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Adding Milk to Tea May Block Health Benefits
A German study has revealed that adding milk
to tea stops its ability to dilate blood vessels and give antioxidant
benefits, two protective factors for a healthy heart and cardiovascular
system.
The study is published online in the European Heart Journal and was conducted by a group of scientists from the University of Berlin's Charité Hospital.
CLINICAL RESEARCH:
Mario Lorenz, Nicoline Jochmann, Amélie von Krosigk, Peter Martus, Gert Baumann, Karl Stangl, and Verena Stangl
Addition of milk prevents vascular protective effects of tea
Eur. Heart J.,
Advance Access published on January 9, 2007;
doi: doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehl442
 ……The European Society of Cardiology 2007. All…CLINICAL RESEARCH Addition of milk prevents vascular protective effects of tea Mario Lorenz 1 Nicoline…much debate is whether addition of milk modifies the……
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The small research study was conducted on 16 healthy women volunteers
who drank half a litre of black tea with and without skimmed milk, or
just hot water as a control. Before and after drinking their tea or
water, the women were examined by ultrasound to measure the dilation of
an artery in their arm.
The results showed that the "flow mediated dilation" (FMD) of the
artery was significantly improved by black tea, but this effect was
completely "blunted" by the additon of milk.
The researchers then explored the impact of milk proteins on the aortas
of rats. They found that black tea caused the rat aortas to relax and
also stimulated the production of nitric oxide that makes this happen.
However, with milk neither of these things happened, and they suggest
that the caseins (types of milk protein) were combining with tea
catechins (antioxidants that comprise about a quarter of the dry weight
of tea) to prevent them from stimulating the nitric oxide production.
Previous studies have shown that tea protects against cardiovascular
disease, but nobody had investigated the effect of adding milk to the
drink. Scientists have been puzzled about the fact that the UK, a high
tea-consuming nation, does not report the extent of health benefits of
other tea drinking populations. This could be because most tea in the
UK is drunk with milk, the researchers say.
The researchers are not suggesting that people who have milk in their
tea suddenly switch to black tea, but they do recommend now and again
that if you are used to having it with milk, then have it occasionally
without milk because you could increase the benefit to your heart.
The UK drinks 165 million cups of tea a day, which is equivalent to an
average of 3 cups per person. Tea is consumed on a regular basis by 70
per cent of the population.
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