Coffee 2 Tea

Why Green Tea?
What makes green tea so special? It has a lot wellness benefits combined with a modest and delightful flavor give brought green tea almost instant fame over the last a couple of years. As a lot more is found out around about the cancer preventive attributes and other health views of the drink, green tea will continue to be amongst the world’s most sensible and healthiest beverages.

Green Tea represses Certain Cancer Risks
There have been research studies across the world that feature  clear evidence that green tea inhibits the growing of cancerous cells, in effect cutting your chance of certain types of cancer. Green tea has been proven to diminish the risk of esophageal cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer and cervical cancer. There are claims that green tea can preclude other forms of cancer as well.

Green Tea is better in Your Diet, Your Skin and  yes even Your Teeth. Green tea has exhibited in several reports to greatly improve calorie burning in a normal diet. It in addition to is commonly being used as a primary component in many skin care products such as creams and including deodorants.

Drinking green tea aids in improving your teeth  by reducing and precluding tooth decay. The same property that depletes plaque forming bacterium in your mouth could as well forestall food poisoning.

Certain chemical element* in green tea have been shown to trim levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or the bad cholesterin, improving the total cholesterol ratio.

Several scientists nowadays believe that the same natural components found in green tea are responsible for the reduced cases of heart disease amongst the French in spite of their smoking and diets rich in fats. The like is true of the Japanese. There is a very low case of heart disease in Japan despite 75 percent of Japanese males smoking on a regular basis.

Inhibits Atherosclerosis

Green tea has been shown to effectively lower risk of atherosclerosis by lowering LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, lipid peroxides (free radicals that damage LDL cholesterol and other lipids or fats) and fibrinogen (a protein in the blood involved in the formation of blood clots), while improving the ratio of LDL (bad) to HDL (good) cholesterol.

In animal studies in which green tea was given in human equivalent doses to hamsters, atherosclerosis was inhibited 26-46% in those receiving the lower dose (equivalent in humans to 3-4 cups per day) , and 48-63% in those receiving the higher dose (10 cups a day in humans).

Health benefits of tea.
Thins the Blood and Helps Prevent Blood Clots.Green tea catechins help thin the blood and prevent the formation of blood clots by preventing the formation of pro-inflammatory compounds derived from omega-6 fatty acids, which are found in meats and polyunsaturated vegetable oils such as corn, safflower and soy oil. These pro-inflammatory compounds-specifically, arachidonic acid from which the inflammatory cytokines thromboxane A2 and prostaglandin D2 are derived-cause platelets to clump together.

Protects the Heart in Patients with Acute Cardiovascular Disease
The primary catechin in green tea, EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate) confers such powerful protection that it can help prevent the death of heart muscle cells following ischemia/reperfusion injury. Ischemia is the medical term for a restriction in blood supply and therefore in oxygen and nutrients. When circulation is restored, oxidative damage occurs, and this is referred to as reperfusion injury.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF TEA cont’d

Given the significant benefit green tea can provide, even to those who are not especially health conscious, just imagine its health-protective potential as part of your healthy way of eating!

If you simply cannot start your day without a cup of coffee, try enjoying a cup of green tea at your mid-morning break, with lunch or as an afternoon pick-me-up. You’ll quickly discover green tea’s irresistible combination of invigorating and calming qualities, plus its delicious flavor, make it one of your favorite healthy habits.

Protects against Coronary Artery Disease
In Japanese studies, green tea consumption has been found to be an independent predictor for risk of coronary artery disease. In one study, those drinking 5 or more cups of green tea each day were found to be 16% less likely to suffer from coronary artery disease. The relationship was so significant researchers concluded, “The more green tea patients consume the less likely they are to have coronary artery disease.”

An elevation in the amount of free radicals in the arteries is a key event in many forms of cardiovascular disease. The latest research shows that green tea catechins inhibit the enzymes involved in the production of free radicals in the endothelial lining of the arteries. The arterial endothelium is a one-cell thick lining that serves as the interface between the bloodstream and the wall of the artery where plaques can form. By protecting the endothelium from free radical damage, green tea catechins help prevent the development of cardiovascular disease.

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The study, which began in 1994, followed 40,530 adults, ranging in age from 40 to 79, in northeastern Japan for up to 11 years. Within this region, 80% of the population drinks green tea with more than half consuming at least 3 cups a day.

Compared with participants who consumed less than 1 cup of green tea per day, those drinking 5 or more cups a day had a significantly lower risk of death from all causes and, specifically, risk of death from CVD, with women receiving even stronger protection than men:

Only weak or neutral relationships were seen between black tea or oolong tea and all-cause or CVD mortality.

