Tea is Cancer Fighter

We have a new study out that seems to contradict an earlier finding. In this one from the CSIRO Division of Human Nutrition at the Inaugural Australian International Symposium on Tea and Health (What a mouthful!), an experiment on mice showed a reduction of skin cancer when they were given tea. This tea was served with milk which is where the contradiction to an earlier study shows up.

Skin cancer development was reduced by 50% and papillomas development was reduced by 70%. Sounds like a good enough reason to be drinking tea even if further study on humans is needed.

The mice were given tea with 10% milk or 10% milk or water as their sole drinking source. Seems this implies at a minimum three different groups of mice. UVA+B induced skin cancer was what they were checking on. They wanted to know if tea with milk reduced the affect of the free radicals created by the rays which damage skin cells causing them to become cancerous.

Originally the thought was that milk bound to the flavonoids in the tea causing an impact on tea’s antioxidant properties. Looks like that might be wrong. Another reason for more research.

I don’t think it matters too much though. Every time we turn around there is another study coming out that indicates another benefit to human health from tea. In some things green tea seems better and in others black tea seems better. So just drink whichever you like best.

Source: A Cup of Tea May Protect Against Skin Cancer