If you grew up in an Irish household, chances are that tea drinking was something of an institution. Us Irish folk, we love our tea and in all honesty, is there anything better than coming home after a long, hard day and curling up on the sofa with a cuppa?
The best thing about tea is that not only is super-comforting, it’s also pretty healthy. It’s chocked full of antioxidants, vitamins and did you know that various studies have shown that tea can strengthen your immune system, reduce cell damage and even prevent cavities. Oh and did you know that it’s also thought that tea provides some serious cardiovascular benefits too.
However, some new research has revealed that if you like your cuppa with a bit of milk in it, you could be stripping it of its beneficial effects.
Are you a big tea drinker or do you prefer coffee?
In a study published in the noted European Heart Journal, a group of researchers gave 16 adult volunteers cups of fresh tea without any milk, tea with a bit of milk and just plain boiled water. As the volunteers were enjoying their drinks, the researchers measured the effects that the tea was having on their vascular function.
The researchers found that plain old tea “significantly improved” the function of the heart, but when the tea was mixed with milk, these improvements were completely “blunted.” Meaning, the addition of milk removed all of the benefits of having a cup of tea in the first place.
“Milk counteracts the favourable health effects of tea on vascular function,” wrote the researchers.
So if you want to get all the goodness out of your cup of tea, it might be a good idea to ditch the milk.
