Tea drinking tied to slower aging

What's the news: Tea drinking is tied to slower biological aging.

Why should we believe it: This news is based on a new study published online a few days ago by scientists in China. They looked at two large data sets, one from the UK and the other from China, and compared tea drinking to the acceleration or deceleration of biological aging. Results:

• Consistent tea drinking is tied to a lower acceleration of biological aging

• Going from not drinking tea to drinking tea is tied to a lower acceleration of biological aging

• The impact seems to plateau at 3 cups of tea per day

Why this is a big deal: This is an observational study, meaning that it doesn't tell us the effects of drinking tea, only a correlation. However, the study does a few things to get around this limit.

For one, it controls for things like alcohol and coffee intake — to make sure the benefit of tea is not simply that it's not beer or an espresso. For another, the study looked at people who switched from tea drinking to non-drinking and vice versa.

The results all point in the same direction: there seems to be something about tea uniquely that reduces aging and improves health. That's good news for the 2 billion people worldwide who are estimated to drink tea every day.

So what specifically can you do now: If you're not drinking tea, you can start. The above study is not the first to indicate that tea has health benefits. Any kind of tea — black, green, white — seems to have benefits. And again, the benefits seemed to increase up to 3 cups a day.