Tea is good but without milk!

London: Tea is known to have many health benefits – but only if its drunk without milk, says a study.

Tea relaxes the aorta – the largest artery in the human body – by producing nitric oxide, which promotes the dilation of blood vessels but the effect was blocked by milk, reported the online edition of Daily Mail.

Verena Stangl and researchers at the Charite Hospital in Berlin studied 16 women who drank half a litre of freshly brewed tea, tea with skimmed milk or plain boiled water.

Tests were taken on an artery in the forearm for two hours afterwards. They showed that drinking black tea significantly improved the ability of the artery to relax and expand – but adding milk completely blunted the effect.

The findings suggested that milk proteins interacted with tea to decrease the concentration of antioxidants, which protect against heart disease, said the study published in the ‘European Heart Journal’.

"Since milk appears to modify the biological activities of tea ingredients, it is likely that the anti-tumour effects of tea could be affected as well," said Stangl.

"The findings could also have implications for cancer, against which tea has also been shown to be protective. I think it essential to re-examine the association between tea and cancer protection to see if that is the case," the researcher added.