Drinking green tea, rather than black, may help you live longer
Green and black tea are among the most popular drinks in the world – but just what are the differences between them? Despite both coming from the same plant, they have quite contrasting qualities that emerge from the moment they are picked.
Green tea is a richer
source of flavanoids, especially tea polyphenols, and these bioactive compounds
could be protective against cardiovascular disease. While from the same plant
and containing the same amount of caffeine, black tea is processed in a
different way from green tea after picking.
Black tea is fully fermented and tea polyphenols might be oxidized into pigments and inactivate during fermentation. Thus green tea tends to be more effective than black tea in anti-oxidation, improving blood lipid profile, and in turn, to be more effective in cardiovascular protection.
Differences in flavours and arona
Black tea tends to be hailed for its full-bodied flavour, while green tea is much lighter.
It is not uncommon for milk to be added to black tea to reduce some of the bitterness and balance out the flavour, but the same can’t be said for green tea.
Words such as grassy and fresh are often used to describe green tea – it’s a perfect summer drink due to its refreshing qualities.
Black tea is more of an everyday choice, as its deep flavours vary quite a lot between the different varieties and it’s a great way to warm up on a cold day.
Gunter Kuhnle, a professor of nutrition and food science, University of Reading in the UK, who was not involved in the study but conducts research into the association between flavanoids and health, said it's not currently known how tea or the compounds found in tea affect health. "The antioxidant effect of polyphenols found in tea has long been assumed to be responsible, but this has been resoundingly disproved in the last decade. Some of the compounds found in tea might have a beneficial effect, but this is currently still under investigation," he told the Science Media Centre (SMC) in London.
As the
world's most popular drink after water, tea-drinking habits varied
from place to place and the findings might not apply to Western countries,
where black tea was a more popular choice often taken with milk or sugar. Tea consumption is part of
a cultural heritage, and its health effects might be confounded by other eating
and drinking patterns, for example, consumption of other flavanoid-rich food or
beverages like coffee.
Dr.
Duane Mellor, a registered dietitian and senior teaching fellow at Aston
Medical School, Aston University, said that while green tea is safe and may
have benefits, green tea supplements "should be considered carefully as
there has been a number of cases of liver damage reported in individuals who
have consumed these in large doses.
