Is Green Tea Really Healthy?

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Article Title:

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Is Green Tea Really Healthy?

Article Description:

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For the last several years, we have been discovering the health

benefits of drinking green tea. In particular, scientists are

telling us that green tea may have significant benefits when it

comes to reducing our risk of cancer, and may even help slow the

progress of cancer in patients who already have the disease.

Additional Article Information:

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830 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line

Distribution Date and Time: 2006-11-10 10:00:00

Written By: Marcus Stout

Copyright: 2006

Contact Email: mailto:Marcus.Stout@...

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Is Green Tea Really Healthy?

Copyright © 2006 Marcus Stout

Golden Moon Tea

http://www.GoldenMoonTea.com

For the last several years, we have been discovering the health

benefits of drinking green tea. In particular, scientists are

telling us that green tea may have significant benefits when it

comes to reducing our risk of cancer, and may even help slow the

progress of cancer in patients who already have the disease.

The power of green tea comes from its high level of

anti-oxidants. Tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant, and

the tea leaves naturally contain catechins. Catechins belong to

the flavan-3-ol class of flavonoids.

EGCG is one of the many catechins contained in tea, and is

considered to be the most powerful anti-oxidant in tea leaves.

Green tea contains more of its original anti-oxidants than black

tea because of the processing that black tea undergoes.

Fermenting the tea leaves, which is part of processing tea leaves

for black tea, converts these catechins to other compounds and

reduces their health benefits.

Anti-oxidants are important to our health because they combat

free radicals in our body. Free radicals occur naturally as part

of the process our body goes through when converting food to

energy. Free radicals can damage our cells and our DNA if we

don't combat them.

This is why foods and beverages with anti-oxidants, like fruits,

vegetables and green tea, are so important to our health.

Anti-oxidants are linked with preventing cancer, and a decreased

risk of stroke, heart disease and lower blood cholesterol.

Of course, all of this is very good news. However, one study

seems to point us in the other direction, making it appear that

green tea may actually increase the risk of developing lung

cancer.

In a study conducted in Hong Kong, 200 women with lung cancer and

200 women without the disease were interviewed about their eating

and drinking habits, smoking history and exposure to pollution in

the environment. The study showed that the participants who were

long term green tea drinkers did have a significantly higher risk

of developing lung cancer.

In conjunction with the study on the patients, researchers also

tested some brands of green tea that are very popular in China.

They found that, when the tea had a tendency to mutate during

metabolism when fed to rats. So, this may further indicate that

green tea, when combined with other typical pollutants that

we're exposed to, may become chemically altered in the body.

This chemical change may actually cause long term, low dosage

exposure to green tea to hasten the development in some

individuals.

So, as laymen, what should we conclude from this study? Well,

even scientists believe that the only conclusion we should draw

from this study is that more research is required.

So many studies have shown that green tea's anti-oxidants likely

have the power to help us live longer and healthier lives. This

study does not specifically spell out the other lifestyle habits

of the lung cancer patients who drank green tea. For example, we

don't know if a large percentage of these patients also smoked.

In addition, the study showed that the green tea drinkers

consumed the beverage in fairly small amounts, but over a period

of many years. So, we also must evaluate the level of exposure to

tea and other factors.

From evaluating just one study, there is little information to

tell us if the risk of lung cancer is increased when a patient

drinks green tea in combination with some other lifestyle or

environmental factor, or if there is a possible risk just from

drinking green tea. This is the reason that even the scientists

who conducted the study concluded that we simply need to examine

the issue further.

Many studies have been conducted comparing the incidence of

cancer in Asian cultures with that of European and American

culture. These studies have shown that Asian cultures have a

significantly lower risk of heart disease and cancer than Europe

and the United States. So, it's safe to assume that something in

the Asian lifestyle is healthier. But, is it the tea?

Certainly, Asians drink more tea than westerners (although the

British come in a very close second). However, Asians also are

less likely to be overweight, and we know that obesity is linked

to higher incidence of cancer and heart disease.

The Asian diet is healthier than ours, and they eat far more fish

than we do. We know that a high consumption of fish is healthy,

combating aging and disease.

But, Asians, especially Asian men, are more far likely to smoke

than Western Europeans or Americans. Yet, they have a lower risk

of lung cancer and heart disease.

So, as you can see, it's a complicated issue. It will certainly

take far more research to determine just what the magic

combination might be. More comparison between Asian lifestyle and

our own and more studies about the specific benefits and risks of

certain foods and beverages may help us better determine how we

can best use products like tea to preserve health.

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Marcus Stout is the President of the Golden Moon Tea Company. Golden Moon Tea

carefully selects the finest rare and orthodox teas, which are processed slowly

and handcrafted with extreme care. At their website, you can learn more about

their current tea offerings, including their exceptional green tea

(http://www.goldenmoontea.com/greentea), white tea, black tea, oolong tea (also

known as wu-long and wu long tea - http://www.goldenmoontea.com/wu-long) and

chai. Visit http://www.goldenmoontea.com for all details concerning the Golden

Moon Tea Company's fine line of teas.