For 4000 years the Chinese have been using green tea without sugar or milk as a medicine. When tea first arrived in Britain it was not advertised as a beverage, but as a medicine with all sorts of claims being made for it. In 1657 it was considered an effective treatment for gout, and in 1659 the first advertisement for tea, printed by Thomas Garraway claimed tea would not only, "...maketh the body active and lusty" but also "...removeth the obstructions of the Spleen...".
Why and when the British began adding sugar and milk to their tea at the beginning of the 18th century may always remain a mystery, as is the question of why the Chinese never began.. Sweetened tea was drunk heavily by the working classes . The caffeine in tea made it possible to work the long hours and the sugar provided a short term boost of energy and empty calories that, although not as beneficial as a meal, ensured the worker would get through the day.
Since tea is the second most drunk beverage in the world , after water, its health implications have been under study for decades by scientists.
This is what the scientists agree on in thousands of studies :
Tea has no calories, no fat and no salt. Free Radicals are invading cells that cause genes to becomes cancerous and cholesterol to rise so that it clogs the arteries causing heart disease.
Antioxidants help protect our body from free radical damage by destroying free radicals Whether it is black, green or red (oolong), tea contains flavinoids called polyphenols or catechins which give tea its antioxidant properties.. In fact tea ranks as high as fruits and vegetables in antioxidants. Numerous studies have demonstrated the anti-cancer properties of polyphenols,. Other laboratory studies have found that polyphenols help prevent blood clotting and lower cholesterol levels Tea lowers risks of heart disease and stroke . A study from Harvard Medical School shows that tea drinkers among heart attack patients might survive longer than those who drink something else. Those who drank at least 14 cups of tea per week were 44 % less likely to die than those who didn’t drink tea;. Researchers at Boston University recently found that black tea appears to repair blood-vessel damage in people who have coronary-artery disease.And at the USDA, a just-completed study found that consistent tea-drinking significantly lowered LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) without decreasing helpful HDL cholesterol. Tea improves blood flow and the ability of the arteries to relax and keep blood pressure healthy. It also inhibits the abnormal formation of blood clots which is the leading cause of heart attacks and stroke Other studies report increased bone-density measurements among tea drinkers, possibly due to the fluoride in tea, coupled with the catechins. The results of a Chinese study published in the May 2002 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that people who are long-time tea drinkers seem to have an advantage in terms of bone mineral density over those who don’t habitually drink tea.
Both clinical and large-population studies suggest tea reduces the risk of several cancers. In 1994 the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published a study indicating that drinking green tea reduced the risk of esophageal cancer in the Chinese by nearly 60%. University of Purdue researchers recently concluded that a compound in green tea inhibits the growth of cancer cells "There's a lot of evidence that oxidative stress is what damages DNA, causing it to mutate and become cancer," explains Jeffrey Blumberg, a professor at Tufts University. "Catechins seem to promote something we call programmed cell death: when an injured cell can't repair itself, it commits suicide instead of becoming cancerous."
Green tea is better than black. It is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant: besides stopping their growth , it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue.
For years, researchers were puzzled by the fact that, despite consuming a diet rich in fat, the French have a lower incidence of heart disease than Americans. The answer was found to lie in red wine, which contains resveratrol, a polyphenol that limits the negative effects of smoking and a fatty diet. In a 1997 study, researchers from the University of Kansas determined that EGCG is twice as powerful as resveratrol. According to Hirofumi Tachibana's team at Kyushu University in Japan showed that growth of human lung cancer cells that have a cell receptor called 67 LR is slowed significantly after drinking just two or three cups of green tea, which contains EGCG.. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute , in laboratory studies using animals, catechins, inactivated oxidants before cell damage occurred, reduced the number and size of tumors, and inhibited the growth of cancer cells.
Green, oolong, and black teas all come from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. What sets green tea apart is the way it is processed. Green tea leaves are steamed, and the EGCG compound remains intact Black and oolong tea leaves are made from fermented leaves, which results in EGCG being converted into theaflavin which is not nearly as effective in preventing and fighting various diseases.
Till now , while experiments have been done on tea itself to isolate which tea is better and what it contains , no experiments had been done on whether adding milk or sugar to it has any implications. Sugar does nothing for the body except add calories. But what impact does milk have ?
Research published in the European Heart Journal and the New Scientist in January 2007 has found that the protective effect that tea has on the cardiovascular system is totally wiped out by adding milk.A German study done at the Charite Hospital at the University of Berlin compared the effects on arteries of drinking black tea with skimmed milk or plain, hot water. It found that caseins - proteins in milk - blocked the powerful effect of catechins - the flavonoids in tea - that helped to protect the arteries and kept cardiovascular disease at bay.
