Scientists from the National Institutes of Health found that drinking black tea may be associated with moderately lower mortality risk. The risk was lowest among persons drinking two or more cups of tea per day.
Tea is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide.
Previous research has suggested an association between tea consumption and lower death risk in populations where green tea is the most common type of tea.
In contrast, published studies in populations where black tea drinking is more common are limited with inconsistent findings.
In the study, the team examined the associations of tea consumption with all-cause and cause-specific mortality using data from the U.K. Biobank, where black tea drinking is common.
They also assessed whether the associations differ by the use of common tea additives (milk and sugar), tea temperature, and genetic variants affecting the rate at which people metabolize caffeine.
The U.K. Biobank includes data on half a million men and women, aged 40 to 69 years, who completed a baseline questionnaire between 2006 and 2010.
Of those, 85 percent reported regularly drinking tea and of them, 89 percent reported drinking black tea.
Relative to people who didn’t drink tea, participants who reported drinking 2 or more cups each day had a 9 to 13 percent lower risk for death.
The associations were found regardless of whether participants also drank coffee, added milk or sugar to their tea, their preferred tea temperature, or genetic variants related to caffeine metabolism.
According to the team, their findings suggest that tea, even at higher levels of intake, can be part of a healthy diet.
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The research was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and conducted by Maki Inoue-Choi et al.
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