Unfortunately, it also discovered that both regular and decaffinated coffee appeared to give no benefit whatsoever. While not the first study to suggest that tea may be a health-giving drink, the latest research adds real weight to earlier claims. Free radicals have been implicated not only in heart disease, but also in strokes, cancer and aging. The study looked at the tea and coffee drinking habits of 680 people aged 76 and under, and included one set of heart attack victims, and the same number of healthy volunteers. Previous studies have produced much the same results.
Green tea is thought to reduce the risk of a drinker developing certain types of cancer.
Dr Paul Quinlan investigates the health properties of tea at a laboratory sponsored by tea firm Brooke Bond. Flavanoids are the new stars of a healthy diet . It's a subject which is exciting the scientific establishment. A conference on flavanoids is being held on Tuesday at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. Even coffee, long believed to have no beneficial effects, has been shown to reduce the incidence of gallstones.