart Journal has found that black tea with its high concentration of flavonoids was better for cardiovascular health and cancer prevention than tea laced with milk. Straight black tea improved flow-mediated dilation (the ability of the blood vessel to expand with increased blood flow) while tea with milk had a far weaker effect.
Cardiac nurse June Davison injects a bit of common sense:
Leaving milk out of your tea is far less likely to help protect your heart health than other measures, such as taking regular exercise, avoiding smoking and eating a healthy, balanced diet.
More info on the health benefits of tea at the Linus Pauling Institute.
Times Online, January 9, 2007
Tags: milk, tea, black tea, english tea, drinks, heart, heart disease, cardiovascular disease
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POSTED IN: Hearty Diet
2 opinions for Straight Tea Best for Heart
A Hearty Life » A Hearty Life Is About You and Your Heart
Mar 8, 2007 at 11:52 am
[…] Certainly, I am an advocate of modern medicine and feature the latest research I think could have significant impact on your heart health or are simply cool. I also see that alternative approaches might also be complementary. Otherwise, why would I write about the benefits of tea, deep breathing, exercise, natural alternatives to statins, and talk about using snake venom to treat stroke patients? But the fact remains that no amount of exercising or apple eating can negate the utility of cholesterol testing, heart imaging, heart transplants. […]
A Hearty Life » A Hearty Life in the Los Angeles Times
Mar 14, 2007 at 8:14 pm
[…] Welcome, everyone!! Today, I’m delighted to have visitors from the LA Times where Rosie Mestel, Health section deputy editor, was kind enough to recommend A Hearty Life to their readers. I’m so honored that you’ve visited A Hearty Life today. Please have a cup of anti-oxidant filled tea, a trans-fat free cookie, and a little voyeuristic fun peeking in people’s medicine cabinets, including the late Anna Nicole Smith’s. Reading A Hearty Life will do your heart some good and this month, every page you read will help raise money for the British Heart Foundation. […]
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