Of all the plants in the world, why has the tea plant become the most popular beverage in the world?
The Benefits of Black and Green Teas for Brain Waves
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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
Teas—whether white tea, green tea, oolong, or black—are all made from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. That’s different from herbal tea, which is defined as pouring hot water over any plant in the world, other than this particular plant.
There are at least 287,655 different types of plants that we know of on this planet. Why is this one plant the most popular beverage in the world? It’s not the caffeine; the coffee plant has more caffeine, but more people drink tea than coffee. It’s probably not the taste; most people would probably prefer peppermint or some of the fruity berry teas to be better tasting. It’s a pretty enough plant, but why do we drink literally billions of cups a day of this particular plant?
It turns out there’s something in this plant that’s found concentrated in only two places in nature—in the tea plant, and in an odd mushroom called the bay bolete, which has these little holes instead of gills. Scientists figured this one might not pair as well with crumpets, so they called the compound theanine. What does it do that’s got billions of people hooked on it? We weren’t quite sure, until we hooked people up to an EEG.
An electroencephalogram measures the activity of our brain waves, which are split into four major bandwidths: we have delta waves, theta waves, alpha waves, and beta waves. Delta waves, where basically our brain is electrically pulsing very slowly at about one wave per second, are seen primarily in deep sleep. Then there are theta waves—at about five cycles per second—typically seen when we’re drowsy or in early sleep.
The two waking states are alpha and beta. We have alpha brain waves when we’re relaxed, aware, attentive, like when we close our eyes and meditate. And beta waves are more when we’re stimulated with increased alertness, in a hustle-and-bustle state where most of us live our lives. How can we get more in that alpha state—that wakeful relaxation—fully alert and focused but calm?
Well, if we relax in a nice peaceful place, after about 90 minutes we can start to see some significant alpha activity, which is this yellow and red. Now, practicing meditators, like Buddhist monks, can achieve this state earlier, and even maintain alpha activity with their eyes open. And the deeper the meditation, the higher the alpha waves. So, we can meditate for 30 years, or just drink some tea.
This was the alpha wave activity in the control group after drinking plain water. What if instead of water they had the amount of theanine found in one or two cups (240 to 480 ml) of tea? Look closely, compare, and see if you can detect a difference. That is why people drink tea from the tea plant.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Wong M, Sirisena S, Ng K. Phytochemical profile of differently processed tea: A review. J Food Sci. 2022;87(5):1925-1942.
- Pan SY, Litscher G, Gao SH, et al. Historical perspective of traditional indigenous medical practices: the current renaissance and conservation of herbal resources. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2014;2014:525340.
- Shen FM, Chen HW. Element composition of tea leaves and tea infusions and its impact on health. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol. 2008;80(3):300-304.
- Nobre AC, Rao A, Owen GN. L-theanine, a natural constituent in tea, and its effect on mental state. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2008;17 Suppl 1:167-168.
- Okello EJ, Abadi AM, Abadi SA. Effects of green and black tea consumption on brain wave activities in healthy volunteers as measured by a simplified Electroencephalogram (Eeg): A feasibility study. Nutr Neurosci. 2016;19(5):196-205.
- Banquet JP. Spectral analysis of the EEG in meditation. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1973;35(2):143-151.
- Katyal S, Goldin P. Alpha and theta oscillations are inversely related to progressive levels of meditation depth. Neurosci Conscious. 2021;2021(1):niab042.
Motion graphics by Avo Media
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
Teas—whether white tea, green tea, oolong, or black—are all made from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. That’s different from herbal tea, which is defined as pouring hot water over any plant in the world, other than this particular plant.
There are at least 287,655 different types of plants that we know of on this planet. Why is this one plant the most popular beverage in the world? It’s not the caffeine; the coffee plant has more caffeine, but more people drink tea than coffee. It’s probably not the taste; most people would probably prefer peppermint or some of the fruity berry teas to be better tasting. It’s a pretty enough plant, but why do we drink literally billions of cups a day of this particular plant?
It turns out there’s something in this plant that’s found concentrated in only two places in nature—in the tea plant, and in an odd mushroom called the bay bolete, which has these little holes instead of gills. Scientists figured this one might not pair as well with crumpets, so they called the compound theanine. What does it do that’s got billions of people hooked on it? We weren’t quite sure, until we hooked people up to an EEG.
An electroencephalogram measures the activity of our brain waves, which are split into four major bandwidths: we have delta waves, theta waves, alpha waves, and beta waves. Delta waves, where basically our brain is electrically pulsing very slowly at about one wave per second, are seen primarily in deep sleep. Then there are theta waves—at about five cycles per second—typically seen when we’re drowsy or in early sleep.
The two waking states are alpha and beta. We have alpha brain waves when we’re relaxed, aware, attentive, like when we close our eyes and meditate. And beta waves are more when we’re stimulated with increased alertness, in a hustle-and-bustle state where most of us live our lives. How can we get more in that alpha state—that wakeful relaxation—fully alert and focused but calm?
Well, if we relax in a nice peaceful place, after about 90 minutes we can start to see some significant alpha activity, which is this yellow and red. Now, practicing meditators, like Buddhist monks, can achieve this state earlier, and even maintain alpha activity with their eyes open. And the deeper the meditation, the higher the alpha waves. So, we can meditate for 30 years, or just drink some tea.
This was the alpha wave activity in the control group after drinking plain water. What if instead of water they had the amount of theanine found in one or two cups (240 to 480 ml) of tea? Look closely, compare, and see if you can detect a difference. That is why people drink tea from the tea plant.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Wong M, Sirisena S, Ng K. Phytochemical profile of differently processed tea: A review. J Food Sci. 2022;87(5):1925-1942.
- Pan SY, Litscher G, Gao SH, et al. Historical perspective of traditional indigenous medical practices: the current renaissance and conservation of herbal resources. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2014;2014:525340.
- Shen FM, Chen HW. Element composition of tea leaves and tea infusions and its impact on health. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol. 2008;80(3):300-304.
- Nobre AC, Rao A, Owen GN. L-theanine, a natural constituent in tea, and its effect on mental state. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2008;17 Suppl 1:167-168.
- Okello EJ, Abadi AM, Abadi SA. Effects of green and black tea consumption on brain wave activities in healthy volunteers as measured by a simplified Electroencephalogram (Eeg): A feasibility study. Nutr Neurosci. 2016;19(5):196-205.
- Banquet JP. Spectral analysis of the EEG in meditation. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1973;35(2):143-151.
- Katyal S, Goldin P. Alpha and theta oscillations are inversely related to progressive levels of meditation depth. Neurosci Conscious. 2021;2021(1):niab042.
Motion graphics by Avo Media
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Title
The Benefits of Black and Green Teas for Brain Waves
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
Here is the video I mentioned: Dietary Brain Wave Alteration.
For more on the benefits of green tea, see:
- Benefits of Green Tea for Boosting Antiviral Immune Function
- Can Green Tea Help Prevent Cancer?
- Can Green Tea Help Treat Cancer?
- Treating Prostate Cancer with Green Tea
- Preventing Prostate Cancer with Green Tea
- Tea and Artery Function
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