The FDA has just released the final rule on the use of “healthy” on food labels, granting tea the opportunity to use this claim. Certain tea products, including tea bags and bottled tea, can now display the “healthy” claim on packaging, provided they contain less than 5 calories per 12 fluid ounce serving.

The tea industry has waited years for this recognition, which underscores tea as a health-promoting beverage. Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world, next to water, with scientific research providing robust support for its health benefits.

True teas—black, green, oolong, white, and dark—have the highest concentrations of flavan-3-ols found in all foods and beverages, making tea the go-to source for this powerful plant compound.

Consuming Just Two Cups of Tea Daily Reduces Risk of Heart Disease and Diabetes

Two cups of green or black tea contain 400-600 mg of healthy, bioactive flavan-3-ols, the recommended daily intake shown to help reduce the risk associated with heart disease and diabetes and improve blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar.

Each 8-fluid oz. cup of tea consumed by those over 65 years old was associated with a 10% lower risk of death from heart disease.

These findings are further supported by a 2021 review, which found that a consistent intake of two cups of tea per day has the potential to decrease the risk of heart disease and its progression.

Two Cups of Tea Every Day Can Help Improve the Health of All Americans

A one-cup serving of unsweetened steeped tea is calorie-free and contains 0 g saturated fat, 7 mg sodium, and 0 g sugar. Given the prominent availability of high-calorie, sugar-sweetened drinks in underserved communities, the FDA’s “healthy” claim may help provide consumer direction on drink choice where it is most needed.

Will Tea Dehydrate Your Body?

Both caffeinated and decaffeinated tea are hydrating beverages. The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine’s reference intakes for water state that “caffeinated beverages appear to contribute to the daily total water intake at rates similar to those of non-caffeinated beverages.”

Thousands of research projects prove the point

Twenty years ago, I was asked to write an editorial for Fresh Cup magazine after a New York doctor was cited by the FDA for using unfounded health claims on the packaging of his tea brand. I wrote that the well-intentioned doctor had jumped the gun on promoting his brand as a health aid, and that it would take several years of clinical trials to backup his claims.

After thousands of worldwide tea research projects and clinical trials, we can finally say with confidence what Chinese practitioners suspected over a thousand years ago: Tea is a Healthy Beverage.

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