Key Takeaways
- Drinking tea regularly was linked to an 11% lower risk of heart and blood vessel problems.
- Choose plain, unsweetened tea in moderation, and avoid drinking it very hot.
- Steep the tea for two to three minutes, as longer steeping can reduce its beneficial compounds.
Tea may help protect you from stroke, blood clots, and heart disease. People who regularly drink tea have an 11% lower risk of developing cardiovascular issues than those who don’t, a new study found.
Tea Lowers CVD Risk, Even for People Who Smoke
The nine-year study, which included 485,934 Chinese adults, found that lukewarm, moderate-strength black tea was the best for cardiovascular health.
People who drank tea as part of a healthy lifestyle, including not smoking and exercising regularly, had the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease. However, tea still offered some protection for people who smoke.
“The benefit wasn’t as great as if you didn’t smoke, but there was still some benefit, so that says a lot for the power of tea,” said Jean Copeland, RD, CSG, a clinical dietitian at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s Heart and Vascular Center, who wasn’t involved with the study.
Moderate-Strength Tea Contains the Right Amount of Antioxidants
Tea is a good source of catechins, a type of flavonoid, a class of plant compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. These compounds reduce arterial stiffness, improve blood flow, and help prevent cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline.
Steeping tea helps extract these antioxidants from the leaves, but you only need to steep it for two or three minutes to get the right amount of catechins, Copeland said.
“Some people think if a moderate amount of steeping is good, then more steeping must be better, but that’s not true. The longer you let tea steep, it becomes more bitter, and there’s a negative effect on the catechins,” Copeland added.
Black Tea May Do More for Your Heart
In this study, black tea was more consistently linked with heart health than green tea. Previous studies have shown that drinking unsweetened black or green tea helps lower cholesterol and support better blood pressure control.
Black tea contains antioxidants called theaflavins that may have a beneficial effect on inflammation and lipid metabolism, said Grace Derocha, MBA, RD, CDCES, a Detroit-based registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, who wasn’t involved with the study.
“However, this doesn’t mean black tea is necessarily better than green tea. Both contain beneficial plant compounds, and the overall body of research supports potential cardiovascular benefits from both,” she told Verywell in an email.
Extra Hot Tea Harms Blood Vessels
Along with type and strength, the researchers examined how temperature affects the tea’s impact. If your tea is too hot, it may harm your cardiovascular health rather than offering the touted benefits. In this study, “burning hot” tea was linked with a greater risk of vascular disease.
Other research has associated hot beverages with an increased risk of gastric and esophageal cancers.
The study suggests that six to eight cups of lukewarm or room temperature tea offer the most cardiovascular benefits, but don’t take this “optimal” amount literally, said Anam Waheed, MD, FACC, a cardiologist at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and assistant professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine, who was not involved with the study.
“The practical, defensible takeaways are the qualitative ones: plain tea in moderation is associated with lower vascular risk, very hot tea is associated with harm, and extreme intakes lose the benefit,” Waheed told Verywell in an email.
Aim for 3 Cups of Unsweetened Tea Per Day
The study participants self-reported their tea intake, and each person’s cup size may have been different. Since the researchers didn’t measure their cups, it is impossible to know the exact amount of tea associated with the observed cardiovascular benefits.
“More isn’t automatically better, especially if drinking large amounts of caffeinated tea interferes with sleep or causes unwanted symptoms,” Derocha said.
Previous studies have shown that two to four cups of tea per day provide enough flavonoids to help protect against cardiovascular disease.27
It’s also important to consider how you prepare your tea—adding sugar and milk may reduce the heart health benefits. Some research suggests that milk proteins bind to antioxidants, making them less effective.8
“Choosing unsweetened tea or adding a little citrus, mint, or cinnamon instead of lots of added sugar can help keep it a heart-friendly beverage,” Derocha said. (verywellhealth)
Brown is a nutrition writer who received her Didactic Program in Dietetics certification from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Previously, she worked as a nutrition educator and culinary instructor in New York City.
