Tea May Reduce Risk of Cancer, Heart Disease: Forum
 (Washington, Health Reuters, 9/25/02)

Jeffrey Blumberg of Tufts University in Boston, adviser to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and to the Tea Council, reported that tea is rich in phytonutrients that may prevent free radicals from damaging cells. In addition, Joseph Judd, director of the USDA's Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, has found that tea-drinking can lower LDLs, the "bad" cholesterol. His team at the Beltsville Lab had 8 men and 8 women drink a beverage that tasted like tea for 3 weeks; then they gave these same participants 5 cups of actual tea daily. The researchers found that drinking tea, as compare with the placebo, lowered LDL levels up to 10%. Furthermore, when Dr. Iman Hakim of the University of Arizona, had 140 smokers drink either green tea, black tea or water for 4 months, the group drinking the green tea had a 25% decrease in 8-OHdG (a chemical associated with DNA damage) in their urine.