TIME FOR A CUP OF TEA?
I have a somewhat difficult time getting in enough hydration each day. Sure, during a bike ride or after a run or a swim I drink maybe a quart of water. And I get a couple of cups of liquid daily in coffee. But this still isn’t enough and plain water just isn’t that sexy to me. So now, I’ve added tea as a flavorful way of adding fluid into my body each day. (Bonus: a cup of tea contains only 2 calories.)
I’ve heard that tea is healthy but didn’t really know why. So today I checked out what Harvard had to say and found it in a May 21, 2018 updated article titled Flavonoids: The secret to health benefits of drinking black and green tea Here are excerpts:
Black or green, hot or iced, tea is gaining in popularity. Many cities and shopping malls feature specialty teashops, and bottled teas vie for space on store shelves. The tea market continues to grow year after year.
Tea’s purported health benefits—many of which are linked to the heart and blood vessels—may be fueling this trend. Just how might tea help your heart?
“Tea is a good source of compounds known as catechins and epicatechins, which are thought to be responsible for tea’s beneficial health effects,” says Dr. Howard Sesso, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. These compounds belong to a group of plant chemicals called flavonoids. Research suggests that flavonoids help quell inflammation, and that in turn may reduce plaque buildup inside arteries. Green tea has slightly higher amounts of these chemicals than black tea. Both black and green also contain modest amounts of caffeine, ranging from about 20 to 45 milligrams per 8-ounce cup. That’s roughly half the amount of caffeine in the same amount of coffee.
What’s the evidence?
Short-term studies have shown that drinking tea may improve vascular reactivity—a measure of how well your blood vessels respond to physical or emotional stress. There’s also evidence that drinking either black or green tea may lower harmful LDL cholesterol levels. Blood pressure may also dip slightly in people who drink it, but results from these studies have been mixed.
Several large, population-based studies show that people who regularly drink black or green tea may be less likely to have heart attacks and strokes. However, people who drink the brew tend to be different from people who don’t drink it. “We can’t quite disentangle whether it’s their tea drinking or something else those people are doing that lowers their risk of cardiovascular disease,” explains Dr. Sesso.
Don’t go overboard
There are no known downsides to drinking a cup or two of tea a day. [Except it can stain your teeth.] But excessive amounts of may harm the kidneys. For example, black tea is a rich source of oxalates, which can cause kidney stones.
Stirring in a little sugar is fine, but if you add a few heaping teaspoons of sugar, you’re probably canceling out it’s possible benefits, says Dr. Sesso. And beware of the sugar found in many bottled teas, some of which contain as much as nine teaspoons of sugar per serving—almost as much as colas and other soft drinks.
Black, green, or herbal: What’s the difference?
Black and green tea come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub that grows in mountainous areas in China, India, and other countries. The differences between them stem from what happens after the leaves are harvested and allowed to wilt.
To make green tea, the leaves are quickly steamed or heated to stop oxidation, the chemical process that causes browning. To make black tea, the leaves are crushed, torn, curled, or rolled and allowed to oxidize before being dried. This additional processing step degrades some of the flavonoids. As a result, black tea has slightly lower amounts of flavonoids than green tea.
Herbal teas are made from a range of different herbs, spices, and other plants, such as mint, cinnamon, licorice, ginger, and rose hips. While these brews may contain beneficial chemicals similar to those found in regular tea, there isn’t enough research to support any guesses about the potential health benefits of herbal tea.
There you have it—tea is probably good for us. And another benefit—having a cup of tea is so easy: Place teabag in a cup of hot water, remove after a few minutes, drink it down. I think I hear that teakettle whistling right now. Won’t you join me?