green tea

An evergreen with an endless supply of tea! Use the young new leaves. Either boil the leaves for 15 seconds or freeze them for 30 minutes, then dry them for later use as tea. Green tea is very high in antioxidants that help protect cholesterol in blood from oxidating and forming free radicals. Green tea is a better antioxidant than either oolong or black tea. These are actually all the same plant, Camellia sinensis. The difference is that green tea is unfermented. Oolong is partially fermented, and black tea is fully fermented. The fermentation process destroys many of the antioxidant polyphenols. White tea, is are also from the C. sinensis plant, but contains the baby leaf buds. Green tea is known for its anti-cancer properties from the antioxidant and antiviral nature of the polyphenols. Green tea also helps with weight loss due to both the xanthines (caffeine, theophylline, theobromine) that act as thermogenics (increases temperature through the increased burning of body fat) and suppresses appetite. Also contains theanine, which has calming action on the body and counters the stimulant action of the tiny amount of caffeine in the plant. Take green tea by itself because it contains substances that can render other herbs or medications useless to the body, including what you eat. Green tea can hinder the absorption of nutrients into the body. Contains tiny amount of flouride, so take a break once in a while. An alternative antioxidant tea to consider is red tea (rooibos, honey bush)...a mild, slightly sweet tea with antioxidant properties 30 times greater than green tea, and very low in polyphenols, so it will not interfere with other herbs or medications. Rooibos is also anti-cancer.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Green Tea

a variety of tea. Green tea gives a light greenish-yellow infusion with a strong aroma and a rather bitter, astringent taste. In the manufacture of green tea, dry-curing and fermentation are eliminated, which accounts for its distinctive properties. In comparison with black tea, it has a higher stimulating effect on the human organism. Green tea contains from 12 to 18.6 percent tannin and about 1.5 percent caffeine. In the USSR, it is used mainly in the Middle Asian republics.

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References in periodicals archive

Researchers found that EGCG -- the main compound in green tea -- potently inhibits myeloperoxidase, a pro-inflammatory enzyme released by white blood cells during inflammation.

Iron lessens green tea's benefits: Study

A meta-analysis found that for every 500 ml-per-day increase in green tea consumption (about 3 cups), the risk of cognitive disorders decreased 29%.

Maximize Green Tea's Health Benefits

EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) is a natural antioxidants found in green tea, shown to be beneficial for the brain and heart in studies.

Drinking green tea for health? Use bottled water only - scientists

The review included clinical trials that included patients with a history of NAFLD or NASH and evaluated the use of green tea supplementation in any dosage or form.

Green tea as a safe treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

A study of 40,530 Japanese adults found that participants who drank more than five cups of green tea a day had a 26% lower risk of death from heart attack or stroke and a 16% lower risk of death from all causes than people who drank less than one cup of green tea a day.

Green tea may lower heart disease risk: Study suggest

While both groups experienced improvements in their pain, only the green tea group had better physical function.

Green Tea for Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis

The health benefits of green tea are generally attributed to catechins or polyphenols that act as antioxidants to stabilize damaging free radicals throughout the body.

Green tea's promising heart-health benefits

Additionally, green tea (Camila sensis) holds greater antioxidant protection than the ordinary polyphenols in antioxidant vitamins such as C and E (Tedeschi et al., 2004), also its antioxidative activity is stronger than butylated hydroxyanisole, butylated hydroxytoluene and DL-alpha-tocopherol.

Effect of Green Tea Extract (Camellia sinensis) on Fertility Indicators of Post-Thawed Bull Spermatozoa

In honour of its 300th anniversary, Ippodo Tea Company is celebrating around the world to promote green tea and to help preserve the Japanese green tea tradition.

Ippodo is on a quest to promote the depth & variety of green tea

One of the great antioxidants is green tea, which explains the phenomenal popularity of this material as a beverage and as a component in skin care formulas.

Anti-aging efficacy of topical green tea products

Green tea is touted for its many health benefits as a powerful antioxidant, but experiments in a laboratory model of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) suggest that consuming green tea along with dietary iron actually may lessen green tea's benefits.

"Cancel" combination of green tea and iron