Is Tea Bad for Cholesterol?
As more and more of us are becoming aware, having high cholesterol can have serious health implications – leading to heart disease, stroke and even death. So it’s important to understand which foods can raise our cholesterol levels and which can help to lower them.
One of the popular beverages around the world is tea and many of us don’t know whether tea can have an influence on our cholesterol levels.
The Good
Studies have shown that including tea in your diet can actually help to reduce your levels of LDL cholesterol, the type most commonly associated with health issues. It can also help lower overall cholesterol levels. Black tea has been found to be particularly effective in lowering cholesterol, but green tea has also been known to confer certain benefits.
The Bad
Having a high cholesterol level is usually associated with lifestyle factors, such as a lack of exercise, smoking and eating an unhealthy diet. If you’re experiencing high cholesterol due to other factors, then drinking tea alone won’t be enough to bring your levels back down to a healthy point.
In some cases though, it can have the opposite effect and scientists have found it can even increase cholesterol levels if it’s taken alongside a high fat diet.
The Final Word
Overall, tea can be beneficial if consumed as part of a healthy lifestyle, including a balanced diet and regular exercise. It’s unlikely to be a ‘magic cure’ for high cholesterol, but it could certainly be part of a successful strategy to bring your levels back to a healthy point.
Here are some tips to ensure that you get the most out of tea in your efforts to maintain healthy cholesterol levels:
- Incorporate tea into your daily routine: drinking a cup regularly can help reduce bad cholesterol, so try to fit a cup of tea into your daily routine however you can.
- Watch the sugar: Adding sugar to your tea could make it less beneficial when it comes to cholesterol, so if you take sugar make sure it’s in limited amounts.
- Choose black tea: Black tea has been clearly shown to have better benefits on cholesterol levels than other tea varieties, so opt for that if possible.
At the end of the day, diet and exercise play a major part in ensuring healthy cholesterol levels, but for people who are looking for something to give them an extra boost, adding tea to your diet could be a wise move.
