Hmm .. found this interesting post in the The Guardian, 9 January 2007 (used to read this newspaper while in the UK) - Tea is good for the heart - but adding milk to it wipes out the benefits, say researchers. Tea drinkers enjoy some protection against heart disease. But the benefits are completely wiped out if, like most of the British population, they add milk, researchers reveal today. Tea has long been thought to have health benefits for the heart and in the prevention of cancer. But researchers from Germany, writing in the European Heart Journal, suggest that their findings about milk ought to lead to an urgent reassessment of the effect of tea on cancer prevention. The team suggests that tea drinkers who usually add milk should drink it black for some of the time. Flavonoids in tea, called catechins, are thought to be responsible for its beneficial effects on the heart. The study found that a group of proteins in milk, called caseins, interacted with the tea to reduce the concentration of catechins. The researchers measured the effects of drinking black tea, tea with milk and plain hot water on 16 women volunteers. Regular tests on the brachial artery of the forearm for two hours after drinking showed that black tea promoted dilation of the blood vessels. "We found that ... the addition of milk completely prevents the biological effect," said the lead author, Mario Lorenz, a molecular biologist. Yeehaaa ... looks like we are up here as Malaysian enjoy teh 'o' panas, teh 'o' ais ... skip the milk people ... No wonder our pakcik and makcik in the kampung are strong as an ox and live long too .. now we know the secret .. teh 'o' ... aiyyaaa, tak tau lah ... |
