Drinking five cups of green tea every day may extend one’s lifespan.
The Healthiest Beverage
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So, no Herbalife, no noni juice. There is a beverage, other than water, I do encourage everyone to drink everyday, though, and that is tea. This year, a review was published on the antibacterial, antitoxin, antiviral, and antifungal activities of tea. What more could we want? Anticancer? Done. We conclude that the regular consumption of green tea can protect against cancer. What else could we ask for? How about anti-death? Tea has got that too! Reduced all-cause mortality. Drink green tea everyday, and live, on average, a longer life. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise since, after all, it’s just dark green leafies in water.
I know what some people may be thinking, though. Rather than drink the five cups a day it may take to extend one’s life, if it’s so good for you, I’ll just take some green tea extract pills. Certainly lots to choose from. Not a good idea. Why was there a study about green tea extract pills in the journal Liver Transplantation? Because of the acute liver failure induced by green tea extract.
Five cups of tea isn’t that much. It’s really just one pot of tea. 40 ounces is the size of a typical drinking bottle—less than a Super Big Gulp. 40 ounces is, frankly, 40 ounces. And no, I’m not saying you should drink 40 ounces everyday.
There are now dozens of flavored green teas on the market if you don’t like the taste of it straight. Just don’t put cow’s milk in it. This year from the British Nutrition Foundation: “Does adding milk remove the benefits of your daily cuppa” tea? The answer is yes. It seems that cow proteins bind up all the good phytonutrients. None of the soy, rice, or nut proteins in plant-based milks have that same nutrition-cancelling effect.
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.
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- Friedman M. Overview of antibacterial, antitoxin, antiviral, and antifungal activities of tea flavonoids and teas. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2007 Jan;51(1):116-34.
- Zhang M, Holman CD, Huang JP, Xie X. Green tea and the prevention of breast cancer: a case-control study in Southeast China. Carcinogenesis. 2007 May;28(5):1074-8. Epub 2006 Dec 20.
- Kuriyama S, Shimazu T, Ohmori K, Kikuchi N, Nakaya N, Nishino Y, Tsubono Y, Tsuji I. Green tea consumption and mortality due to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all causes in Japan: the Ohsaki study. JAMA. 2006 Sep 13;296(10):1255-65.
- Molinari M, Watt KD, Kruszyna T, Nelson R, Walsh M, Huang WY, Nashan B, Peltekian K. Acute liver failure induced by green tea extracts: case report and review of the literature. Liver Transpl. 2006 Dec;12(12):1892-5.
- Stanner, S. Does adding milk remove the benefits of your daily cuppa? Nutrition Bulletin, Vol. 32, No. 2. (June 2007), pp. 101-103.
So, no Herbalife, no noni juice. There is a beverage, other than water, I do encourage everyone to drink everyday, though, and that is tea. This year, a review was published on the antibacterial, antitoxin, antiviral, and antifungal activities of tea. What more could we want? Anticancer? Done. We conclude that the regular consumption of green tea can protect against cancer. What else could we ask for? How about anti-death? Tea has got that too! Reduced all-cause mortality. Drink green tea everyday, and live, on average, a longer life. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise since, after all, it’s just dark green leafies in water.
I know what some people may be thinking, though. Rather than drink the five cups a day it may take to extend one’s life, if it’s so good for you, I’ll just take some green tea extract pills. Certainly lots to choose from. Not a good idea. Why was there a study about green tea extract pills in the journal Liver Transplantation? Because of the acute liver failure induced by green tea extract.
Five cups of tea isn’t that much. It’s really just one pot of tea. 40 ounces is the size of a typical drinking bottle—less than a Super Big Gulp. 40 ounces is, frankly, 40 ounces. And no, I’m not saying you should drink 40 ounces everyday.
There are now dozens of flavored green teas on the market if you don’t like the taste of it straight. Just don’t put cow’s milk in it. This year from the British Nutrition Foundation: “Does adding milk remove the benefits of your daily cuppa” tea? The answer is yes. It seems that cow proteins bind up all the good phytonutrients. None of the soy, rice, or nut proteins in plant-based milks have that same nutrition-cancelling effect.
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.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Friedman M. Overview of antibacterial, antitoxin, antiviral, and antifungal activities of tea flavonoids and teas. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2007 Jan;51(1):116-34.
- Zhang M, Holman CD, Huang JP, Xie X. Green tea and the prevention of breast cancer: a case-control study in Southeast China. Carcinogenesis. 2007 May;28(5):1074-8. Epub 2006 Dec 20.
- Kuriyama S, Shimazu T, Ohmori K, Kikuchi N, Nakaya N, Nishino Y, Tsubono Y, Tsuji I. Green tea consumption and mortality due to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all causes in Japan: the Ohsaki study. JAMA. 2006 Sep 13;296(10):1255-65.
- Molinari M, Watt KD, Kruszyna T, Nelson R, Walsh M, Huang WY, Nashan B, Peltekian K. Acute liver failure induced by green tea extracts: case report and review of the literature. Liver Transpl. 2006 Dec;12(12):1892-5.
- Stanner, S. Does adding milk remove the benefits of your daily cuppa? Nutrition Bulletin, Vol. 32, No. 2. (June 2007), pp. 101-103.
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Title
The Healthiest Beverage
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
More on green tea’s wide range of health benefits:
- Cancer, Interrupted: Green Tea
- Antimutagenic Activity of Green Versus White Tea
- Treating Genital Warts With Green Tea
- Can Green Tea Help Prevent Cancer?
- Benefits of Green Tea for Boosting Antiviral Immune Function
And check out the other videos on green tea.
Also check out my blog posts: Hibiscus tea: flower power and Coffee Caveats.
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