Tea & Health
Good tea is one of the few sensory indulgences your doctor would approve of. While not a panacea by any stretch of the imagination (few things in life are), many studies cited strongly suggest that drinking tea has beneficial effects. Above all, good tea should be enjoyed for its rich taste and flavour, and the comfort and calm one can derive from it. There have been several positive scientific and medical research findings linking tea drinking and health benefits in recent years.
Stay Loose
Loose is better than bottled:
"Ready to Drink tea has only 5% of flavonoids compared with tea brewed fresh from loose leaf tea."
Flavonoids are compounds with powerful antioxidant properties found in tea. The USDA database tells us that green tea that comes ready to drink in a can or bottle has only 5% the flavonoid content of tea brewed fresh from loose-leaf tea. The likely reason for this is that within a couple of hours of brewing, tea catechins begin to break down. (USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods, Jan 2007)
Loose tea is better than teabags:
"More antioxidants with loose tea"
Some guidelines as to how to optimize the antioxidant boost by tea researcher Lester A. Mitscher, PhD: Fresh brewed is best. Antioxidant catechins-the potential sniffle stoppers in green tea-break down fast. Keep it loose. Tea made from loose leaves has more antioxidants than tea bags, which tend to have lower-quality, powdered leaves. Watch your water. Chlorine in tap water can lower antioxidant levels if it is not brought to a full boil first. For the best - tasting tea, use distilled water; the minerals in water change tea's flavor. (Prevention, April 2003)
Tea is Healthy
Tea versus water:
Tea is a "healthier" drink than water
Drinking three or more cups of tea a day is as good for you as drinking plenty of water and may even have extra health benefits, say researchers. Tea does not dehydrate despite the popular belief according to the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Tea no only rehydrates as well as water does, but it can also protect against heart disease and some cancers, UK nutritionists have found. Researchers have found that flavonoids are the key ingredient in tea that promote health. (BBC, August 2006)
Tea and Cancer:
"Tea is one of the single best cancer fighters you can put in your body."
"Tea is one of the single best cancer fighters you can put in your body," according to Mitchell Gaynor, MD, director of medical oncology at the world-renowned Strong Cancer Prevention Center in New York City and co-author of Dr. Gaynor's Cancer Prevention Program (Kensington Books, 1999). Strong evidence that both green and black tea can fight cancer, at least in the test tube-though green tea holds a slight edge. In a new study, both teas kept healthy cells from turning malignant after exposure to cancer-causing compounds. (Prevention, May 2000)
Tea and Hypertension:
"People who drank tea regularly had lower blood pressure than those who did not."
"Blood pressure measurements were lower among the tea drinkers. The researchers calculated that the odds of developing hypertension were cut almost in half among those who drank one small cup a day, and by about two-thirds among those who drank 20 ounces or more daily. There was no difference between those who drank green and black tea." (New York Times, July 2004)
Tea and your Immune System:
"Drinking tea boosts the immune system's first line of defense against infection"
Results of a new study suggest that drinking tea boosts the immune system's first line of defense against infection. Researchers from Harvard Medical School asked volunteers who normally consume neither tea nor coffee to drink five to six cups of tea or instant coffee for two or four weeks. Afterward, blood tests showed tea drinkers' immune systems reacted against bacteria five times better than the immune systems of coffee drinkers. The tea seems to have helped make interferon gamma, an immune system protein. Another study, in mice, showed that animals genetically engineered to develop prostate cancer and fed the equivalent of about six cups of tea a day didn't develop tumors. No one knows if drinking tea will have the same effect in humans, but researchers noted that the tea-drinking country of China has the lowest prostate cancer rate in the world. (American Chemical Society, September 2003)
Tea and Diabetes:
"Green and black tea fight diabetes."
Black tea is as good as green tea in reducing sugar levels. The study by the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania found both teas reduced glucose levels and other diabetic complications, such as cataracts, during the three-month test on rats.
"Most people, scientists included, believe that green tea has more health benefits than black tea," said lead author Joe Vinson of the research to be published in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The finding that green and black teas are beneficial suggests the drinks could be simple and inexpensive ways for humans to fight diabetes, he said. Vinson's earlier work showed both teas equally inhibited atherosclerosis, a major risk for people suffering from heart disease as plaque builds up on arterial walls.
(United Press Int'l, April 2005)
Tea and Ovarian Cancer:
"Black and green tea preparations may protect against ovarian cancer."
Sweden's National Institute of Environmental Medicine has conducted a study of 61,057 women over 15 years. Findings suggest that women who drank at least two cups of tea (mostly black tea in the study) a day had a lower risk of ovarian cancer (the fourth leading cause of cancer among women) than those who did not drink tea.
(Archives of Internal Medicine, December 2005)
Tea and Alzheimer's:
"Drinking Tea Might Delay Alzheimer's Disease."
