Tea and Coffee Good for the Heart 喝茶和咖啡 – 對心臟有益

By Kate Ferrand

媒體英語會帶大家一起學習BBC撰稿人在報道世界大事時常用到的單詞和短語。

Background: 背景：

荷蘭的一項研究表明，在對4萬名每天都喝幾杯茶或咖啡的人群進行了13年的跟蹤后，專家們發現這一人群患心臟疾病的可能性較小。

The study in the journal of the American Heart Association could make pleasant reading for those who like a regular cup of tea.

It found that those who drank more than six cups of tea a day were a third less likely to develop heart problems than those who drank none.

Coffee drinkers also fared well, but only up to a point.

Those who consumed between two and four cups a day had a twenty percent lower risk of heart disease than those who drank little.

But the protective effects stopped with very heavy consumption.

The Dutch do not add milk to their tea as liberally as the British, and the jury's still out as to whether milk reduces the effectiveness of flavonoids, which are thought to be the key ingredient.

The British Heart Foundation welcomed the study, but warned that drinking all your tea while slouched on the couch was unlikely to offer many health benefits.