At this point, I’ve stopped keeping track of how many cups of tea I consume in a day.

I don’t need to count the mugs to know it’s too many – I’m addicted to the stuff and rely on it to get me through every minor inconvenience in my life. 

But if you’re wanting to take a closer look at your own tea intake and what impact it might be having on your health, then the results of new research might be of interest.

A review of previously published studies has shed some light on how many cups of tea experts recommend we should drink in a day – and the amount has received a doctor’s sign-off.

How many cups of tea should we drink per day?

The NHS recommends drinking caffeine ‘in moderation’ and the amount of caffeine each person can consume may vary, as some will be more sensitive to it than others.

Dietitian Victoria Taylor previously told the British Heart Foundation that a ‘moderate’ amount of tea or coffee is four to five cups a day, and this amount ‘should be fine for most people’.

But the new research advised a slightly lower amount, suggesting three to four cups of tea a day is the sweet spot.

This is according to a study co-authored by GP Dr Nisa Aslam, which looked into how black tea affects markers of inflammation in the body.

As part of this, a team reviewed 22 previously published papers and their findings suggested that ‘habitual’ black tea consumption, of around three to four cups daily (with or without milk), could have anti-inflammatory effects, particularly in those with elevated baseline inflammation.

According to Dr Aslam, these findings could be relevant to conditions such as asthma, osteoarthritis, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, which she says ‘are driven, at least in part, by chronic inflammation’.

The expert explained: ‘While our research review is not suggesting that tea can replace medical treatment, it does add to growing evidence that the tea we drink dietetically every day, may influence how the body responds to inflammatory stress.’

So how does tea actually help?

Black tea contains a range of naturally occurring bioactive compounds (plant chemicals), including polyphenols like flavan-3-ols, theaflavins, thearubigins, catechins and quercetin, which researchers claim interact with the body’s immune and inflammatory pathways.

Many of these compounds have demonstrated anti-inflammatory properties, and together they could ‘contribute to the modulation of inflammatory pathways and oxidative stress’.

However, before you get carried away thinking a cuppa might be the key to health and well-being, researchers did add that while the study was ‘promising’, more research is still needed to properly understand and strengthen the findings in the long-term.

It’s also worth noting that the authors of the study are members of the Tea Advisory Panel, which is backed by the tea industry. So, you can take this all with a pinch of salt. Just don’t stir it into your tea by mistake…

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