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Health Benefits of Tea
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Mean flavonoids content, tea vs red wine and appleFlavonoids are a group of naturally occuring substances in agricultural products that scientists have found to be of health contributing nature. They include the much researched polyphenols in tea, anthocyanins and flavanols in most fruit and leaf products. According to the Department of Agriculture of the US (USDA)(1), the mean flavonoid content in a 150 ml cup of green tea prepared from tealeaves or teabags(2) is 200.01 mg, while it is 41.7 mg in the same volume of red wine and 21.75 mg in an apple with skin that has 150 g edible portion, i.e. a rather large apple. That means one cup of green tea has the same flavonoid potency of 4.79 glasses of red wine or 9.2 apples. |
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salutary properties of tea
Although I have continuously stressed in various occasions that the salutary properties of tea vary from one selection to another, there are, nevertheless, some common health contributing potentials. I am listing them here for your reference.
We shall try to present the findings in a digest form in plain English, supplementing it with our observation and understanding. Posted articles are highlighted in the above list with links. They will be summaries from a number of papers published in respected science journals. For details of the papers we have used, please go to the bibliography page in this site. Those items we have written about and posted in this site are highlighted in green with clickable links in the above list. Return to this page for new writings, or subscribe to get updates.
quality matters
Please be reminded that some teas contains a lot more substances to contribute to these benefits than others. Quality matters. There are findings that relate quality with potent substance contents and we shall discuss them in a separate article. However, just quoting USDA's report, the difference for, say EGCG (Epigallocatechin 3-gallate), one of the tea polyphenols and a most powerful salutary one, can be as much as over 200 mg in a green tea and 0.49 mg in a decaffeinated black tea, per 100 ml of the tea liquid, i.e roughly half a cup! To help you visualize that, it basically means drinking one cup of the former selection is equal to the EGCG potency of 408 cups of the decaffeintaed one! And one or two pills of green tea extracts! <Read more about flavonoids quantity difference in products>
Objective look at scientific findings
The benefits of tea have been confirmed in many, many studies in labs. The results in human effectiveness are statistically different between datas obtained in various studies in the Far East and those in the West. The underlying fact that tea drinkers in the West are mostly consuming low quality teabags and other adultered products, while people in the Far East use mostly leaf tea and averagely better quality, is being suspected as a major reason for the difference. As said, quality matters.
Breaking that habit of Wasting money & Your Health on bottled drinks
Though the positive effects are promising, the mass is still spending a lot more money in soft drinks and supplement pills than in leaf tea. Even more in medicine and health care. The benefits of a healthy beverage habit is actually never further away than your hot water supply, and a mug with tealeaves.
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related reading:
footnotes
1. Data available from USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods, Release 2.1 (2007) at the USDA official link.
2. According to the USDA paper, their way of preparing tea liquid for measurement of tea constituents is to infuse 1 gram of tealeaves per 100 ml of water. This normally gives a rather weak tea. For more about tea preparation, pls click on the corresponding section in this site.
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TeaGuardian.com (Tea Guardian) is a self-financed, independent reference guide created with the initiative to promote the better understanding of tea, the daily beverage that so many have come to misunderstand. By sharing with the readers unbiased and in-depth information, we aim at empowering them with the ability to find and enjoy better quality tea for taste and for health. A lot of the information included can be helpful to people of the tea trade and the academics.
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