Re: Tea -- Plenty of It -- May Do the Body Good

[Guest guest]

Hello, a very interesting article. I also wonder about the benefits of decaf over regular. To carry this futher, I reside in Denver which has Kroger products at King Soopers grocery stores. I found that they carry an Kroger packaged 100% Instant Green Tea. Do you feel that instant provides the same benefits that regular green tea ia purported to? Thanks for the article. CurtisFrancesca Skelton <fskelton@...> wrote: By Sally SquiresTuesday, July

17, 2007; Page HE05 Seidman, director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at theHenry Ford Health System in Detroit, hates the taste of green tea. But thatdoesn't stop him from drinking a cup five days a week. When he's done,Seidman squeezes the liquid out of the tea leaves and then -- get this --eats them.The leaves are so bitter that Seidman immediately brushes his teeth toremove the taste and to be sure that the tea doesn't stain his tooth enamel."My wife just looks at me and rolls her eyes," says Seidman, an ear, noseand throat surgeon who also has a degree in nutrition. "But there's no doubtin my mind that green tea has many health benefits."Other scientists are not so convinced. "There are hundreds, if not thousandsof papers on tea, but the results are often split," notes tea researcherJack F. Bukowski, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at HarvardMedical School.So where

one study finds that tea boosts immune function, another shows noeffect. Most of the research has been limited to animals. Scientists haveyet to examine all the properties of green, black, oolong and white tea.They don't yet know if the variety of tea -- Darjeeling vs. jasmine greentea, for example -- could make a difference. Or what effect there may befrom drinking tea straight or mixing it with milk, sugar, lemon or otherspices. There isn't even agreement on whether a cup of tea means the barelyfour ounces you sip from fine china or the hefty 16 ounces in an oversizemug."Tea has big possibilities," says Bukowski, who has spent 15 years studyingthe ancient beverage. "But we have a long way to go before we can confirmthe health benefits."None of that has stopped interest in tea from coming to a full boil. InJanuary, Coca-Cola introduced Enviga, a green tea beverage said to "help youburn calories" by

boosting metabolism. Last year, a Japanese companypetitioned the Food and Drug Administration for permission to label greentea as offering protection against heart disease. (The agency denied therequest, citing "supportive but not conclusive results.")One substance in tea, the tongue-twisting epigallo-catechin gallate (EGCG),appears to reduce psoriasis, prostate cancer and colon tumors (at least inanimals) and is now an ingredient in a growing number of foods, beveragesand dietary supplements. But that's just one of the components of tea thatmay have health benefits.Second only to water as the most widely consumed beverage in the world, teais also one of the oldest. Introduced about 5,000 years ago in China, teabecame a common drink in the Sui dynasty of the 6th century and reachedJapan around 580, according to "The Romance of Tea," an authoritativehistory of the beverage published by H. Ukers in 1936. In

1662, of Braganza -- the Portuguese-born wife of King II --became the first tea-drinking British queen. Penn is credited withintroducing tea to Pennsylvania.Tea drinking plummeted in the Colonies after the Boston Tea Party. But bythe early 20th century, Americans were drinking enough tea to invent the teabag and introduce iced tea.In 2006, more than 2.25 billion gallons of tea were sipped in the UnitedStates, according to the Tea Association, an industry group. That works outto about 132 cups per person per year. Even so, consumption here lags behindthat in much of the world, particularly China, Japan and other parts ofAsia, "where they drink tea all day long like we drink bottled water,"Bukowski says.U.S. tea drinkers are concentrated in the Northeast and the South, wheresweet tea is the rule. As in most Western countries, black tea is preferredover green tea. Unlike people in

the rest of the world, Americans consume 85percent of tea iced rather than hot, according to the Tea Association.Tea leaves are plucked from a warm-weather evergreen shrub, Camelliasinensis, that is indigenous to China and India but now also thrives inmountainous regions from Argentina to Malawi. Oolong tea is exposed to theair to oxidize for two to three hours after harvesting, while black tea isoxidized for up to four hours. (As for the wide range of herbal teas,they're made from the roots, leaves and flowers of other plants and are nottechnically tea at all.)Neither green tea nor white tea, which is made from the tender, young leavesof the tea plant before they turn color, is allowed to oxidize afterharvesting. Some scientists think that may give them a nutritional edge,since they may contain higher amounts of antioxidants. These substances helpprotect against cancer and appear to counteract the chronic

inflammationthat contributes to heart disease, arthritis and other chronic illness.A growing number of studies suggest such potential benefits from tea asimproved mental alertness, lower blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels,reduced blood pressure, lower risk of breast, colon, lung, ovarian andprostate cancer, as well as possible protection again Type 2 diabetes andmaybe even help with weight loss. But even if such findings are confirmed,you'd need to drink a lot of tea to reap any benefit."The research suggests that drinking one to two cups of tea per day may notbe enough," Bukowski says. "You may need more like five to 10 cups per day."Ounce for ounce, tea contains about half the caffeine found in coffee, sothat could be a lot of caffeine. Whether decaf works as well is not yetclear.For the biggest punch of antioxidants and other potentially healthfulingredients, drink tea shortly after brewing it.

And resist the temptationto reuse tea bags, since that produces a less potent brew.

[Guest guest]

See the exert below from the article........

----------------

Hello, a very interesting article. I also wonder about the benefits of decaf over regular. To carry this futher, I reside in Denver which has Kroger products at King Soopers grocery stores. I found that they carry an Kroger packaged 100% Instant Green Tea. Do you feel that instant provides the same benefits that regular green tea ia purported to? Thanks for the article.

Curtis

Francesca Skelton <fskelton@...> wrote:

,,,,,,,,,,tea contains about half the caffeine found in coffee, so

that could be a lot of caffeine. Whether decaf works as well is not yet

clear.