Drinking tea three or more times per week

It costs just a few dozen to a few hundred yuan per year. Brewing a cup takes only a few minutes, so it doesn’t take up much time at all.

One large study in China, called China-PAR, involved over 100,900 participants, with half of them followed for 7.3 years. Those with a regular tea-drinking habit had a 15% lower risk of death (hazard ratio 0.85, 95% CI 0.79–0.90, which is a reliable range). Starting at age 50, these individuals gain 1.41 extra years free from atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases, and 1.26 extra years of total life expectancy.

Wang X, Liu F, Li J, et al. (2020). Tea consumption and the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: The China-PAR project. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 27(18), 1956-1963. https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487319894685；茶叶霉菌毒素：Cui P 等 (2020). Quantitative analysis and dietary risk assessment of aflatoxins in Chinese post-fermented dark tea. Food and Chemical Toxicology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2020.111830；Zhou H 等 (2022). Mycotoxins in Tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze): Contamination and Dietary Exposure Profiling in the Chinese Population. Toxins. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins14070452；绿茶提取物与肝损伤：Hu J 等 (2018). The safety of green tea and green tea extract consumption in adults - Results of a systematic review. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yrtph.2018.03.019

There are some caveats to keep in mind: this type of study is purely observational, and Chinese men who drink tea tend to smoke and drink more than average. The researchers have accounted for some of these factors, but not all. Also, never drink tea that is piping hot — please refer to the section on hot drink temperatures for more details. Some people worry about mycotoxins in tea; a test of 158 batches of dark tea found aflatoxin in just 2 of them, and the amount consumed via normal tea intake stays well under internationally accepted limits. Another study examined 352 tea samples for 16 different mycotoxins, and only ochratoxin A in dark tea exceeded the legal limit on average. Even accounting for typical Chinese tea consumption levels, neither study found any dietary risk. Always store tea in a dry place, and discard any batches that have become damp or moldy. Tea extract capsules are a different story: taking large doses of concentrated catechins at one time can damage the liver, but this is not a risk when drinking brewed tea. Therefore, all the benefits mentioned here apply only to brewed tea — do not replace regular tea with extract supplements.