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Green Tea vs. White

It appears to depend on whether you add lemon

November 13, 2010 |
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Supplementary Info

Green Tea vs. White, 5.0 out of 5 based on 3 ratings

Sources Cited

Mol Nutr Food Res. 2007 Sep;51(9):1152-62. Common tea formulations modulate in vitro digestive recovery of green tea catechins. Green RJ, Murphy AS, Schulz B, Watkins BA, Ferruzzi MG.

Acknowledgements

Transcript

Black tea it also from the tea plant, but it’s been processed, so green is better but, there there are two types of green tea, that is two types of unprocessed leaves of the tea plant: tea from mature leaves, known as green tea, and tea from young leaves, known as white tea, because of the little white hairs on the immature leaves.
It turns out it seems to depend on whether you add lemon or not. If you drink your tea without lemon, green appears preferable to white, but if you add lemon, the white tea jumps ahead. It turns out while there may be more phytonutrients in the white tea, they may only be released at the right pH. Regardless of which tea you drink, though, adding lemon boosts the nutrition.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

For some context, please check out my associated blog posts: The Best Foods: Test Your Nutrition Knowledge, Is Caffeinated Tea Really Dehydrating?, and  Hibiscus tea: flower power.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/animalalex/ animalalex

    Where is the evidence to back up your claim that white tea with lemon juice is healthier than green tea with lemon juice? There is absolutely no mention of lemon juice or white tea in the article cited.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/GregLinsenbigler/ Greg Linsenbigler

    Animalalex, he must have used the wrong link for the source. Here’s the news story about the study.
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2007/11/14/citrus-greentea.html

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Thank you so much for pointing that out that error. Someone else just pointed out a mis-citation on another video and I offered to send them a copy of my new DVD as a token of my gratitude. If you email me your mailing address I’d be happy to do the same for you. I have corrected the citation source (thanks to you!). A group of my interns uploaded the source citations and one of them must have made a mistake. Please help me root out any other errors on the site (and I’ll send you even more free stuff :). And thanks for having my back Greg!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/BenjaminStone/ Benjamin Stone

    I wonder how matcha with (or without) lemon stacks up against traditional steeped green / white. Has anyone seen any comparative research?

    Another interesting finding would be to see if the addition of lemon also enhances the antioxidant activity of herbal infusions like chamomile, tumeric ginger, and other “teas”.

  • JJ

    A new well-loved tea for me is Trader Joe’s: Ginger Pear White Tea. It tastes really good. The question I have is: Is it possible that the ginger might make the same PH effect as lemon? How much lemon/PH change is really needed?

    I’m not a fan of lemon and also it would be hard for me to add lemon in my work setting, which I where I drink most of my tea. So, I’m hoping that this Ginger Pear White tea will give me that nutritional punch without having to add anything to it.

    Here are the ingredients as listed on package:
    ….organic white tea, organic chamomile, organic ginger root, organic lemon peels, natural flavors.

    So, there is both ginger root (which might be the right PH?) and even lemon peels. But both of those are pretty far down in the ingredient list.

    Any guesses on whether I am wasting my money on this tea or not?

    Thanks!

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/walfaro/ walfaro

      Dear JJ: Thank you for submitting this interesting question. Catechins are one of the most important antioxidants in tea. An infusion of green tea contains up to 200 mg of cathequins. Black tea contains fewer since catechins are oxidized during fermentation to other forms of polyphenols. In terms of optimum pH for making tea, epicatechins are remarkable heat stable in boiling water at pH=5.0. Please consider to review this article: http://www.ajcn.org/content/79/5/727.full Regarding the pH you will better use lemon, lime or other acid juice like pineapple to reach an optimum.

      • JJ

        Thanks walfaro!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/KarenLaVine/ Karen LaVine

    Why isn’t the acid in our stomachs sufficient to lower the pH of the tea?

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

      This is indeed a very interesting point, I am curious to know Dr. Greger’s response to this.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

      We only have lots of acid in our stomach when we’re digesting food, so unless you’re drinking tea with meals (not a great idea since it can interfere with iron absorption) acidifying white tea with lemon juice might give it an extra little boost. But if you like it lemon-free it’s still one of the healthiest drinks around!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/KarenLaVine/ Karen LaVine

    Thanks for the explanation, Dr. G. I didn’t realize that. I’ll continue to enjoy a quart of cold brewed green or white tea with lemon in the AM, and a quart of cold brewed hibiscus tea in the PM.

  • Michael Greger M.D.

    For some context, please check out my associated blog post The Best Foods: Test Your Nutrition Knowledge!

  • Neal

    White tea is younger leaves while green tea uses older leaves-not true. Depends on the green tea. Green tea can be from less mature leaves or more mature leaves. Chinese and Japanese green teas can be from younger or older leaves depending upon the quality and grade. There is such a huge variability of catechin levels from amongst green teas, that I am not sure that it’s easy to say which one is better without a lot of different teas being compared.

  • Brad

    Add lemon is a pretty vague tip. I make a daily batch of white tea using
    6 white tea bags and 2 bags mint for flavor makes a half gallon. How
    much lemon is ideal? What PH is the best to release all positive factors
    ?

  • Optimal functioning

    Should the lemon be in the water while the leaves are steeping or will you get the same benefits if you add the lemon after?

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