STiR coffee and tea magazine

18 STiR coffee and tea | 2022 Issue 5 (October/November) Drinkers of black tea might live longer, according to a study of a half million U.K. adults. Photo: Adobe iStock Tea Foundation Aids Ukrainian War Refugees Russia's invasion of Ukraine devastated cities, towns and villages, driving millions of people from their homes, including eight million internally displaced persons. These people lack access to essential services like safe drinking water and electricity because Russian artillery destroyed power plants, transmission stations, and municipal water purification facilities. To help meet displaced Ukrainians' urgent needs, Numi Foundation, a philanthropic group established by California- based Numi Tea, provides filtration equipment as well as solar-powered lanterns and electric charging stations. The project, called "Together for H2OPE: Ukraine," aims to raise $1 million in donations. Waves for Water, a U.S. non-profit, provides the water gear, while the electric products are handled by Mpowerd, a U.S. maker of clean energy gadgets. "The situation is dire. We have moved swiftly to meet the immediate humanitarian crisis in Ukraine," said Darian Rodriguez Heyman, executive director of the non-profit group, who calls access to clean water a basic human right. Heyman explained that the destruction of municipal infrastructure forces Ukrainians to collect water from dirty puddles and streams. "Thanks to our partnership with Waves for Water and Mpowered, Together for H2OPE: Ukraine has the opportunity to provide 550,000 desperate Ukrainians with access to the clean water, light, and power that will sustain them through the invasion while supporting long-term health as the nation rebuilds," he said. Numi Foundation, established in 2016 by the sibling founders of Numi Tea, works with specialist non-govern- ment organizations to assist tea farming communities. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the group shifted its focus from providing potable water to delivering critical food relief to low-income families. Waves for Water, for its part, distributes buckets equipped with durable water filters to ensure access to clean water. During the past 12 years, the group helped provide potable water to 4 million people in 40 countries. Waves for Water field operations director Rob McQueen aims to deliver 22,000 water filtration buckets to refugees near the front lines, a task that is being assigned to military veterans accustomed to operating in war zones. Establishing networks to reach displaced and isolated people in contested areas "has been nothing short of incredible," said McQueen. Refugees require mobile phones to access information and stay in touch with loved ones. Mpowerd's charging stations are portable and reliable, enabling refugees to keep in contact while on the move. The company is a U.S.-based maker of personal solar chargers and lamps. "Much-needed funding has been provided toward lethal aid," John Salzinger, the founder of Mpowerd, observed. "What we are all collectively trying to do, in parallel, is provide necessary and timely humanitarian aid to those internally displaced people inside Ukraine." Donation information: Wavesforwater.org/ukraine — Dan Bolton A volunteer stockpiles water for displaced Ukrainians. The study was published on August 30 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The Biobank contains in-depth genetic and health information on the most common life-threatening diseases. Participants in the study were aged 40–69 when they completed the baseline questionnaire distributed during 2006–2010. All participants received physical examinations and provided blood, urine, and saliva samples when enrolled. Study participants in 2022 averaged 56.5 years of age. Participants recorded how many cups of tea they drank each day and whether it was hot, very hot, or cold. The majority (85%) said that they drink between two and five cups daily, while 19% reported drinking more than six cups per day. Black tea was favored by 89%. Portion size and strength were not assessed. A follow-up at a median of 11 years revealed that 29,783 of the 498,000 participants had died. Those who regularly drink tea experienced fewer incidents of heart disease (CVD), ischemic heart disease, and strokes. Maki Inoue-Choi, Ph.D., the study's corresponding author, said that there was no evidence, however, that links tea consumption to a reduction in cancer deaths. The results were not different in tea drinkers who added milk or sugar. "Higher tea intake was modestly associated with lower all-cause mortality risk among those who drank two or more cups per day," wrote Inoue-Choi, a researcher at the Metabolic Epide- miology Branch at the National Cancer Institute. "While these findings may offer reassurance to tea drinkers, they do not indicate that people should start drinking tea or change their tea consumption for health benefits," wrote Inoue-Choi. Instead, the findings "suggest that tea, even at higher levels of intake, can be part of a healthy diet," according to Inoue-Choi. Past research on the consumption of green tea has demon- strated health benefits such as reducing inflammation in the body, but few large-scale studies focus on black tea. Black tea contains theaflavins, thearubigins, and polyphenols that have been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties and to control blood lipids. Additional research is needed, because moderate tea drinkers were also found to smoke less, consume less red and processed meats, and drink tea at lower temperatures. Fernan- do Rodriguez Artalejo, professor of preventative medicine and public health at the University of Madrid, told Bloomberg News that the study does not address whether those who do not consume tea regularly would improve their health by drink- ing tea. Marion Nestle, a professor of food studies at New York University, wrote, "Observational studies like this always raise the question: Is there something else about tea drinkers that makes them healthier?" But, she advised, "a cautious interpretation seems like a good idea." [Study: Inoue-Choi, M., et al. Tea Consumption and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality in the UK Biobank: A Prospective Cohort Study. Annals of Internal Medicine. August 2022. DOI: 10.7326/M22-0041] — Dan Bolton Tea Report

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