Story at a glance
- Previous research has revealed an association between green tea consumption and lower mortality.
- To investigate whether a similar link exists between black tea and mortality risk, researchers assessed data from nearly 500,000 U.K. Biobank participants.
- Overall, drinking two or more cups of black tea each day was associated with a 9 to 13 percent lower risk of mortality.
A new study conducted among nearly 500,000 individuals found an association between black tea consumption and a moderately lower mortality risk. Findings were published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
According to results, mortality risk was lowest among individuals who drink two cups of black tea or more per day.
Tea is one of the most popular beverages around the world, and previous research has shown a link between green tea consumption and lower mortality.
To better understand any associations in populations that primarily consume black tea, researchers assessed all-cause and cause-specific mortality of 498,043 individuals between the ages 40 and 69 included in the U.K. Biobank.
Participants completed the baseline questionnaire between 2006 and 2010 and were followed up with for a median of 11.2 years.
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Eighty-five percent of participants reported regularly drinking tea, of whom 89 percent reported consuming black tea. Compared with individuals who did not consume tea, these participants had a 9 to 13 percent lower mortality risk.
The association remained even after researchers adjusted for participants’ coffee consumption, added milk or sugar to tea, or any genetic variants linked with caffeine metabolism. Tea temperature at the point of consumption also did not alter results.
Furthermore, an inverse association was seen between black tea drinkers and mortality from cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease and stroke. However, tea portion size and strength were not assessed.
“These findings suggest that tea, even at higher levels of intake, can be part of a healthy diet,” authors wrote.
Tea is rich in bioactive compounds that can reduce stress and inflammation, but “people shouldn’t change how many cups of tea to drink every day because of these results,” said study co-author Maki Inoue-Choi, an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, in a statement to TIME.
Because this study was observational in nature, randomized clinical trials are needed to prove black tea consumption causes lower mortality.
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