Drinking tea with milk has no significant health benefit over drinking black tea, a cardiovascular surgeon and a dietitian in Taipei said.
In 2007, Mario Lorenz and other scientists published the results of a study on the vascular effects of tea in 16 women who had either drunk black tea, black tea with milk or hot water.
They found that while the women who drank black tea showed significantly improved flow-mediated dilation (FMD) compared with those who drank hot water, those who drank black tea with milk received no protective effect.
Photo: Chiang Chih-hsiung, Taipei Times
In a study published in the journal Food & Function last year, Adilah Ahmad and other scientists also investigated the effect of adding milk to black tea.
They found that among the 17 participants, those who drank black tea experienced increased FMD, while those who drank black tea with milk showed not only decreased FMD, but also increased blood pressure.
Although the studies conducted 11 years apart presented similar findings, their sample sizes were relatively small, Chiang Shuo-ju (江碩儒), the director of the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases at Taipei City Hospital’s Yangming branch, said on Sunday.
People do not need to avoid drinking milk tea simply because of those findings, he said.
Some people might find black tea, which is fermented tea, bitter and that it upsets their stomach, he said.
Adding a bit of milk can balance out the taste and make people feel fuller, he added.
Huang Shu-hui (黃淑惠), a dietitian at the Postal Hospital in Taipei, said that there is no conclusive answer to the question of whether tea should be drunk with milk.
While there have been studies indicating that the casein in milk interacts with tea catechins to lower the antioxidant effects of catechins, the effects do not completely disappear, she said.
If the catechin concentration in the tea is high enough, it could still provide cardiovascular protection effects, she said.
Black tea, with or without milk, should be steeped in hot water to extract more catechins, she added.
While catechins and caffeine both stimulate the secretion of gastric acid, the protein in milk neutralizes it, she said.
As a result, Huang advised those whose primary concern is to improve antioxidant activity to drink tea without milk, and those who want to avoid upsetting their stomach to add a bit of milk.
The free radicals in the body are unstable molecules that could attack endothelial cells, leading to cardiovascular diseases, Chiang said.
Both green and black tea contain catechins, which increase the amount of nitric oxide in the endothelial cells, allowing blood vessels to dilate and helping to remove free radicals, he said.
Catechins promote endothelial health and reduce the risk of cardiovascular or cerebrovascular pathology, he added.
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