Is Green Tea Really Healthy?

Copyright (c) 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.