A cup of tea boosts brain power
February 27th, 2011 - 6:56 pm ICT by IANSLondon, Feb 27 (IANS) New research suggests that tea does bolster brain power, keeps fatigue at bay while helping you to solve crosswords faster.
Researchers looked at the effect of key chemicals found in tea on the mental performance of 44 young volunteers.
The effects of these ingredients, an amino acid called L-theanine — also found in green tea — and caffeine at levels typically found in a cup of tea, were compared with a dummy treatment, the journal Nutritional Neuroscience reports.
The active ingredients significantly improved accuracy across a number of switching tasks for those who drank the tea after 20 and 70 minutes compared with the placebo.
The tea drinkers’ alertness was also heightened, the study found, according to the Daily Mail.
Tea was also found to reduced tiredness among the volunteers, who were aged under 40, according to the Dutch researchers.
Tim Bond of the industry-backed Tea Advisory Panel said the latest findings backed a previous study, which showed drinking two cups of black tea “improves the ability to react to stimuli and to focus attention on the task in hand”.
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Tags: active ingredients, advisory panel, alertness, amino acid, black tea, boosts, brain power, crosswords, cup of tea, daily mail, dutch researchers, green tea, l theanine, london feb, mental performance, nutritional neuroscience, stimuli, tea drinkers, tim bond, tiredness