Green Tea - Feel the Health Benefit of Green Tea

Tea drinking is an ancient tradition dating back 5,000 years in China, Japan and India. Long regarded in those cultures as an aid to good health, researchers now are investigating its benefits in the prevention and treatment of many diseases.

All varieties of tea come from the leaves of a single evergreen plant, Camellia Sinensis, native of Southeast Asia. The tea leaves are picked, rolled, dried, and heated. Green tea is produced without fermenting the leaves; Oolong, semi-fermented tea, is made by fermenting the leaves to some extent; Black tea is produced with the additional process of allowing the leaves to fully ferment and oxidize.

The Chinese Encyclopedia of Teas lists 138 distinct green varieties, with more than 12,500 subgroups! Each tea offers its own unique flavor. Pouchong Tea, Gunpowder, Dragon Well, Jasmine, Gyokuro, Sencha, Macha, Genmaicha, Bancha are some examples of Green Tea. Most popular Black teas are English tea, Keemun, Lapsang Tea and Lemon. Pouchong and Ti Kuan Yin are types of Oolong tea.

Helpful or Not – The Controversy About Benefits

Green tea is reported to be a preventative for all sorts of ailments including many cancers, heart attacks, strokes, gum disease, cavities, and bad breath. But despite promising early research in the laboratory, studies involving humans so far have been inconclusive and contradictory. Although tea has long been identified as an antioxidant in the laboratory, it seems like dietary, environmental, and population differences may account for these inconsistencies.

It was found that the antioxidants in black tea will suppress the growth of bacteria in the mouth that cause cavities and gum diseases; however there has been recent controversy as to whether green tea can prevent or fight cancer. Some studies support this claim and others dismiss it. After a review of some studies concerning green tea and cancer, the FDA found that the consumption of green tea didn’t have any effect on reducing the risk factor for cancer. In the other hand, NCI (National Cancer Institute) researchers found that the antioxidants found in tea called catechins, another class of anti- oxidant, may selectively inhibit the growth of cancer.

A study by the Netherlands National Institute of Public Health and the Environment found a connection between drinking black tea regularly and reducing the risk of stroke. Researchers concluded that the anti-oxidants called flavonoids present in black tea helped reduce the production of LDL - the "bad" cholesterol that can lead to stroke and heart attacks.

It's important to remember that tea research is still in the early stages. Jane Higden, a research from the Linus Pauling Institute, wrote in a recent article: "Although numerous observational studies have examined the relationships between tea consumption and the risks of cardiovascular disease and cancer, there is no conclusive evidence that high intakes of tea are protective in humans."
Green Tea or Black Tea?

Even though the controversy is there, some studies and ancient tradition show that compounds in green and black teas have a healthful impact for humans. Even if it’s not as beneficial as some say it is, it’s definitely not harmful. So it doesn’t hurt to try!

Debate continues as to which kind of tea is healthiest – green or black. One thing is right – all kinds of tea have a considerable amount of antioxidants. Antioxidants rid the body of molecules called free radicals or oxidants, which are side products of damage done to the body by pollution and other poisonous materials that damage the body on a daily basis. Free radicals in the body's cells are very unstable and may react negatively with other important molecules like DNA, causing malfunctions and injury on the cellular level. The majority of modern science has come to the conclusion that free radical damage in the human body is the cause of aging and many different illnesses.

Catechins are green tea's main ingredient and they are the one responsible for its amazing health benefits. Green tea contains eight times more of this powerful antioxidant than black tea, possibly because it is less processed. While a cup of black tea contains about 5- 10 mg of catechin, a cup of green tea contains more than eight times than amount, or 40-90 mg.

Since the fermentation process used to make black tea converts catechin into other compounds, researchers assumed black tea had less health benefits than green tea. However, recently some researches indicate that drinking black tea has the same health benefits originally attributed only to green tea in terms of their antioxidant capacities because theaflavins and thearubigens, and flavonoids present in black tea, possess the same antioxidant potency as catechins present in green tea. Oolong tea is rich in polyphenols, another powerful antioxidant, but has fewer catechins.

Although flavonoids are commonly found in fruits and vegetables, black tea has seventy percent more of this anti-oxidant. Cathechin in green tea is more than 100 times as effective at neutralizing free radicals as vitamin C and 25 times more powerful than vitamin E, well known anti-oxidants. So by drinking tea, green or black, you still get better benefits than trying to get antioxidants from your diet.