It is a well known folk lore that tea consumption has great health benefits. But this folk lore found some scientific evidence in a recent population study done in China, published in the British Journal of Nutrition.

In this study, 2006 men and women were studied to examine the relationships between lifestyle and nutritional choices and length of telomeres. Telomere is a region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from destruction. Each time a DNA replicates, the length of telomere reduces, down to a point where once the telomere is reduced to nothing, the cell dies.

In this study, the Chinese found that

In men, only tea consumption was significantly associated with TL after adjustment for demographics and lifestyle factors (P = 0.002). Mean difference in TL for those in the highest quartile of tea consumption (>3 cups/d or >750 ml/d) as compared with those in the lowest quartile of tea consumption (less than or equal to 0.28 cups/d or less than or equal to 70 ml/d) was 0.46 kb, corresponding to approximately a difference of 5 years of life.

What does this mean? In plain language, the study seems to indicate that consumption of three cups of green tea protects the cells and increases their lifespan by 5 years. The study population was over 65 years of age, but obviously their tea consumption didn’t start that year. The study is unclear about how long a person would have to drink tea to benefit from the protective effects of green tea. Suffice to say, the longer you consume tea the greater is the benefit likely to be.

Interestingly, the study also found that

In women, intake of fats and oils was borderline and negatively associated with TL after adjustment for demographic and lifestyle factors (P = 0.037).

So, the message from the study seems to be, if you want to live longer healthier life, cut back on fats and oils and increase your consumption of tea. Right now, take advantage of the green tea sale and save 25% on your purchase of 100gms Woodlands Green Tea or 1lb of Woodlands Green Bulk tea

© American Heart Association

Question: What disease is the largest killer of women?
Answer: A. Breast Cancer, B. Diabetes, C. Osteoporosis, D. Heart Disease

If you answered A, B or C, you were wrong. The biggest killer of women in America is Heart Disease. According to CDC, ~29% of deaths in women are caused by Heart Disease. However the awareness of this is low among women. To raise the awareness of hear disease among women, American Heart Association has started a tradition of wearing Red “Go Red For Women” on Feb 5. But there is no reason we should think of heart disease only on February 5th - we need to raise awareness of the disease everyday. Just look at some of the shocking numbers quoted on CDC website:

Although heart disease is sometimes thought of as a “man’s disease,” … women account for nearly 50% of heart disease deaths. In 2006, heart disease was the cause of death in nearly 316,000 females.

Often the women are misinformed about the specifics of the disease. For instance, there is a misconception that heart disease is an older woman’s disease, which is absolutely not true. In fact, heart disease is the third leading cause of death among women aged 25-44 years and the second leading cause of death among women aged 45-64 years.

Clearly there is a need to raise awareness among women about not only the heart disease, but also about how to go about preventing it. As mothers and daughters and sisters, we owe it to our families to take better care of ourselves including changing our diet to a more heart healthy diet. For instance, one of the largest sources of calories in our diet is carbonated beverages. Simply substituting the carbonated beverages with tea will help you reduce a significant amount of calories from your diet thereby reducing the risk of heart disease.

But drinking tea is just one of many things many things one can do to reduce the risk of heart disease. Look through the links below that will provide you with great information on the disease itself and how to go about preventing it.

CDC webpage on February is the Heart Disease Month
WebMD - Top 5 Health Concerns of Women
Miami Hearld interviewed a cardiologist on Heart Disease
Go Red For Women website

Health benefits of tea continue to mount. A recent study published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology seem to indicate that green tea has the effect of reducing overall risk of endometrial cancer.

The combined RR for ever drinkers vs non/lowest drinkers was 0.85 (95% CI, 0.77–0.94). Compared with non/lowest drinkers, the summary RR was 0.88 (95% CI, 0.78–0.98) for low to moderate drinkers and 0.75 (95% CI, 0.64–0.88) for high drinkers. An increase in tea intake of 2 cups/day was associated with a 25% decreased risk of endometrial cancer. In subgroup analyses, tea consumption was significantly associated with reduced endometrial cancer risk in Asian studies and studies using interviewing techniques. Furthermore, the protective effect of green tea on endometrial cancer seemed more evident than that of black tea.

You can read more about this study here.

Click this link to check out this article from Nutrition & Metabolism.

Marc Winnefeld led a team of researchers from Beiersdorf AG, Germany, who studied the biological effects of an extract of white tea – the least processed version of the tea plant Camellia sinensis. He said, “In the industrialized countries, the rising incidence of obesity-associated disorders including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes constitutes a growing problem. We’ve shown that white tea may be an ideal natural source of slimming substances”.

We have known this for a while, but its good to see the results reaffirmed.

White tea is made from the buds and first leaves of the plant used to make green tea and the black tea most commonly drunk in Western countries. It is less processed than the other teas and contains more of the ingredients thought to be active on human cells, such as methylxanthines (like caffeine) and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) – which the authors believe to be responsible for many of the anti-adipogenic effects demonstrated in their study.

While they are right, fact remains that processing tea doesn’t really diminish the EGCG, it merely oxidises them. So if Green tea or Oolong or Black tea is your fav, do not despair. You will get very similar results from those teas as well. Just don’t add any SUGAR to your tea, please! Adding sugar is like working out for an hour and then consuming a six pack of beer - negating the whole point of working out!