JUST two mugs of green tea each day could slash the risking of dying from cardiovascular disease, a study has found.
Pensioners who drank large amounts of it were 75 per cent less likely to die of heart problems than those who did not.
Fans of the drink were also found to have a lower risk of dying from bowel cancer.
Green tea has long been popular in China, Japan and the Middle East.
But in recent years it has become popular in Britain – where black tea is our traditional cuppa – because it contains high levels of antioxidants which are thought to help the body’s cells fight disease.
In recent years, a number of studies have suggested green tea can help lower the risk of heart disease and even cancer.
Many of these have only been carried out on animals or on cells in the lab rather than on large numbers of humans.
The latest study, however, tracked the health of more than 12,000 elderly people living in Japan.
The men and women were aged between 65 and 84.
They were asked to fill out questionnaires on lifestyle factors including details of diet, smoking and alcohol intake.
During the following seven years more than 1,200 of the volunteers died.
Green tea
But when the scientists analysed all of the questionnaires, they found that the more green tea the participants had drunk, the less likely they were to have died.
This was especially true of cardiovascular disease.
Those drinking between 420ml and 560ml a day were up to 75 per cent less likely to have died of heart or circulatory disease than those who drank less than one cup each day
Green tea is a type of tea made solely with the leaves of Camellia sinensis that has undergone minimal oxidation during processing.
Green tea originates from China and has become associated with many cultures in Asia from Japan to the Middle East.
Recently, it has become more widespread in the West, where black tea is traditionally consumed. Many varieties of green tea have been created in countries where it is grown.
These varieties can differ substantially due to variable growing conditions, processing and harvesting time.
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