Over 66000 Swedish women studied over 10 years in the best study of its kind–prospective, long-term–finds that tea, when properly dosed at 2 cups per day, reduced ovarian cancer. Tea!
Two-thirds drank tea (mainly black tea)–and averaged less than a cup daily. Tea-drinkers were younger and ate more fruit and vegetables and drank more beer, but less coffee.
Each additional cup of tea drunk daily created an 18% reduction in risk for ovarian cancer (multivariate HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.68 – 0.99)–when those who drank more than 2 cups per day were compared with those who rarely or never drank tea.
Tea is a powerful drink, and how it is made and even who makes it can have a powerful effect on health—for example, did you know the caffeine in tea is water soluble, and to make decaffeinated tea you can just discard the first 30 seconds of hot tea water?
The protective effect against ovarian cancer was independent of BMI, coffee, number of kids, birth control use, age
of menarche or first birth or menopause, family history of breast cancer, and use of menopausal hormones.
Green and black tea polyphenols (such as catechins, theaflavins, and flavanols) have been studied as chemopreventive agents for cancer and in animal models have been shown to inhibit carcinogenesis of several organ sites, according to the authors.
Tea polyphenols may protect against cancer because of their strong antioxidant activity or inhibition of cell growth, angiogenesis, and apoptosis.