Drinking four cups of tea a day could prevent heart attacks, study

Go and make yourself a cup of tea – it could save your life!

Don’t believe us? Ok, well just ask Dr Carrie Ruxton, a dietician and member of the independent Tea Advisory Panel.

She recently did a study which discovered that drinking more than three cups of tea is good for you health and could even prevent heart attacks.

Not that us in DietPixie Towers need any encouragement to make the UK’s favourite drink. Although getting a round of tea for the whole office can be a real pain.

However, black tea – the most common type found in teabags across the Western World – has never enjoyed the same good press as its greener cousin, mainly because of suggestions the caffeine and fluoride content found in your average cuppa was bad for your bones.

But that could all be about to change, with Dr Ruston claiming the natural plant antioxidants in tea, called polyphenols, can help the biochemical processes in the body. Even adding milk does not weaken the health benefits.

These benefits include improved alertness and mood levels, better bones and even reduced risk of heart disease.

According to the Dail Mail, Dr Ruxton said: “The clearest evidence points to an association between tea consumption, in excess of three cups per day, and a reduced risk of a heart attack.

“There is also emerging evidence that older women, who are most at risk of brittle bones, increased their bone density if they drank more than four cups a day.

“It is clear tea is worthy of further research and, in the meantime, can be enjoyed within the optimal intake range of three to eight cups a day.”

Further details will be published in the British Nutrition Foundation’s Nutrition Bulletin next month.

So what are you waiting for? Get the kettle on.