Milk Blunts Heart Benefits of Tea
(HealthDay News, 1/ 8/07)

Dr. Verena Stangl of the Charite Hospital, Universitatsmedizin Berlin, and team, assigned 16 healthy postmenopausal women to drink either half a liter of black tea, black tea with 10 % skimmed milk, or boiled water on three separate occasions.. Two hours before and after the subjects ingested the fluids, the researchers used ultrasound to assess the functioning of the cells lining the brachial artery in the forearm. The investigators found that black tea improved the artery’s ability to relax and expand, but adding milk blocked this effect. Experiments on rats also showed that milk negated tea’s vessel-relaxing effect, leading scientists to speculate that the caseins in dairy products thwart the effect of the catechin in tea.

(European Heart Journal, online edition, Jan. 9,2007)