8-10 cups of tea a day ideal for good health

Regular tea drinkers are usually healthy people. Dr John H Weisburger, director Emeritus and senior member of the American Health Foundation, in an interview to Sunanda Sanganeria, said tea may have a preventive role in human cancer and cardiovascular diseases. He was recently in India to speak at a conference on the generic promotion of tea as a health drink.

What makes tea an ideal health drink?

A: Tea leaves contain polyphenol oxidase which like other anti-oxidants help protect the body cells from a damaging physiological process known as 'oxidative stress'. Although, oxygen is vital to life, oxidation produces free radicals that damage the cells in the human body. Polyphenols found in tea serve as marvellous anti-oxidants which are essential to fight diseases.

Studies conducted by me and various other researchers have shown that regular tea drinkers have less heart attacks and lower rate of cancer. Salt of Western nutritional habits, which neutralises toxic agents, has been found in them. Moreover, polyphenols slow down the growth of abnormal cells thereby leading to healthy and slow aging. Polyphenols favour those bacteria that are good for the human body and kills those that are harmful.

How many cups of tea would you prescribe for a human being to be in good health?

A: Intake of 8-10 regular cups of tea a day, about 1,200 ml, is ideal for good health and the aging process. A person should start his day by drinking 2-3 cups till breakfast.

Which variety of tea leaves - black or green-is more beneficial?

A: Both black and green leaves or any other variety of tea coming from the same plant ie: Camellia Sinensis are good. In Japan, initial research was done in green tea, but in USA and Europe, black tea was studied.

We have compared the effects of both types in preventing mutagenicity of various carcinogens, and found that both acted through similar mechanisms. Therefore, the benefits are equal from both of them.

Your research on tea is quite contrary to the popular belief that drinking too much tea is bad for health. Does coffee have the same beneficial effects?

A: No, the caffeine content in coffee is much higher than tea. While a cup of tea contains 40-50 mg of caffeine, the same amount of coffee has 150 mg of caffeine and researches have shown that too much of caffeine is harmful for the body.

However, the tea polyphenols by themselves are also active and regular tea is somewhat more effective than decaffeinated tea. Soft drinks too have caffeine that are harmful for the body apart from their high sugar content.

In India, tea drinking habits are different from the West. Here, people believe in consuming the beverage with milk and sugar. Do they also provide the same benefits as black tea?

A: If tea is consumed with two per cent of milk, then it does not destroy the anti-toxidants. However, any quantity more than that is not good since milk has a lot of bacteria.

The Foundation is planning to undertake research to see how much quantity of milk can be added to tea to retain its original beneficial qualities. Sugar, on the other hand, is harmful. Studies, conducted in Finland has shown that heavy doses of sugar causes high rate of heart attack.

What are the harmful effects of the beverage?

A: Tea, as a drink has very little harmful effects. However, if very hot tea is drunk it harms the human oesophagus. Researched conducted in Iran and China have revealed cases of oesophagus cancer in humans who have been drinking hot tea for a considerable period. Therefore, the beverage should be drunk lukewarm. As a policy, any food should be consumed at a moderate temperature.