Green tea
What’s with the recent obsession with green tea for its alleged medicinal properties?
Every weekend I turn on the radio, and I’ll hear on at least 3 major stations, and all day long is people talking about how great green tea is. Here’s a short list of the supposed healing powers of green tea, courtesy of the Beauty Blog.
• promotes blood circulation
• increases the body’s natural resistance
• helps with oxygenation
• helps achieve “greater harmony”
• improves the body’s ability to handle the external physical and psycological [sic] pressures of life
• prevents tooth decay and maketeeth more resistant to acids
• promote digestion and cleanses the body internally
• tea drinkers say that they actually feel less tired and brightens their whole outlook
So anything this wonderful, of course makes me immediately suspicious. It sounds like alternative medicine to me, which I immediately wary of, because proponents almost invariably exaggerate the benefits, if there are any.
doing some quick poking around at scienceblogs, I found some mixed results. The Angry Toxicologist found some incorrect reporting in a major news outlet about green tea. Respectful Insolence found a study, the title of which was more enthusiastic than the results indicated.
On the other hand, this webpage from the University of Maryland lists some benefits and references, which I assume are relatively accurate (though I haven’t checked up on all them).
So, for now I conclude that we don’t yet know enough about green tea and the effects on the body to state anything overly positive or negative about it. I know that people who frequent places like the Green Tea blog and forum would like to believe that green tea is the magical mystery cure. However, just from my general experience with biology and medicine, there is rarely any single substance that is a cure all, and that even healthy substances should be rationed appropriately, balance and variety being key to a healthy diet. I also recommend sticking to reputable news sources, try to avoid those radio programs, and make sure to check the sources on all information. When it comes to health, you can afford to be skeptical about miracle elixirs and potions.
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April 15th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
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April 22nd, 2008 at 3:30 am
Most of the new buzz I’ve seen seems to come from study (the Murase one). All I have to say is that there are probably several million people in Japan who drink 3+ cups of green tea a day. As far as I know, these people still get sick and stuff. However, as we know from watching Japanese TV and movies, these people can fly, transform into super heroes, and also have giant robots they can summon. Most of all, they come up with crazy game shows. Those are benefits enough for me.
Seriously: do you know if there have been any reported bad side effects (besides the obvious ones associated with high-caffeine consumption) from drinking a lot of green tea? I like green tea quite a bit, and I find it helps my irritable digestive system. I have not been drinking a lot in recent years, mostly because I am particular about getting good tea (I prefer a variety called Dragon Well) and brewing it whole-leaf, which is difficult if you are not at hom a lot. But since I will be quitting smoking soon, I’m worried about my digestion being as troublesome as it was a few years ago when I did not smoke. Smoking helped my alleviate my digestive symptoms quite a bit. But of course that’s not a worthwhile rationalization for a deadly addiction! I think tea is *probably* a much safer addiction. What do you think about any of this?
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:12 pm
The Japanese still get sick, and I think you would not be able to tell from those anecdotal observation whether its the green tea or other dietary considerations that play a larger role in general health.
One of the science blogs I posted said that green tea is a mild oxidizer, but I don’t know in what scale that becomes significant.
I find it interesting that your smoking helped your digestive problems… Could that have been a direct affect? observational bias? Eating less due to smoking more?
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I was told by a resident physician friend that it’s the action of nicotine on intestinal something something. Antispasmodic? Is that the word he used?
He then said, “I probably shouldn’t have told you about that.”