by Stacey Pace

Created on: June 09, 2009

I could do with a nice cuppa tea! Many of us have uttered these words when feeling tired or stressed and in need of a nice soothing cup of tea. Over the years a great deal of research has gone into discovering the benefits of drinking tea. There must be a reason why so many people have come to rely on it as an important part of their daily routine.

There are many blends of black tea that are traditionally drunk with milk. This has some obvious benefits such as cooling the tea faster and often complimenting the flavour. Milk is believed to neutralise tannins and reduce the acidity of tea by lining the stomach. Have you ever noticed that tea without milk makes you very hungry? Adding milk can stop you from reaching for the biscuits.

Research published in April 2009 suggested that drinking as little as one cup of black tea a day may help to protect you from the risk of developing a cardiovascular disease. Black tea is linked with better cardiovascular health due to it's ability to reduce blood pressure, arterial stiffness and improved blood vessel reactivity. It's also been reported to have anti-cancer properties, lower stress hormones, boost both your mental alertness and your immune system and is linked with reducing the risk of stroke.

The age old tradition of adding milk is said to remove any benefits that drinking tea may bring. These health benefits are blocked due to the inclusion of milk. This is caused by casein, (present in milk) binding to molecules in the tea that cause the arteries to relax, thereby counteracting the good work that the tea is doing. Milk has also been reported to block the effect tea has on cancer.

There are many different opinions concerning this subject, however, as the conclusion of the UK Tea Council is that adding milk to your tea has no effect on the tea's anti-oxidant ability. If your main reason for drinking tea is for the health benefits it's probably better to play it save and listen to the warnings. People all over the world have been drinking tea without milk for centuries and we could do a lot worse than to learn from them. If you're a stickler for tradition though and have to have milk in your tea there is some good news. There have been studies that found that plant based milks like soy milk do not block the benefits attributed to tea drinking as it doesn't contain casein. This means that while soy milk is definitely an acquired taste it's still possible to get all the health benefits of tea and still combine it with milk.

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