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Tea and Health

As well as being a delicious and refreshing drink, tea has many benefits to your health if drunk as part of a balanced diet and healthy, active lifestyle. It has hydrating properties and contains antioxidants, caffeine and fluoride.

A few facts

The science

hydration

tea accounts for up to 40% of the nation's daily fluid intake
as a nation we drink 165 million cups of tea a day - 62 billion cups per year
Drinking four cups of tea a day is hydrating, not dehydrating - the water in tea can easily be included in your daily fluid requirements

antioxidants

Like fruit and vegetables, tea is a natural source of flavonoids that generate antioxidant activity - there is more then twice the 'antioxidant power' in a cup of tea than there is in one apple.
Green and black teas are from the same plant, Camelia sinensis, and contain similar amounts of antioxidants and caffeine

caffeine

Four cups of tea per day offer good health benefits without the contraindications of other caffeine-containing drinks.
The typical cup of tea contains less than half the level of caffeine of a typical coffee - it contains only 50mg per 190ml cup
In 2005 the number of 20-34 year olds drinking tea increased for the first time in 30 years, with nearly two-thirds now drinking tea on a regular basis. This followed the launch of a new campaign by the UK tea industry to highlight the health benefits of tea to a younger audience.

fluoride

Only 11% of UK water supply has fluoride added
Tea is a natural source of fluoride and drinking four cups makes a significant contribution to your daily intake

calories

Tea without milk has no calories. Using semi-skimmed milk adds 13 calories per cup, but you also benefit from valuable minerals like calcium.

minerals and vitamins

Four cups of tea with milk provides you with 21% of your daily calcium requirement.
Tea is a source of the minerals manganese, essential for bone growth and body development, and potassium, vital for maintaining body fluid levels
Tea with milk contains Vitamin B6, Riboflavin B2 and Thiamin B1
Tea contains some zinc and folic acid

Information from the UK Tea Council and Coffee Tea Online

The available evidence shows clearly that:

In a study of 6,000 Japanese women, those who drank 5 cups or more of green tea per day cut their risk of strokes by 50 percent

Long-term consumption of black tea and of other foods such as apples containing chemicals called Flavonoids was associated with a much lower risk of stroke in a study of 552 Dutch men.

Black tea represents one of the highest known sources of antioxidants in a normal diet

Tea contains polyphenols that are absorbed by humans

In the short-term tea polyphenols raise plasma antioxidant levels

A 1997 case-control study in Shanghai found regular consumption of green tea to be associated with significant (between 12 and 53 percent) reductions in risk for cancers of the colon, rectum and pancreas

LDL cells taken from humans who have consumed tea under controlled conditions are more resistant to oxidation

Tea polyphenols in vitro are anti-radical

Tea drinkers demonstrate evidence of anti-radical activity more than non tea drinkers

Drinking tea confers health benefits in that it improves epithelial function, reduces metabolic stress, and lowers LDL cholesterol, all functions known to be associated with anti-radical activity

4 cups of tea falls within the range of those amounts used in experimental studies