Rooibos tea is made from the dried leaves of a plant native to South Africa. The leaves are fermented to make red tea, and can also be used unfermented (green), although green rooibos tea is not widely available. Neither has caffeine. While rooibos, or red tea, like chamomile tea, has plant flavonoids with cancer-fighting properties, medical studies have been limited and their results contradictory.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t drink it, notes Derocha.
“We talk about [eating] a rainbow of color with fruits and vegetables and getting a little bit of color from everything because there’s a variety of nutrition that you’ll get,” she says. “I feel the same way about tea. I think we should have red, black, white, and green tea because you’ll get different perks.”
Fancy Tea Lattes Have No Heart Health Benefits
Creamy, foamy, frothy sweet tea lattes may be delicious. But for heart health and other health benefits, you’re better off drinking your tea plain. You’ll avoid a lot of calories with plain tea, too.
“A lot of patients will drink fancy tea lattes, and what they’re going to get from that is a lot of sugar, calories, and carbs,” says Mintz. “In that case, you’re doing nothing for yourself.”
A recent study concluded that, while consuming unsweetened tea provided some heart benefits, those benefits disappeared when sugar or artificial sweeteners were added.
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