Three cups of tea can cut heart attack risk

Monday June 1, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- Dr. Carrie Ruxton, who is on the Tea Advisory Council, is listing another health benefit gained by drinking tea, securing its place as one of the few aptly coined “super foods.” Ruxton recently told Mail Online that drinking three cups of tea a day can ward off heart attacks. 

The New York Times Health Guide concurs with Dr. Ruxton’s assessment; it reports that both green and black pekoe teas reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. 

In 1998, a group of Harvard scientists contended that drinking merely one cup of tea per day reduced heart attack risk by 44%. And that’s not all. Tea is also beneficial for those patients who already have heart disease; a Boston study reports that those who regularly drank tea had “better vascular function” than those heart patients who did not drink tea at all. 

Green tea has already been established as a powerful antioxidant; the polyphenols in green tea are antioxidants 20 times more powerful than vitamin E and 2000 times more powerful than vitamin C (New York Times). “As seen on Oprah” advertisements are online everywhere; an attempt to up the sales of various manufacturers of green tea. Green tea is to free radicals what antibiotics are to bacterial infections. 

But the vascular benefits of tea are not tied to the polyphenols, which are what give tea its cancer fighting prowess. Rather, the flavonoids are the substance more directly linked to the cardio benefits. Dr. Ruxton maintains that the anti-inflammatory mechanism in the flavonoids may encourage greater blood vessel function and a reduction in thrombosis risk. 

(By Rachel Stockton, and edited by Heather Kelley)