Tea brews good news on lowering cholesterol: “The benefits of a cup of tea continue to be studied. And while there may be positive effects, beware of the advertising claims. Some are overblown, based on kernels of information.
“Here are some of the latest findings about tea:
- The December issue of the Johns Hopkins Medical Letter: Health After 50 reports that for the first time, there is concrete evidence that certain extracts from black, green or red tea may help lower bad cholesterol.
“In a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 240 people with elevated cholesterol, all of whom were on low-fat diets, took either a daily capsule containing tea extracts (equivalent to drinking seven cups of high-quality black tea a day) or a placebo. After 12 weeks, those taking the tea capsule lowered their LDL cholesterol by 16 percent, compared with no changes in those taking the placebo.
“The Johns Hopkins letter noted that there is little evidence that drinking tea lowers cholesterol, but that there may be something in tea that could be isolated to help lower cholesterol.”