Forget the gym: A cup of tea helps shed the pounds

IT seems having a nice cup of tea may be more beneficial than just giving us a chance to take a break – it could be the solution to curbing middle-aged spread.

Tea drinkers have less fat around their tummies, a study of 5,681 people found.

Researchers asked people in the US how many hot cups of tea they drank each day, which could include black, milky or green tea, then gave them a full-body X-ray to look at their body fat.

Men who drank as little as between a quarter and a full cup each day had 1.7 per cent less fat around their middles than non-tea drinkers.

There was no real difference for men aged 20 to 44 but those from 45 to 6 years had significantly less belly fat.

While women who drank one or more cups of tea a day had 1.5 per cent less stomach fat than non-tea drinkers. The study took into account if people added milk, honey, sugar or artificial sweeteners to their tea and adjusted the measurements of their waists to reflect this.

Experts say antioxidants in tea, called flavonoids, may have a beneficial effect, releasing fat from body cells so that it is not stored around people’s middles.

But it may also be that people who enjoy a cup of tea live healthier lives and this may help them to keep the weight off.

Dr Lee Smith, senior author of the study, from Anglia Ruskin University, told journal Obesity: ‘Drinking hot tea could be considered as part of a healthy diet and may be particularly important in older male age groups for reducing the amount of fat they have around their waist. That is important because fat around the abdomen is linked to multiple health problems such as diabetes and breast cancer.’

He added: ‘Further studies are needed to investigate but, in a nation of tea drinkers, these findings are encouraging.’