10 REASONS TO... HAVE A CUPPA!
1 IT KEEPS YOUR BONES STRONG…
Britons consume 165million cups of tea a day – and it could be doing our bones the world of good. Australian scientists found that three cups daily slashed the risk of hip fractures by a third, thanks to healthy plant chemicals called flavonoids. Even one cuppa a day appeared to cut the risk of a fracture by nine per cent. About 75,000 hip fractures occur in the UK each year.
2 … AND WARDS OFF STROKES
A regular cuppa can reduce the chances of a clot-related stroke by more than 20 per cent. Ordinary black tea is fine, but you need to down at least four cups a day, according to scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
3 IT’S GOOD FOR THE BRAIN
Tea-drinkers are much less likely to develop dementia in old age. Black and green are both protective and can lower the risk by over 80 per cent – provided at least two cups a day are drunk. The leaves contain compounds such as catechins and theaflavins, which are thought to shield the brain from age-related decline.
4 … AND CAN FIGHT DIABETES
Type 2 diabetes is a modern-day epidemic. The answer could be drinking more tea, say researchers from Taiwan. They found that it prevents spikes in blood-sugar levels – a warning sign that diabetes is setting in.
5 GO GREEN TO LOSE WEIGHT
Green tea could be the secret to weight loss. US researchers found that mice fed a green tea extract daily for six weeks lost 27 per cent of their body weight and nearly 40 per cent of the fat around their waist.
6 HAVE SMOOTHER SKIN
Green tea can also help beat psoriasis, the skin condition affecting nearly two million people in Britain. Tests at the medical College of Georgia in the United States showed that it slowed the growth of skin cells, reducing the development of thick, scaly plaques that appear on the body.
7 A TUMOUR-BUSTER?
The US National Cancer Institute says both green and black tea have cancer-fighting properties. They work partly by protecting the body’s cells against DNA damage that can trigger tumour growth. Studies suggest three cups a day could slash the risk of breast cancer in young women by more than a third.
8 KEEP SMILING…
Tea is even good for your teeth, as it lowers the risk of decay. Black tea attacks the two main bacteria responsible for gum disease – streptococcus mutans and lactobacillus – as long as you drink three to four cups a day.
9 …BUT BE WARY OF HERBAL TEAS
They may be refreshing, but some scientists claim that herbal teas can erode the enamel that forms a protective layer on teeth. Some have higher acid levels than orange. A team at Bristol University warned that herbal tea could be to blame for many cases of tooth decay in young adults, who often prefer them to traditional teas.
10 A BOOST FOR THE HEART
If you’ve had a heart attack, the chances of suffering a second one soar. But drinking tea bolsters your odds of avoiding it, according to a report in the journal Circulation. Harvard medical School researchers found that heavy tea-drinkers were almost half as likely to suffer a second cardiac crisis within four years of their first one, compared to those who rarely or never drank tea. Chemicals in tea are thought to help blood vessels relax, boosting the supply of oxygenrich blood to the heart.