Black tea may fight bad cholesterol

Black tea consumption may lower bad cholesterol levels and could one day be used to help reduce the chance of heart disease for those at risk, U.S. researchers said Tuesday.

SCIENTISTS WITH THE U.S. Department of Agriculture said they found consumers who drank black tea for three weeks experienced a decrease of between 7 percent and 11 percent in their low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or so-called bad cholesterol.

There was no effect on the level of high-density lipoprotein, or the good type of cholesterol, according to the study of a small group of individuals.

Separately, scientists also tested another group to rule out the effect of caffeine. In that group, 12 of the original 15 individuals were given water-flavored-like tea with caffeine levels similar to what is found in tea. Those who had regular tea saw their LDL levels drop about 11 percent compared with the caffeine placebo.