Scientists have brewed up a storm in a tea cup with new research suggesting that coffee drinkers are less likely to suffer heart disease than tea drinkers, writes Eamon Timmins.
The findings of scientists at Dundee University counter the traditional belief that the flavenoids in tea help to fight heart disease. Their seven-year study of 11,000 people in Scotland found the contrary to be true - the more tea a person drank, the greater their likelihood of heart disease or death from a heart attack.
The Irish Heart Foundation welcomed the research, but noted that scientific research over the years regarding tea and coffee drinking was inconclusive and conflicting. The foundation's dietitian, Ms Aoibheann O'Connor, noted that coffee drinkers tended to be upwardly mobile and more educated. Irish research had found that such people were responsive to advice on healthy eating, she said.
The results of the research are published in the current edition of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The authors suggest that the unexpected findings could be due to the fact that coffee is linked to a younger, healthier lifestyle.
