What's up with green tea?

Tea drinking is the sweet tradition in all countries across the world. There are different varieties of tea across the world too.

 

 Some of them are listed here.

Green tea

Black tea

Yellow tea

White tea

 Spice tea

Herbal tea 

Fermented tea

Mixed tea /flavor infused

 These interesting varieties of tea have different proportion of antioxidant, caffeine and they come from different parts of the world.

 My main post today is about the " Green Tea" and "Health benefits"

Green tea has been used in Asian countries since very ancients time, some say it has been used for 5000 years for traditional medicinal purposes. The tradition of drinking Green tea started from the east Asian countries (China, India,Japan and Thailand). It has been more popular lately due to multiple health benefits by drinking green tea.

Extensive research has been done regarding health benefit of the green tea world wide, including in the United States. But as of today, FDA has not  approved on the  health benefit claims of Green Tea.

 

What is in the tea?

It is derived from the plant called "Camellia sinensis". There are two types of tea: fermented and non fermented. But green tea is non fermented. It contains poly phenols (potent Antioxidant) and stimulants ( caffeine).

Among the poly phenols, the EGCG is the most popular for the health benefits and hence studied vastly.

During fermentation, the tea becomes more caffeinated and less filled with poly phenol. Among all the tea, green tea is not fermented, and it has the most poly phenols (EGCG) and the lesser Stimulants (Caffeine).

So green tea is better than other kinds of tea in terms of health.  
 

The following are the potential benefits claims from consuming "green tea" and "its extract".

1. blood thinning effect

2. cholesterol lowering effects: increasing the good cholesterol and decreasing the bad cholesterol and Triglyceride

3. preventing dementia

4. weight loss effect by increasing fat burning and metabolism.

5. preventing the destruction of immune system by the human immunodeficiency Virus in HIV_ infected patients.    

 6.preventing the aging of the skin

 7. preventing the certain cancers

 

So let's understand all the above benefits in the right way.

First , are the claims true? 
The claims as above are probably true as most of the laboratory and animal studies shows that it is beneficial to health as described above. There are multiple human studies done across Asia and Europe, and proven to be of the health benefits.

So doctor why am I seeing you in your clinic? Let me go and get a cup of green tea. 

In practicing medicine, there are two major tasks. Treatment and prevention.

For the purpose of prevention: I would say, it is good to drink 2-3 glasses of green tea a day.

But the purpose of treatment: green tea is simply not enough. 

The amount of genetic factors, environmental factors, immunological factors, etc on a certain disease vary with the individuals. We just simply do not know as much yet to replace currently acting drugs. Plus, green tea is not a magic wand, it does not give you all these effects right away. It takes time to get health benefits as above.

So simply:

1. we cannot use green tea in replacement for the Aspirin for the heart disease

2. we cannot use the green tea in replacement for the HIV medications

3. Neither as replacement for cholesterol lowering agents

4. Nor instead of weight loss medication (phentermine, sirbutermine, etc)

5. so as the chemotherapy.

Where can we use the green tea if it is so beneficial to health?

In prevention  of diseases.

We can drink green tea in replacements of the non- nutritive calorie yielding sodas and energy drinks. It will prevent us from gaining excessive calories from soda as well as give us increase metabolism and promotes fat burning from green tea poly phenols.

It may help reduce cholesterol, heart attacks, boost your immune system, liver toxicity and serve as antioxidant in the body. Also, it will satisfy your thirst.

So everybody is safe to drink green tea?

The patients on the blood thinner (coumadin) should not drink green tea. Pregnant ladies should avoid too.

I have seen different people in far Asia are consuming green tea on regular base. From the kids to the older adults are drinking green tea. But drinking more than 4 (eight oz) cups a day may have a stimulant effects (like caffeine).

So how much green tea should we drink per day?

Two to three cups of green tea a day is fairly safe to drink as daily routine.

Do I recommend green tea while someone is trying to lose weight?

Yes. Without added sugar or artificial sweetener, you can have three cups a day.