Healthy Black Tea

 

Drinking black tea is an excellent option if you are looking for an alternative of coffee or energy drinks. Black tea is not only a non-sweetened or less-calorie drink but also provides several health benefits as it contains powerful groups of polyphenols including epigallocatechin gallate, theaflavins, thearubigins, an amino acid L-theanine, and several other catechins or flavonoids which provide protection against the onset of several chronic disorders. Recently, Autumn Enloe has reviewed the health benefits of black tea. In her excellent review, she mentioned that drinking black tea has a range of health benefits as it contains lots of powerful antioxidants and other compounds which have potential to decrease inflammation and to reduce the risk for the onset of chronic conditions. In the past two decades, research on natural health products at molecular levels has extensively performed and their health benefits are now globally well accepted as their usage is free from side effects. Besides water, black tea is one of our most consumed drinks obtained from a plant Camellia sinensis and now available in the markets of all over the world in both unblended form such as Assam tea, and Darjeeling tea or blended with various other plants products to obtain different flavors such as Earl Grey, Bigelow, and Chai.

As we know elevated cholesterol, high triglyceride level, and obesity are directly associated with a number of cardiovascular disorders including heart attack, which are now considered as number one cause of death in all over the world. Studies have shown that drinking black tea on a regular basis helps to reduce the chances of onset of cardiovascular disorders. Gardner et al. performed databases searched from 1990 to 2004 on both aspects (helpful or harmful) of black tea, and they concluded that drinking black tea on a regular basis significantly reduced the risk of onset of heart disorders. By discussing the results from some studies, they pointed out that the drinking black tea three cups per day significantly improved the antioxidant status of the body and most importantly, no credible evidence has found by them that showed back tea is harmful.Moreover, similar benefits of drinking black tea on the onset of risk factors of cardiovascular disorders were reported by Bahorun et al. through their randomized controlled clinical trial.Furthermore, Davies et al. also reported health benefits of black tea against cardiovascular disorders, as the inclusion of black tea in the diet reduced low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in hyper cholesterolemic humans.

Hypertension or high blood pressure is very common and is either directly or indirectly linked with several deadly complications such as heart failure, heart attack, stroke, kidney damage, and a risk of atherosclerosis.Studies also show that long-term drinking black tea results in the improvement of blood pressure either from lower or higher sides.Greyling et al. have reviewed and pointed out the same benefit of drinking black tea on blood pressure among normal adults.[20] In views of these findings, it is suggested that drinking black tea helps us to reduce the risk of these deadly complications associated with hypertension. Besides these, regular drinking of black tea also reduces the risk for stroke. Larsson et al. performed an extensively study on 74,961 stroke patients during the course of 10.2 years and concluded that drinking four or more cups of black tea on a daily basis inhibited the risk associated with stroke.