Drink a Cup of Tea for Your Heart

A long list of studies affirms the healthy effects of drinking this stimulating beverage

Green tea leaves in a pot and dried KMNPhoto/Shutterstock

Apples, please step aside for a moment: A cup of tea a day could keep the doctor away and support heart and cardiovascular health as well. You should still keep eating apples, but when it comes to choosing beverages, your heart could benefit from making the world’s second most common drink your drink of choice more often.

What’s Special About Tea?

First of all, we are talking about Camillia sinensis, the plant that gives us black, green, oolong, and white teas. All of these teas come from the same plant; it’s the leaves that are harvested and how they’re processed that make them different.

Tea leaves contain large amounts of polyphenols, micronutrients that are found in plants. There are more than 8,000 different types of polyphenols, including catechins (the most prominent), flavanols, leucoanthocyanidins, and phenolic acid. Polyphenols are antioxidants, which means that they help protect the cells against damage from free radicals, oxidative stress, and related health problems, such as coronary heart disease and inflammation.

Tea and Your Heart

Numerous studies have shown that drinking tea can benefit your heart health in several ways. Research appearing in the “European Journal of Preventive Cardiology,” for example, reported that people who drink tea three or more times per week have improved cardiovascular health when compared with those who consume fewer cups per week. More than 100,000 people participated in the study, and they were followed up for a median of 7.3 years.