• Posted December 24, 2025

Tea May Have Bone-Health Benefits For Older Women

Here’s a DIY prescription for women looking to do everything they can to prevent a broken hip: Drink tea, not coffee.

A decade-long study of older women found that tea drinkers had slightly stronger bones than their coffee-consuming counterparts.

"Even small improvements in bone density can translate into fewer fractures across large groups," said study co-leader Enwu Liu, a lecturer in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University in Australia.

Liu’s study — recently published in the journal Nutrients  — followed nearly 10,000 senior women over 10 years to compare changes in bone mineral density (BMD) among those who drank coffee or tea. 

BMD is a key marker used to gauge the risk of the bone-weakening disease osteoporosis.

The upshot: While moderate coffee-drinking caused no harm, women who drank more than five cups a day had lower bone density.

"While moderate coffee drinking appears safe, very high consumption may not be ideal, especially for women who drink alcohol," Liu said in a news release.

In all, 1 in 3 women over 50 has osteoporosis, a disease that leads to millions of fractures every year. 

Because billions of people make coffee or tea part of their everyday routine, researchers said it was important to understand how these drinks affect bones.

They noted that previous studies have yielded conflicting results, and few have followed so many women across a full decade.

Over the study period, participants reported their tea and coffee consumption, and imaging was used to assess bone density.

The upshot: Tea-drinkers had slightly higher bone density in their hips than those who didn’t. 

Researchers conceded that the gain was small, but they added that it was statistically significant. As such, it might matter when the health of a large population is taken into account.

The verdict on coffee was mixed.

Two or three cups of joe every day didn’t do any apparent harm, the study found. But very high levels could negatively affect bone strength, researchers warned.

They noted that women with a higher lifetime alcohol intake seemed especially vulnerable to coffee’s negative effects. Tea, meanwhile, seemed to have stronger benefits in women who were obese.

Co-author Ryan Liu said tea is rich in compounds called catechins, which may help slow bone loss and encourage bone formation.

"Coffee’s caffeine content, by contrast, has been shown in laboratory studies to interfere with calcium absorption and bone metabolism," Ryan Liu said in a news release, adding that these effects are small and adding milk helps offset them.

The findings don’t mean women need to give up coffee or start drinking tea by the gallon, Enwu Liu said. 

"While calcium and vitamin D remain cornerstones of bone health, what’s in your cup could play a role too," he said. "For older women, enjoying a daily cup of tea may be more than a comforting ritual; it could be a small step toward stronger bones."  

More info

Learn more about osteoporosis at the Bone Health & Osteoporosis Foundation.

SOURCE: Flinders University, news release, Dec. 13, 2025