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included five cups of tea in their daily intake of liquids. Here again, millions of Americans could benefit by switching from sugar-filled sodas to calorie-free tea. CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH The night before the symposium, I sat with Dr. Lenore Arab, a professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, during dinner at the Embassy of India. "Every 45 seconds, someone in America suf- fers a stroke," she said. She shared with me the promising effects tea may have on both reducing strokes and repairing damage caused by mild strokes. COGNITIVE FUNCTION For centuries, tea drinkers have appreciated the beverage's abil- ity to keep us alert and focused as the workday waned. That's why offices in England and India have included tea stations or trol- leys. We can now point to a published European clinical trial that found that tea drinkers showed more mental clarity and improved work performance than those participants given a placebo. "This positive effect may be due to the caffeine and L-theanine found in tea," reported Suzanne Einöther, research scientist at Unilever in the Netherlands. "Tea consumption positively affected mood, creative problem solving and work performance." BONE HEALTH The effects of osteoporosis cannot be reversed; however, new research from Texas Tech University Health Services points to a positive relationship between green tea consumption and improved bone formation, muscle strength, and decreasing bone degradation. Dr. Chwan-Li Shen believes bone mineral density is improved with daily consumption of four to six cups of green tea. Her findings come after a 24-week human clinical trial that focused on postmenopausal women with low bone mass. A PRESCRIPTION FOR GOOD HEALTH When tea vendors get together, they often swap stories about WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED: UCLA professor Lenore Arab presented findings at the symposium about tea's role in lowering stroke risk. Arab has compiled results of nine international studies involv- ing 196,000 participants in five countries that showed an aver- age 21 percent reduction in strokes when the participants drank three or more cups of tea each day. She went on to explain a European/American study that showed an 11 percent decrease in heart attacks among participants who drank three or more cups of tea per day. Another symposium presenter, Dr. Claudio Ferri of University L'Aquila in Italy, substantiated Arab's findings. "Drinking black tea could lead to a reduction in strokes, heart attacks and cardio- vascular diseases," he concluded. Ferri produced one of the more intriguing presentations of the day—and the one that provoked the most questions from jour- nalists. It centered on a study of 38 people, half with hyperten- sion and half without. The subjects were given a cup of black tea before ingesting a high-in-fat meal replicating "junk food." Blood pressure would normally rise two or three points following such a meal; however, Ferri found that the addition of tea prevented the expected increase in blood pressure. His subjects showed abso- lutely no systolic change. "Black tea may induce a protective effect by not only reducing blood pressure but also reducing the negative action of the fat load on the arteries," Ferri said. customers who ask for specific teas to either burn more calories or prevent maladies. Their curiosity has been primed by TV doc- tors who tout certain teas for various illnesses, and they expect tea shops to fill the prescription. This phenomenon is encourag- ing more consumers to delve into a lifestyle infused with tea. But we have to remember that, according to the FDA, this ancient drink is still recognized as simply a healthful beverage and not medicine. We are a long way from printing health claims on tea package labels. How then do we interpret all this emerging scientific evidence concerning tea's role in healthy living? According to the World Health Organization, the definition of health is a three-pronged "state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Tea certainly affects all three aspects of a healthy lifestyle, and we can say it can be a part of a holistic approach to good health. However, it is not a magic bullet that can negate the results of overeating or lack of exercise. We should focus on the scientific data for physical and mental health as well as tea's unique ability to encourage social well- being. As Okakura Kakuzo pointed out a century ago in "The Book of Tea," tea is "the cup of humanity" that brings people and cultures together. Tea is the world's communal cup; it helps us interact socially and leads to a more serene state of mind. Those benefits are all equally important. And the fact that tea is now shown to be a healthy beverage is only one more added benefit of this age-old potion. freshcup.com November 2012 57