While this study found no cancer-preventive benefit from drinking green tea, other large studies, including a meta-analysis of 13 studies published July 2006 in Carcinogenesis (Sun CL et al), suggest that green tea reduces risk of breast cancer. In this study, compared to women who did not drink green tea, those consuming the most green tea were 22% less likely to develop breast cancer.

Often in studies, the effects of a certain health-promoting behavior are likely to be confounded by the fact that those who try to follow a healthy lifestyle practice a variety of healthy habits. In this study, however, since green tea is the most commonly consumed beverage in Japan, it is unlikely that study participants were choosing to drink green tea primarily for their health, and thus also unlikely that the significant drop in risk of death due to all causes and CVD was due to other habits related to health consciousness.

For more health related articles like these visit  http://www.whfoods.com

As of November 2004, the PubMed database contained more than 1,000 studies on green tea, with more than 400 published in 2004! Following is a brief summary of some of the high points of this most current research.

Green tea drinkers appear to have lower risk for a wide range of diseases, from simple bacterial or viral infections to chronic degenerative conditions including cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, periodontal disease, and osteoporosis. The latest studies provide a deeper understanding of the ways in which green tea:

Protects against Death from All Causes, Especially Cardiovascular Disease

In August 2006, a European study, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that tea is a healthier choice than almost any beverage, including pure water, because tea not only rehydrates as well as water, but provides a rich supply of polyhenols protective against heart disease.

Now, a Japanese study published in the September 2006 issue of JAMA, suggests that drinking green tea lowers risk of death due to all causes, including cardiovascular disease.

Shinichi Kuriyama, M.D., Ph.D., of the Tohoku University School of Public Policy, Sendai, Japan, and colleagues examined the association between green tea consumption and death due to all causes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer.

Green tea is particularly rich in health-promoting flavonoids (which account for 30% of the dry weight of a leaf), including catechins and their derivatives. The most abundant catechin in green tea is epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), which is thought to play a pivotal role in the green tea’s anticancer and antioxidant effects. Catechins should be considered right alongside of the better-known antioxidants like vitamins E and C as potent free radical scavengers and health-supportive for this reason.

Most of the research showing the health benefits of green tea is based on the amount of green tea typically consumed in Asian countries-about 3 cups per day (which would provide 240-320 mg of polyphenols). Just one cup of green tea supplies 20-35 mg of EGCG, which has the highest antioxidant activity of all the green tea catechins.

The health benefits of green tea have been extensively researched and, as the scientific community’s awareness of its potential benefits has increased, so have the number of new studies.

All true teas-as distinct from herbal and flower infusions, which afficiandos call tisanes-are made from the leaves of a magnolia-related evergreen tree with the botanical name of Camellia sinensis. Although reaching a height of 30 feet in the wild, on tea plantations (called gardens or estates), the plant is kept as a shrub, constantly pruned to a height of about 3 feet to encourage new growth and for convenient picking.

Green Tea plants grow only in warm climates but can flourish at altitudes ranging from sea level to 7,000 feet. The best teas, however, are produced by plants grown at higher altitudes where the leaves mature more slowly and yield a richer flavor. Depending upon the altitude, a new tea plant may take from 2 ½ to 5 years to be ready for commercial picking, but once productive, it can provide tea leaves for close to a century.

Tea plants produce abundant foliage, a camellia-like flower, and a berry, but only the smallest and youngest leaves are picked for tea-the two leaves and bud at the top of each young shoot. The growth of new shoots, called a flush, can occur every week at lower altitudes but takes several weeks at higher ones. The new leaves are picked by hand by “tea pluckers,” the best of whom can harvest 40 pounds per day, enough to make 10 pounds of tea.

Too Your Health

Well its not exactly an easy question to answer due to the huge variety of teas out there and how exactly you want to measure health benefits.

If we say the health score of a tea is based on its levels of antioxidants (flavinoids, catechins) then we could draw up the following table…

[1] Jasmine tea’s base is green tea and its total antioxidant content is boosted by the presence of jasmine.

[2] Although Rooibos isn’t of the same species and not strictly a tea it is commonly referred to as a tea. Now although many have claimed it has a higher antioxidant content than tea this isn’t true although it does contain a variety of unique antioxidants.

[3] The general consensus is that iced tea is the most heavily processed and thus least antioxidant rich of the teas. However, Lipton do claim that their tea with lemon contains an unusually high amount of flavinoids. How much we believe this is up to you.

(Hakim IA, Hartz V, Harris RB, Balentine D, Weisgerber UM, Graver E, Whitacre R, Alberts D. Reproducibility and relative validity of a questionnaire to assess intake of black tea polyphenols in epidemiological studies. Cancer Epidem Bio & Prev 2001; 10:667-78).

Antioxidant Activity of Black Tea vs. Green Tea (Ki Won Lee and Hyong Joo Lee) Department of Food Science and Technology School of Agricultural Biotechnology Seoul National University Suwon 441–744, Korea