Black tea lowers cholesterol
If you are one of the 100 million-plus Americans who struggle with high cholesterol, you may want to start incorporating black tea into your daily diet. Recent research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests that drinking black tea can help lower blood levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the cholesterol type associated with increased coronary heart disease risk (Journal of Nutrition, 2003, vol. 133, no. 10). Researchers found that subjects who drank five cups of black tea per day for three weeks experienced a drop in LDL cholesterol by 7 percent to 11 percent. The researchers also noted that drinking black tea did not reduce levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the “good” cholesterol.
—S.T.
Photo: mary ellen bartley/foodpix
