Substance in Tea Wards Off Infection

In addition to all of the benefits of the flavonoids in tea, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University have identified another beneficial substance in tea, L-theanine. Their recently published new data indicates that this tea component can help the body ward off infection and disease and that drinking tea may strengthen the immune system.

Research indicates that L-theanine primes the immune system in fighting infection, bacteria, viruses and fungi. A subsequent human clinical trial showed that certain immune cells of participants who drank five cups of Black Tea a day for two to four weeks secreted up to four times more interferon, an important part of the body's immune defense, than at baseline.

Consumption of the same amount of coffee for the same duration had no effect on interferon levels. According to the authors, this study suggests that drinking Black Tea provides the body's immune system with natural resistance to microbial infection.