London, September 6 (ANI): A cup of tea everyday can cut down your risk of heart disease, a new study claims.

The study in Glasgow and France has led to the conclusion that both green and black tea, as well as raspberry, strawberry and bilberry juices, help prevent fatty deposits from building up in arteries.

An experiment was first done on hamsters, who were fed a high-fat diet over 12 weeks.

The study has been published in the journal Food Chemistry.

Hamsters develop fatty streaks in the walls of their arteries in a similar way to humans, which is a sign of heart disease.

One group of hamsters was provided the high-fat diet, while another group were given additional drinks too.

The quantity of the juice or tea the hamsters drank was equivalent to a human eating 120g of raspberries or drinking a glass of juice or mug of tea a day.

The researchers observed that those hamsters that consumed the drinks had a “remarkable” reduction in fatty build-ups of up to 96 per cent.

Professor Alan Crozier, from the University of Glasgow, who was part of the research at the University of Montpellier, said it could have the similar implication when humans come in the picture.

“The amount they were given is about the equivalent to a human having a glass of fruit juice or a mug of tea a day… the dose is not massive. It is a nutritionally relevant dose,” the Scotsman quoted him as saying.

He explained the procedure: “The hamsters were on a high-fat diet and you get signs of heart disease with the fatty streaks in the arteries after 12 weeks.

“One group was given just a high-fat diet and none of the juices and the teas. The results showed that in this group more than 20 per cent of the artery wall was covered with fatty streaks.

“If you feed them the high-fat diet and a juice or tea, then there is a reduction in the fatty deposits, particularly so with the raspberry juice and green tea. But the others were very effective as well.”

It was found that the hamsters given the juice or tea had less than five per cent of the artery wall affected by fatty build-up compared to 20 per cent in those animals who did not drink.

The protective effect apparently comes from plant-derived chemicals known as phenolic compounds and flavonoids found in the drinks. (ANI)