Tea - truly the amber nectar

If there is one thing we Brits love, it's tea. Tea fixes everything. Need a kick start in the morning? Tea. Feeling a bit blue and need some comforting? Tea. Greasy fry up on a Sunday morning to cure the hangover? Tea. Celebrating? Tea. So how delighted was I to read (as I sipped Earl Grey in a polystyrene cup at work), that tea is good for you?

These days, we're all meant to be drinking lots and lots and lots of water, but I'd always believed that not only did drinking tea not count as part of my daily water quota (which, by the way, I always miss), it was actually counting against me due to its diuretic properties. Not so! As well as the happy healthy flavanoids (good for the heart, helps the fight against cancer), tea contains fluoride and, of course, lots and lots of water. It's true that caffeine dehydrates, but a cup of tea gives you more water than its caffeine can take away from you. Hence a net gain of fluid which is a Good Thing.

This is good news, my fellow tea drinkers. Now all I need to hear is the health benefits of a nice chocolate digestive and I'll be sorted. In the meantime, anyone for a cuppa?

Via BBC News.

Comments

[MT]

Cool! News I can use! But what's the deal with the big bowl? Are liquid servings escalating over there too? You practically need a truck with a trailer hitch to carry away a cup of soda from 7-11, but I thought tea was above such vulgarity. It's Starbucks' fault, isn't it?

[maryse]

no such good news for coffee drinkers yet?

love your blog by the way.

[Peter]

Yes! I can't live without tea...

What types or brands are on your shelf?

My standard is Twinnings English Breakfast but I also like Jackson's and Yorkshire.

Any to recommend? I drink all kinds - herbal, green, black teas...

Keeps me going for during video work.

[Shilpa]

I want to believe quite dearly, as i sit here with my 6th cup of tea already today, but I do believe that this research was funded by the Tea Society. Really not so great news after all.

[Katie]

Curses. I knew there had to be a catch! Ah well, I might choose to believe it anyway! I have a cup of peppermint tea next to me at the moment, but my weapon of choice is normally milky Earl Grey. I know, I know, I should drink it with lemon. But that's gross, it's much nicer with lots of milk... and a digestive biscuit to dunk in it, naturally.

[MT]

I hear bergamotologists find Earl Grey effective against acne and HIV.

[Katie]

That's what I like to hear! Those bergamotologists are clearly some smart cookies.

[Chris]

Damn. That was such good news until I read Shilpa's comment..

Am I also correct in thinking that something in tea inhibits iron uptake in the stomach?
And that the flavanoids and tannins are rendered useless to the body if you have milk in your tea, as they form some kind of unbreakable compound when mixed?

Curses indeed. Anyway; to the kettle.