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Study reveals ideal amount of tea to consume each day to slow aging
After coffee, tea is one of the most popular hot beverages that people across the world drink daily. The warm drink can be a huge mood-lifter and give you an energy boost to pick up your pace during the day. Now, a new study has found that drinking tea also has some anti-aging benefits and it could help to extend our lifespan.
Some of us are ardent coffee lovers while others are tea drinkers. A few of us cannot help but consume both. Hence people are always looking to try a secret technique that makes their coffee better or try out a new kind of tea. While there can be a fair bit of guilt attached to consuming excessive caffeine, a new study says that drinking a certain amount of tea every day has anti-aging benefits.
Drinking tea has anti-aging benefits
It’s no secret that the food and drink we consume every day have a profound impact on our body’s aging. A study at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China published in The Lancet Regional Health Western Pacific says that consistent tea drinkers have shown slower signs of aging.
The research included a survey of 5,998 British people aged between 37 to 73 as well as 7,931 people residing in China between the ages of 30 and 79. It took into account the subjects’ tea-drinking habits, as well as their biological age, body fat percentage, cholesterol, and blood pressure. It also considered which kind of tea the drinkers had – black, green, yellow, or a traditional Chinese oolong tea.
The study was merely “observational” but it says that tea drinkers showed slow signs of aging.
“The relationship suggested that consuming around three cups of tea, or 6 to 8 grams of tea leaves per day, may offer the most evident anti-aging benefits,” one of the study’s authors wrote. Most subjects of the study were men who had a healthier diet and were less likely to have anxiety and insomnia.
The researchers believe that several molecules inside tea may be the reason behind these potential anti-aging properties. The polyphenols and antioxidants present in tea are believed to reduce inflammation and increase cell turnover. Polyphenols in particular play a key role in the gut microbiome and have a massive impact on metabolism, immunity as well as cognitive function. Additional studies done on animals have also shown that tea was linked to increased lifespan among worms, flies, and mice,
Green tea or black tea – which is better?
Several studies have talked about the positive impact green tea can have on our health. Among the plethora of advantages of green tea is its connection to increased lifespan. Studies have shown that drinking at least five cups of green tea per day makes you 76% less likely to die (per Elo Health).
However, many black tea lovers may wonder which one’s healthier. Both green and black teas come from the same plant but there are a few key differences.
Like green tea, black tea also has a ton of antioxidants and polyphenols that are good for your health. However, the major difference is that black tea is oxidized while green tea is not. Hence the former has a more intense flavor.
Green tea also has less caffeine than black tea. An 8-ounce or 230-ml cup of green tea has 35 mg of caffeine while the same serving of black tea has 39109 mg caffeine.
