Coffee may be the most popular hot drink in the United States but a new study suggests that making the switch to tea could improve your health.
Conducted by the Tea Advisory Panel (TAP), the study revealed that a variety of plant-based chemicals called flavonoids, which are found in various types of food and drink but are particularly strong in tea, could reduce the risk of developing chronic disease by 19% and reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 13%.
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Tea is particularly rich in a specific variety of flavonoids called flavan-3-ols which, according to the TAP study, are believed to have a beneficial effect on blood pressure, heart health, risk of stroke and type 2 diabetes.
The Tea Advisory Panel’s research advocates that flavonoids are included in nutritional guidelines, with the study’s co-author Dr Tim Bond saying: “For the sake of our health, perhaps it’s time to add a target for flavonoids to the usual dietary guidelines for vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber and fat.”
Nutritionist and fellow co-author Dr Pamela Mason continued by explaining a study conducted by the American Society for Nutrition which “recommends intakes of 400–600 mg per day of flavan-3-ols to improve cardiometabolic health.”
As a typical cup of tea contains around 115 mg of flavan-3-ols per 100g, “this equates to around 4 cups of tea a day,” says Dr Mason.
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Other foods that include flavonoids
The TAP study also showed that tea is not the only type of food or drink in our diets that contains flavonoids such as flavan-3-ols.
Fruit such as apples, pears, raspberries and strawberries also have relatively large amounts of flavan-3-ols.
- Brewed black tea – 115 mg per 100g
- Green tea – 54 mg per 100g
- Apples – 9.3 mg per 100g
- Pears – 6.8 mg per 100g
- Raspberries – 5.8 mg per 100g
- Strawberries – 4.6 mg per 100g
However, the study shows that tea is comfortably the richest in these plant-based chemicals, with the beverage featuring more than 10 times the amount of flavan-3-ols per 100g than apples.