When it comes to the potential health benefits of tea, the green variety tends to get all the glory. However, a large new observational study suggests that black tea also does good things for those who drink it, reports the Guardian. The study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that those who drink two or more cups a day might live a bit longer than those who don't, per the AP. Specifically, researchers from the National Cancer Institute discovered that these "higher intake" drinkers of tea have a 9% to 13% lower risk of mortality, a modest but statistically significant figure.
"These findings suggest that tea, even at higher levels of intake, can be part of a healthy diet," the researchers conclude in the study. The tea's temperature, or whether people added milk or sugar, didn't matter. The US researchers used a large database in the UK, given the popularity of black tea there. The UK Biobank allowed them to follow nearly 500,000 tea drinkers ages 40 to 69 for about 11 years, per a news release from the National Institutes of Health, to which the NCI belongs.
The study can't prove cause and effect, only that researchers observed a possible connection between tea drinking and longer lives. "Observational studies like this always raise the question: Is there something else about tea drinkers that makes them healthier?" Marion Nestle, a professor of food studies at New York University, tells the AP. "I like tea. It’s great to drink. But a cautious interpretation seems like a good idea." (More tea stories.)
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