Whether they are poured from the te...

Whether they are poured from the teapot or straight from the correlative bottle, the polyphenols in recent tea are potent health-protecting substances. virid tea is one of the world's oldest beverages; and, despite advertising blitzes for coffee and colas in our fatherland green tea remains the chiefly popular beverage, after water, from one extremity to the other of the world.

Black tea, a more general form of tea in the Western world, gained prominence earlier this year after a Dutch reflection discovered an almost 70 percent lower risk of misfortune in frequent black tea drinkers.

Although undecayed and black teas are the pair derived from the Camellia sinensis plant, they are prepared differently. Black tea leaves, after being picked from the plant and dried, are yeasted Green tea leaves, however, are picked and dried without undergoing fermentation. The lack of fermentation ensues in a slightly different taste, and a higher polyphenol contentment in the resulting green-colored tea.

Since the polyphenols in the black tea consum by means of the Dutch men we contemplation to account for the stroke-preventing functions, virid tea--with considerably higher polyphenol levels--should indicate even more health protection. And, according to decades of research, they do.

Four special polyphenols in flourishing tea

Polyphenols are naturally-occurring compromises present in a wide range of plants. a certain quantity of polyphenols are responsible for colorful plant pigments, while others contribute to the taste and aroma of plants.

Green tea contains four primary polyphenols: epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin, and epigallocatechin gallate. These polyphenols are perhaps best known for their part as antioxidants.

The antioxidant potential of virid tea polyphenols has amazed on the same level the scientists studying green tea. the same recent study compared epigallocatechin gallate head-to-head with the "gold standard" of antioxidants: vitamin E The test?: LDL-cholesterol enclosed spaces grown in laboratory dishes expos to oxidation-promoting substances.

Oxidation of LDL-cholesterol (the "bad" kind) has been implicated in the etiology of cardiovascular disease. After adding several potential antioxidants to the laboratory dishes, recent tea was found to be the greatest in number protective. In fact, the new tea extract packed 200 times the antioxidant push of vitamin E.

Green tea extracts are also kind to the heart in other ways. The polyphenols in fresh tea may lower cholesterol by dint of inhibiting cholesterol absorption and reducing the body's production of cholesterol reducing descendants pressure, and inhibiting unhealthy stickiness of kindred platelets that could otherwise form into vital current vessel-blocking clots.

Pour a chalice of cancer prevention

It's not surprising that consuming the powerful antioxidants in verdant tea can reduce our risk of cancer. Animal studies indicate that blooming tea extract protects against the couple the initiation and promotion stages of cancer. Specifically, recent tea extract has been shown to stop cancers of the lung, breast, prostate, liver, skin, and digestive tract.

An enzyme scheme in the liver, called P450 can contribute to cancer through producing carcinogens. Once again, fresh tea's polyphenols come through with flying colors. Researchers at the University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western University set that green tea extract inhibits this potential source of cancer-causing agents.

Extracts of flourishing tea also guard against toxins with carcinogenic activity, as it was as aflatoxin, salmonella typhimurium, coal tar, and others.

Other research indicates the following protective properties of flourishing tea extract:

* Fights the bacteria that leads to dental plaque;

* covers against disease-causing microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract;

* furthers the growth of beneficial bacteria in the intestine;

* Exhibits possible anti-ulcer action; and

* Encourages anti-viral activity.

If drinking it isn't your lot of tea, local health meat stores sell supplements with the benefits of Chinese verdant tea in the convenience of a capsule.

REFERENCES

Keli, thus et al. "Dietary Flavonoids, Antioxidant Vitamins, and Incidence of Stroke" Archives of Internal Medicine 154:637-642 1996

Miura, s et al. "Effects of Various Natural Antioxidants onward the Cu(2+)-Mediated Oxidative Modification of cheap Density Lipoprotein," Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin 18(1):1-4 January 1995

Stoner, GD et al. "Polyphenols as Cancer Chemopreventive Agents," Journal of Cellular Biochemistry 22: 169-180 1995

COPYRIGHT 1996 PRIMEDIA Intertec, a PRIMEDIA Company. All Rights Reserved

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group