Researchers from Peking University have found out that drinking a cup of tea can not only improve your mood, but also enhance your cognitive function. This has an overall effect on improving your creative abilities.
The researchers recruited 90 university students for two experiments. In the first experiment, 50 participants were divided into two groups. One group drank a cup of black tea and the other drank a cup of water. Both groups drank the cups three minutes into their experiment. They were tasked with building a block design for a fictional toy factory within 10 minutes.
The researchers enlisted the help of 10 university students to act as “judges” for the block designs. They rated each design on an 11-point scale for “grandness,” “unification,” “aesthetic appeal” and “degree of innovativeness.” According to the results of the judges, the students that drank black tea scored an average of 6.54 points while the group that drank water scored an average of only 6.03 points.
In the second experiment, 40 different participants went through the same procedures as the first group. However, one participant in this new water drinkers group wasn’t given anything to drink. Their test was also different. The researchers asked the students to name a newly opened ramen shop. They had 20 minutes to come up with up as many “cool and attractive” names as possible.
Again, 10 different students were called in to judge the names based on “innovativeness” and “playfulness.” Just like in the first experiment, the tea drinkers scored higher at 4.11 against the 3.78 score of the water drinkers group.
“This work contributes to understanding the function of tea on creativity and offers a new way to investigate the relationship between food and beverage consumption and the improvement of human cognition,” wrote the researchers in the abstract of their study.
Tea can be enjoyed in many ways, but there are some things that you can do ensure that your cup is as healthy as can be.
Superfoods like tea have varying nutritional profiles. To learn more about these health-supporting herbs, visit Herbs.news.
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