For those of us who enjoy a steaming hot cup of coffee or tea every morning, we can take comfort in the fact that in helping us wake up and get our day started, we may be helping out our hearts, as well. That is because a new study out of the Netherlands had found that drinking a moderate amount of coffee or a large quantity of tea every day may protect a person from heart disease and stroke.

Previous studies have found that coffee and tea both seem to reduce the risk of heart disease, but did not adequately address how the two beverages affected a person's risk of death from heart disease, or for that matter, their risk for a stroke.

To arrive at their findings, published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, researchers evaluated questionnaires submitted by over 37,000 participants. They then followed the subjects over the course of 13 years, focusing on the occurrence of cardiovascular disease and death.

According to the new data, consumption of more than six cups of tea each day was associated with a 36% reduction in a person's risk of heart disease when compared to people who drank less than one cup each day. When people drank three to six cups per day, there was a 45% reduction in the risk of death from heart disease relative to those individuals who drink less than one cup each day.

For coffee drinkers, even modest consumption, defined as two to four cups per day, was associated with a lower risk for heart disease when compared to people who drank less than that amount each day. Neither coffee nor tea were found to reduce a person's risk for stroke, but conversely, high consumption of both beverages did not increase their risk, either.

The researchers were limited by the fact that they were dependent upon the participants being accurate in their self-assessment of their coffee and tea consumption, as well as the lack of information regarding what types of tea they were drinking, though black tea accounts for a majority of the tea preferred by the study population in question. Furthermore, coffee and tea drinkers tend to choose different lifestyle choices, with coffee drinkers often being smokers and consumers of unhealthy diets when compared to tea drinkers.

Why tea or coffee can help reduce the risk for heart disease is not completely understood, though it may be linked to the antioxidants that are contained in both coffee and tea.

It is important to keep in mind that neither coffee nor tea are antidotes for unhealthy lifestyle choices, and should instead be part of a nutritious diet and active lifestyle. In other words, if you smoke cigarettes, are excessively sedentary, and eat fatty foods with your coffee or tea, then any benefits would be negated.