Black tea consumption and serum lipid profiles in Saudi women: a cross-sectional study in Saudi Arabia

The objective of this study was to examine the relation between black tea consumption and serum lipid concentrations using cross-sectional data on 1,764 Saudi women aged 30-70 years. Our data show that women who did drink more than 6 cups of tea per day (> 480 ml) had a significantly lower prevalence of high cholesterol (OR = 0.63), high triglycerides (OR = 0.56), high low-density lipoproteins (OR = 0.70), and high very low-density lipoproteins (OR = 0.61) than the non-tea drinkers. Moreover, increased consumption of black tea was significantly associated with decreased serum concentrations of total cholesterol (P < 0.026) and triglycerides (P = 0.008) and with a decreased proportion of low and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterols (P = 0.015 and 0.011 respectively) after adjusting for risk factors. The results of this cross-sectional study do support the potential beneficial effects of black tea on serum lipids among Saudi women.