Drinking tea reduces the risk of an early death.
A study of half a million people in Britain found that those who consumed two or more cups a day of the popular beverage were 13 per cent less likely to die from any cause than non-drinkers.
The benefits of tea remained regardless of whether people took sugar with the drink, despite its links to poor health.
Black tea is full of antioxidants that are linked to improved heart, gut and brain health and lower levels of “bad” cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar.
The study, which has been carried out by the US National Institutes of Health, has been described as “a substantial advance in the field” by public health expert Professor Fernando Artalejo.
Professor Artalejo said that most previous studies had been conducted in Asia and that the few in the West were “small in size and inconclusive in their results”.
