People connect drinking tea to calming down, and those who drink tea tend to cope better with stress, Andrew Steptoe says. His study gives proof to the fact that tea induces positive changes in bodily chemistry. The level of the stress hormone Cortisol sank much more rapidly in those test persons who drank tea than in those who were given a placebo beverage to drink.

However, the exact substance responsible for this positive effect has not been identified yet. Tea consists of many different substances (polyphenols, flavonoids, etc.) — all of which have been tested as beneficial to health in previous studies.

(Source: Article in the German magazine Stern)