Drinking tea every day has a surprise health benefit, study finds

Drinking tea is beneficial for heart health, according to Chinese researchers.

A study investigating tea consumption and vascular disease (VD) risk in 485,934 people found an 11 per cent reduction in risk among regular drinkers. VD includes heart, cerebrovascular, pulmonary heart, and peripheral artery diseases.

Over a typical nine-year follow-up, 14,863 cases of VD were recorded.

Findings showed moderate-strength tea was linked to lower risk, though "burning hot" tea might correlate with higher VD risk. The lowest risk occurred at roughly six to eight cups daily among weekly tea drinkers, who averaged 2.78 cups a day.

UK experts acknowledged the study, noting further work is needed before setting optimal intake recommendations.

Furthermore, tea consumption combined with not smoking and exercising was associated with the lowest risk.

Dell Stanford, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, said: “People who regularly drank tea in this study had around an 11 per cent lower relative risk of vascular disease, adding to evidence linking tea drinking with better cardiovascular health.

“But this doesn’t prove that a daily cuppa protects your heart. This was an observational study and other differences in people’s diets and lifestyles could help explain the findings.

“Although the lowest estimated risk was seen at around six to eight cups a day, we shouldn’t treat that as a recommended amount.

“Tea intake was only measured once, cup size wasn’t standardised and the study cannot prove that drinking more tea caused the lower risk.

“Importantly, the findings point to the wider role of healthy lifestyle habits.

“The lowest risk was seen among people who drank tea, did not smoke and were physically active.

“There’s no single food or drink that will transform our heart health; our overall diet and lifestyle matter much more.

“Finally, because this research was carried out in China, we need further evidence before assuming the findings apply in the same way to people in the UK.”

The study was published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.