3-4 cups of tea daily can improve the memory and help prevent Alzheimer's disease. The research team, based at Newcastle University's Medicinal Plant Research Center, investigated the properties of green and black tea, as well as coffee, in a series of laboratory experiments. The results showed that both types of tea inhibited the activity of enzymes associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease. Coffee, however, had no significant effect.
In fact, drinking tea appears to affect the brain in a similar way as drugs prescribed for Alzheimer's disease the UK researchers report. According to scientists black and green brews fight enzymes that destroy chemical messengers in the brain. They said: "It's exciting as tea is popular and inexpensive without side effects." (Phytotherapy Research, August 2004)
Tea and Arthritis:
"Tea flavonoids may be bone builders."
Tea flavonoids may be bone builders. A report in this week's Archives of Internal Medicine looked at about 500 Chinese men and women who regularly drank black, green, or oolong tea for more than 10 years. Compared with non-habitual tea drinkers, tea regulars had higher bone mineral densities, even after exercise and calcium - which strengthen bones - were taken into account. (U.S. News & World Report, May 2002)
How much tea: Can you drink too much?
About the worst that could happen from taking in too much tea, say integrative-medicine physicians, are caffeine sensitivity (noting that green or black teas contain only 10 to 30 milligrams of caffeine per cup, whereas coffee contains 100 to 120 milligrams), fluid overload, or anemia (low blood-iron levels) due to tea binding with iron. This is easily fixed with some lemon: Vitamin C helps with the absorption of iron. (Chicago Tribune, August 2006)
Green Tea
Green Tea and health:
"Green tea has compounds that have many anti-cancer properties."
Green Tea contains large amounts of catechins, compounds that boast many anti-cancer properties. So says Dr. Richard Beliveau, Chair in the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer at the University of Quebec, Montreal, and co-author of bestselling book "Foods that Fight Cancer: Preventing Cancer Through Diet". To maximize the preventative effects afforded by tea, select Japanese green teas, allow for an eight-to-ten minute brewing period and always drink freshly brewed tea, and avoiding Thermoses. (Foods That Fight Cancer: Preventing Cancer Through Diet, May 2006)
Tea and Cancer:
"Both green and black teas might prevent certain types of cancer, though green tea has the edge."
In recent studies conducted at University of Murcia in Spain and the John Innes Center in Norwich, England, a compound called EGCG, a powerful antioxidant in tea, inhibited an enzyme that cancer cells need in order to grow. The cancer cells that couldn't grow big enough to divide self-destructed. It would take about 4 cups of green tea a day to get the blood levels of EGCG that inhibited cancer in the study. Green tea has about five times as much EGCG as regular tea, studies have shown. (Reuters, Mar 2005)
Green Tea and Health:
"Green tea helps bolster the body's defenses."
"Drinking two or three American-size cups a day of green tea helps bolster the body's defenses, especially as you age, suggests Lester A. Mitscher, PhD, professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Kansas in Lawrence and author of The Green Tea Book: China's Fountain of Youth" (Prevention, April 2003)
Tea and Breast Cancer:
"Green tea extract may prevent breast cancer cells from manufacturing the new blood vessels necessary to promote cancer cell growth"
Writing in a recent issue of the International Journal of Cancer, the USC researchers noted that the reduction in breast cancer risk among the green tea drinkers held true even among women who had a family history of breast cancer as well as among women who smoked or ate processed foods. Exercise habits - either good or bad - also did not play a role in the outcome for green tea drinkers.
The conclusions of this study support the important results of a 2002 laboratory study. According to a report in Science News, researchers at the University of California and the University of Texas found that green tea extract may prevent breast cancer cells from manufacturing the new blood vessels necessary to promote cancer cell growth. If further research confirms these findings, it may help explain why the green tea drinkers in the USC study were at lower risk of breast cancer, regardless of other health, diet, and family history factors. (Department of Preventive Medicine at USC, October 2003)
Tea and Allergies:
"Green tea shows promise as an allergy fighter."
Green tea, rich in antioxidants that may protect against heart disease and cancer, now shows promise as an allergy fighter. In laboratory tests, Japanese researchers have found that the antioxidants in green tea, block the biochemical process involved in producing an allergic response. Green tea may be useful against a wide range of sneeze-starting allergens, including pollen, pet dander, and dust. (Prevention, April 2003)
Teas and Weight Loss:
"Yet another potential benefit of green tea."
Compared to the placebo and caffeine, green tea extract consumption produced a significant 4% increase in 24-hour energy expenditure. If you consume 2,000 calories per day and don't gain or lose weight (you're in energy balance), an increase of 4% would translate roughly into an 80-calorie daily difference. Over a year, this could result in 8 pounds of weight loss. (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Nov 1999).
