CardioExchange Archive

Coffee and Tea: Go Ahead and Have a Cup: Moderate consumption of both coffee and tea was associated with a reduction in coronary heart disease (CHD) in a Dutch study that followed 37,514 people for 13 years. The paper appears in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. Compared to people who drank less than 1 cup of tea per day, people who drank more than 6 cups of tea per day had a 36% lower risk of developing CHD, and people who drank 3-6 cups per day had a 45% lower risk. (Most of the tea consumed in the Netherlands is black tea, according to the authors.) Compared to people who drank less than 2 cups or more than 4 cups of coffee, people who drank 2-4 cups of coffee per day had a 20% reduction in the risk of CHD. The incidence of stroke did not appear to be affected by coffee or tea consumption. The authors concluded that their study strengthens “the evidence on the lower risk of CHD associated with coffee and tea consumption,” although they acknowledge that neither was seen to have an effect on either stroke or all-cause mortality.