Tea benefits are anything but clear

Michael Seidman, director of the Center for Integrative Medicine in Detroit, hates the taste of green tea. That doesn't stop him from drinking a cup five days a week. When he's done sipping, he squeezes the liquid out of the tea leaves and then eats them.

"My wife just looks at me and rolls her eyes," he says. "But there's no doubt in my mind that green tea has many health benefits."

Other scientists aren't so sure. "There are hundreds, if not thousands, of papers on tea, but results are often split," says tea researcher Jack Bukowski, a Harvard Medical School professor.

So where one study finds that tea boosts immune function, another shows no effect. Most research has been limited to animals. Scientists have yet to examine all the properties of green, black, oolong or white tea. They don't know whether the variety of tea makes a difference. Or what effect there may be from drinking tea straight vs. mixing it with milk, sugar or lemon.

'Big possibilities'

"Tea has big possibilities, but we have a long way to go before we can confirm the health benefits," Mr. Bukowski says.

None of that has stopped interest in tea from coming to a full boil. In January, Coca-Cola introduced Enviga, a green-tea beverage touted for burning calories.

The extract of green tea – epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) – is an ingredient in a growing number of foods, beverages and dietary supplements.

Tea leaves are plucked from an evergreen called camellia sinensis. Indigenous to China and India, it thrives in mountainous regions worldwide. Oolong tea is exposed to the air for two to three hours after harvesting to oxidize and ferment it, while black tea is exposed for up to four hours. (As for herbal teas, they're made from the roots, leaves and flowers of other plants and are not technically "tea.")

Green tea and white tea are not oxidized after harvesting. Some scientists think that may give them a nutritional edge because they may contain higher amounts of antioxidants. These substances not only protect against cancer but appear to counteract the chronic inflammation that helps produce heart disease, arthritis and other diseases.

Potential benefits

Studies of tea point to potential benefits such as improved mental alertness; lower blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels; reduced blood pressure; lower risk of breast, colon, lung, ovarian and prostate cancer; as well as possible protection against Type 2 diabetes and maybe even assistance with weight loss.

Just be prepared to drink a lot of tea: Findings suggest benefits come from drinking five to 10 cups a day. Ounce for ounce, tea contains about half the caffeine found in coffee, but that could still be a lot of caffeine.

Does decaf tea work as well? Results aren't clear.

Drink tea shortly after brewing it for the biggest punch of antioxidants and other healthful ingredients.

If you eat the leaves, you may get an upset stomach, but no ill-health effects otherwise.

Source:www.dallasnews.com