Black Tea
Tea and Heart Health:
"Drinking at least 8 ounces of tea a day appears to cut the risk of heart attack by 44%."
In a 1998 study, Harvard University researchers found that drinking one cup of black tea a day lowered the risk of heart attack by as much as 44 percent compared with non-tea drinkers, and other studies have suggested that the antioxidants in these so-called real teas can also prevent cancer. (The Atlanta Journal, July 1999)
Tea and cholesterol:
"...black tea extract cut total cholesterol by 11%..."
New research confirms that extracts of black tea can help reduce cholesterol. Researchers at Vanderbilt University tested 240 people with mild to moderate high cholesterol who were on a low-fat diet. Half took a daily black tea extract with polyphenols called theaflavins (equal to 7 cups); the other half took a placebo. After 12 weeks, those on and LDL-the bad cholesterol-by an amazing 16%, compared with no change in the other group. "Over time, that could translate into a 16 to 24% reduction in risk of heart attack and stroke," says David Maron, MD, cardiologist and lead researcher. "Black tea theaflavins may help people who can't lower their LDL enough with diet alone, but whose level isn't high enough for drugs," says Maron. (Prevention Magazine, Nov 2003)
Tea and your Immune System:
"...tea may help prevent or lessen the severity of conditions"
Immunologists at Harvard University discovered that people who drank five cups of black tea a day for 2 weeks transformed their immune system T cells into "Hulk cells" that pumped out 10 times more cold and flu virus-fighting interferon than did the immune systems of those who didn't drink black tea. Green tea should work just as well.
"Not just the common cold and flu, but food poisoning, infected cuts, athlete's foot-even diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria-are caused by germs that your body fights with interferon. We think the interferon boosts from tea may help prevent or lessen the severity of all these conditions," says Jack Bukowski, MD, PhD, a researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School.
While five cups a day may seem like a lot, he thinks fewer cups may still offer some valuable protection. "And the interferon link may explain tea's other health benefits, including its reported cancer-fighting power, since we already know that interferon slows the growth of tumor cells," says Bukowski. (Prevention Magazine October 2003)
Black tea is pretty good too:
"Black tea is turning out to be just as healthful as green tea."
Regular black tea is turning out to be just as healthful as green tea. The evidence for tea's health effects comes mainly from lab studies, though some human studies point to possible benefits in preventing heart disease and cancer. (University of California Wellness Letter, Mar 2002).
White Tea
White Tea and health:
"Drinking White tea provides Anti-viral benefits"
White tea extract has antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties states Milton Schiffenbauer, PhD in a study conducted at Pace University in New York City. Also remarkable was the finding that drinking white tea was just as effective in suppressing intestinal tumors as ingesting sulindac (Clinoril), an anti-inflammatory drug used for cancer treatment, as published in Carcinogenesis.Research. (Better Nutrition, September 2006)
White tea and health:
"White tea appears to have more potent anticancer qualities than green tea."
White tea appears to have more potent anticancer qualities than green tea, according to studies performed at the Linus Pauling Institute of Oregon State University in Corvallis.
The researchers tested the tea to determine whether it could help prevent genetic mutations in bacteria, and colon and rectal cancer in cancer-prone rats. In both experiments, white tea was shown to have a strong protective effect. White tea offered significantly more protection than green tea. "I was surprised by the potency. We were not expecting that much of a good result," Dr. Santana-Rios told Reuters Health. (Reuters Health, March 30, 2000).
Rooibos
Rooibos and health:
"Caffeine Free and Healthy"
The tea plant, Camellia sinensis, comes in many forms--black, green, oolong. What makes Camellia so healthful is its polyphenols, antioxidants that protect against cell damage and help prevent diseases like age-related decline, cancer and heart disease. But herbal teas like chamomile don't have the same benefits. That is, all except one. The South African "rooibos," meaning red bush in Afrikaans, has the benefits of Camellia without the caffeine.
Daneel Ferreira, M.D., of the University of Mississippi, studied and compared rooibos with Camellia and found that both contain a similar amount of polyphenols. And a study at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom bears out the benefits. Researchers found that tea drinking is associated with higher bone-mineral density. Among the 1,256 women studied, tea drinkers were up to 20% less likely to suffer bone fractures. And at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, tea polyphenols helped prevent the development of arthritis in lab mice. (Psychology Today, Mar/Apr 2001)
Decaf Teas
Decaffeinated Teas and Polyphenols:
"Tea decaffeinated using a natural CO-2 process retains 90% of its cancer-fighting properties."
If caffeine is removed with a compound called ethyl acetate, only about 30% of the tea's healing polyphenols (believed to fight cancer and heart disease) remain. But if caffeine is removed using a more expensive water-and-carbon-dioxide process, about 90% of the polyphenols remain.(Prevention, February 2000)
Healthy, Fresh & Delicious! 