Are There any Health Benefits of Combining Tea with Milk?

Tea is one of the most popular beverages in the world, and it is believed that drinking tea has a variety of health advantages.

Tea is often drank with milk in the United Kingdom and other areas of the world.

However, it's uncertain if adding milk to tea adds extra advantages or inhibits the function of tea chemicals in the body.

Benefits provided by tea and milk

While many types of tea have been studied for their health advantages, green and black teas have received the most attention.

Green and black teas are high in flavonoids, which are plant chemicals. These substances function as antioxidants, assisting in the battle against underlying cell damage caused by reactive molecules called free radicals. Free radicals have a role in heart disease, cancer, and other health problems.

Drinking green and black tea has been linked to decrease blood pressure, anticancer effects, and lower cholesterol levels in both animal and human studies.

Milk, on the other hand, is high in nutrients like protein, calcium, and potassium, all of which are essential for proper growth, body composition, and bone health.

Mixed research

Combining tea with milk, which both contain health-promoting chemicals and minerals, may appear to be good.

One Chinese research of over 1,800 individuals revealed that both tea and milk consumption were connected to a decreased risk of oral cancer, especially when drank together.

However, some research suggests that milk proteins may interfere with the absorption and antioxidant activity of the chemicals found in tea.

Compared to drinking water, consuming 2 cups (500 ml) of basic black tea boosted blood flow, which can assist improve heart function, in a study of 16 adult women. Drinking black tea with skim milk, on the other hand, had no such effects.

Casein, a kind of protein found in milk, may attach to flavonoids in tea, preventing their function in the body, according to the study.

However, a small research of nine people found that drinking black tea boosted blood levels of antioxidant flavonoids, and that adding milk to the tea had no influence on this.

Longer brewing durations, independent of the inclusion of milk, may contribute to higher absorption of the antioxidants in tea, according to the study.

Milk may interfere with the action of antioxidants in teas to some level, based on the contradictory results of these research, but it may not have the same impact with teas that have been infused for lengthy periods of time.

To summarize

Tea, particularly black and green types, is high in antioxidant chemicals that may improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels, among other things.

According to some research, adding milk to tea inhibits the action of these chemicals, while others have found the converse to be true.

Furthermore, most research on milk and tea consumption have small sample sizes and do not include people who consume tea with milk on a daily basis for lengthy periods of time.

Thus, it’s uncertain if mixing milk and tea is advantageous, whereas taking tea in general has been more definitely connected to possible advantages.