We have all heard about the great effects of green and black teas and their effect on people with heart problems lately but here is something that I had heard nothing about until today. Reauters is reporting a new study that shows that taking milk in your tea will significantly reduce the benefits of drinking the tea.
Drinking tea can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke but only if milk is not added to the brew, German scientists said on Tuesday.
Research has shown that tea improves blood flow and the ability of the arteries to relax but researchers at the Charite Hospital at the University of Berlin in Mitte found milk eliminates the protective effect against cardiovascular disease.
“The beneficial effects of drinking black tea are completely prevented by the addition of milk, said Dr Verena Stangl, a cardiologist at the hospital.
“If you want to drink tea to have the beneficial health effects you have to drink it without milk. That is clearly shown by our experiments,” she told Reuters.
Tea is second only to water in worldwide consumption so any benefits could have important public health implications. But until now it was not known whether adding milk had an impact.
Stangl and her team discovered that proteins called caseins in milk decrease the amount of compounds in tea known as catechins which increase its protection against heart disease.
They believe their findings, which are reported in the European Heart Journal, could explain why countries such as Britain, where tea is regularly consumed with milk, have not shown a decreased risk of heart disease and stroke from drinking tea.
Protective against cancer
The researchers compared the health effects of drinking boiled water and tea with and without milk on 16 healthy women. Using ultrasound, they measured the function of an artery in the forearm before and two hours after drinking tea.
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Tags: Britain, cancer, Cardiologist, cardiovascular disease, Charite Hospital, heart disease, Mario Lorenz, molecular biologist and co-author, Reuters, stroke, Tea Milk, the European Heart Journal, tumor, ultrasound, University of Berlin, Verena Stangl
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