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Drinking tea can make you live for longer, study finds

Put the kettle on and pour yourself another cuppa...

tea the queen
Harriet Keane
Lifestyle Intern
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It's a phrase we are most likely to hear multiple times a day but never has there been more of a reason to shout "put the kettle on!" than right now. That's because it has recently been revealed that tea drinkers - we're talking both builder's brew and green varieties - will live for longer - yes, really. A whole year and a half longer to be precise. 

MORE: Top tips for a healthier and longer life

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Forget the green juice because it's all about green tea! The study was carried out in China where drinking green tea is the most popular variant of tea drinking and proved that avid tea drinkers (however, not exclusively green tea fans) could be adding a year and a half to their life. The research showed that middle-aged people have at least three cups of tea week meaning there's most likely a high percentage of people at home who have been adding years to life without even knowing. Well, that tea run doesn't sound as bad anymore, does it?

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Oh, and it gets better. To conduct the research, professionals investigated on 10,000 adults where it was discovered that not only were tea lovers set to live 15 months longer they also had half the risk of fatal heart disease and strokes. And it appears tea is the gift that keeps on giving as it was also shown that risk of premature death was close to one-third lower for tea drinkers compared to those who rarely knocked back a cuppa. 

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So are you in the running to live longer? You may be more qualified than you think! According to this research, you classify as a 'habitual tea drinker' if you drink tea at least three times a week. Why? You may ask. Experts have put this joyous news down to the polyphenols that is found in a brew which has previously been proven to protect against heart disease and raised blood pressure. In the study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, lead author Dr Xinyan Wang revealed: "The favourable health effects are the most robust for green tea and for long-term habitual tea drinkers". Right, who's going to put the kettle on then?

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