Drink Those Veggies!

According to a recent article on CNN.com, drinking tea is as beneficial as eating vegetables. Why's that?

Tufts University professor of Nutrition Jeffrey Blumberg says, tea is a "a plant-based beverage. You put those leaves in water and you heat them up and what you're doing is extracting these phytonutrients that are very similar to those that you find in fruits and vegetables. It doesn't have some of the vitamins and minerals and the fiber that you find in fruits and vegetables, so it's not quite equivalent, but if we're looking at those phytochemicals, then boy, there's actually a fair amount in tea."

He does warn that research still needs to be done on claims that tea can help everything from osteoporosis to heart health, but still recommends tea as a healthy beverage, simply because it has zero calories if you don't add milk or sugar. And there is another reason not to add dairy. The European Heart Journal recently conducted a study that found tea diluted with milk had diluted health benefits as well.

More and more evidence is being found that tea is good for you. So take Blumberg's advice: "I tell people...if you don't drink tea, try it. Have a cup. I find it an aromatic and delicious drink. If you already drink a cup a day, consider having two. And so if you drink it frequently and consistently, that's where the benefits are seen."

Comments

[Ana Poto]

would soymilk dilute the benefits of tea?