Can Drinking Tea Improve Your Bone Health?

• A new study suggests that drinking certain kinds of tea may be linked to positive bone health outcomes.
• Drinking tea isn’t enough to protect your bones as you age, so it’s important to think about other dietary and lifestyle changes that promote healthy bones.

Since your bones support and protect organs, anchor muscles, and store calcium, finding proactive ways to keep them strong as you get older is necessary for a long, healthy life.
Eating plenty of calcium-rich foods and participating in impact exercise (like jumping) are the usual recommendations for bone health, as well as avoiding caffeinated beverages like tea and coffee. But if you’re a tea lover who also wants strong bones, new data published in Frontiers in Nutrition may offer some reassurance.1

Tea: Bad for the Bones?
While some research has found that caffeine consumption may not be your body’s best friend when it comes to bone health, evidence suggests the benefits of other bioactive compounds in tea outweigh any cons of its caffeine content.2 Observational studies have shown that tea consumption does not contribute to calcium loss or reduced bone density.1

Researchers think the anti-inflammatory benefits that tea drinkers get from the beverage may have something to do with its positive bone health-supporting effects.
Some studies have suggested that for post-menopausal women, the plant compounds found in true tea, like green tea, may have estrogen-like activities, which can help the body maintain bone health after the natural reduction in bone-supporting estrogen that happens during this life stage.1

For example, a study from 2022 that included 3,530 postmenopausal women found that participants who consumed 1–۳ cups of green tea daily had significantly lower rates of osteopenia (weakened bones) and osteoporosis (decreased bone mass) compared to people who either did not consume green tea or consumed less than one cup daily.3

Other Ways to Support Bone Health
Tea alone is not enough to give you strong bones. You also need to take other steps to support bone health as you age.

Eat More Prunes
Research has shown that eating around 50 grams of prunes every day (that’s around 4-6 prunes) may help preserve hip bone mineral density in postmenopausal women.5 Researchers think that this effect could be because of prunes’ anti-inflammatory effects, phenolic compounds, and bone health-supporting micronutrients.

Do Impact Exercise
Don’t Forget the Milk
Avoid Cigarette Smoking
Avoiding cigarette smoking also support strong bone health. Smoking has been shown to reduce blood flow to the bones, which can affect the delivery of essential nutrients to the skeletal structures.910 Together, these lifestyle choices not only weaken the skeletal structure but also slow down the healing process after fractures.