Heaven of Tea

So the reality is simple: Smoking causes cancer. And kicking the habit substantially lowers your chances of developing cancer along with a host of other illnesses. However, UCLA researchers did recently discover a way to help move the odds in your favor:

UCLA researchers found that smokers who ingested high levels of natural chemicals called flavonoids in their diet had a lower risk of developing lung cancer, an important finding since more than 90% of lung cancers are caused by tobacco smoking.

And where can you find flavonoids? In Tea, of course! Green and white tea in particular has lots of flavonoids, since these are the least-processed teas. The more processing, the less flavonoids remain (they are converted to larger molecules). However, as the research above suggests, even black tea (the most processed) can help add flavonoids to your body:

So should smokers run out and stock up on the teas, apples, beans and strawberries? Yes, Zhang said. Quitting smoking is the best course of action, he said, but eating more fruits and vegetables and drinking more black and green teas won’t hurt.

But be sure to drink loose-leaf tea. As we pointed out before, bottled and ready-to-drink teas only have 20% of the flavonoids in loose-leaf teas. Of course, if you don’t smoke, drinking green and white teas still does add flavonoids to your body and helps in just the same way. That’s what makes this study so interesting: smokers have much higher odds of lung cancer, but by drinking green and white tea they can help mitigate (somewhat) the likelihood of developing cancer. The health benefits of tea just keep piling up.