The scientists believe their findings can explain why countries where tea is regularly consumed with milk, have not shown a decreased risk of heart disease and stroke from drinking tea. In a healthy artery, blood vessels are able to relax if the blood flow increases — a process called flow-mediated dilation (FMD).
The researchers measured FMD levels in the forearms of women who drank black tea and those that had tea with milk. This was done before the tea was drunk and at several intervals afterwards.They wrote: “Black tea significantly improved FMD in humans compared with water, whereas addition of milk completely blunted the effects of tea.” "The beneficial effects of drinking black tea are completely prevented by the addition of milk, said Dr Verena Stangl, a cardiologist at the hospital. If you want to drink tea to have the beneficial health effects you have to drink it without milk. That is clearly shown by our experiments,"
She said their findings could also have implications for cancer, against which tea has also been shown to be protective. “Since milk appears to modify the biological activities of tea ingredients, it is likely that the anti-tumour effects of tea could be affected as well. I think it is essential that we re-examine the association between tea consumption and cancer protection, to see if that is the case
You will drink, in India ,80,000 cups during your lifetime. Don’t add milk.
Why and when the British began adding sugar and milk to their tea at the beginning of the 18th century may always remain a mystery, as is the question of why the Chinese never began.. Sweetened tea was drunk heavily by the working classes . The caffeine in tea made it possible to work the long hours and the sugar provided a short term boost of energy and empty calories that, although not as beneficial as a meal, ensured the worker would get through the day.
Since tea is the second most drunk beverage in the world , after water, its health implications have been under study for decades by scientists.
This is what the scientists agree on in thousands of studies :
Tea has no calories, no fat and no salt. Free Radicals are invading cells that cause genes to becomes cancerous and cholesterol to rise so that it clogs the arteries causing heart disease.
Antioxidants help protect our body from free radical damage by destroying free radicals Whether it is black, green or red (oolong), tea contains flavinoids called polyphenols or catechins which give tea its antioxidant properties.. In fact tea ranks as high as fruits and vegetables in antioxidants. Numerous studies have demonstrated the anti-cancer properties of polyphenols,. Other laboratory studies have found that polyphenols help prevent blood clotting and lower cholesterol levels Tea lowers risks of heart disease and stroke . A study from Harvard Medical School shows that tea drinkers among heart attack patients might survive longer than those who drink something else. Those who drank at least 14 cups of tea per week were 44 % less likely to die than those who didn’t drink tea;. Researchers at Boston University recently found that black tea appears to repair blood-vessel damage in people who have coronary-artery disease.And at the USDA, a just-completed study found that consistent tea-drinking significantly lowered LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) without decreasing helpful HDL cholesterol. Tea improves blood flow and the ability of the arteries to relax and keep blood pressure healthy. It also inhibits the abnormal formation of blood clots which is the leading cause of heart attacks and stroke Other studies report increased bone-density measurements among tea drinkers, possibly due to the fluoride in tea, coupled with the catechins. The results of a Chinese study published in the May 2002 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that people who are long-time tea drinkers seem to have an advantage in terms of bone mineral density over those who don’t habitually drink tea.
Both clinical and large-population studies suggest tea reduces the risk of several cancers. In 1994 the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published a study indicating that drinking green tea reduced the risk of esophageal cancer in the Chinese by nearly 60%. University of Purdue researchers recently concluded that a compound in green tea inhibits the growth of cancer cells "There's a lot of evidence that oxidative stress is what damages DNA, causing it to mutate and become cancer," explains Jeffrey Blumberg, a professor at Tufts University. "Catechins seem to promote something we call programmed cell death: when an injured cell can't repair itself, it commits suicide instead of becoming cancerous."
Green tea is better than black. It is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant: besides stopping their growth , it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue.
For years, researchers were puzzled by the fact that, despite consuming a diet rich in fat, the French have a lower incidence of heart disease than Americans. The answer was found to lie in red wine, which contains resveratrol, a polyphenol that limits the negative effects of smoking and a fatty diet. In a 1997 study, researchers from the University of Kansas determined that EGCG is twice as powerful as resveratrol. According to Hirofumi Tachibana's team at Kyushu University in Japan showed that growth of human lung cancer cells that have a cell receptor called 67 LR is slowed significantly after drinking just two or three cups of green tea, which contains EGCG.. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute , in laboratory studies using animals, catechins, inactivated oxidants before cell damage occurred, reduced the number and size of tumors, and inhibited the growth of cancer cells.
Green, oolong, and black teas all come from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. What sets green tea apart is the way it is processed. Green tea leaves are steamed, and the EGCG compound remains intact Black and oolong tea leaves are made from fermented leaves, which results in EGCG being converted into theaflavin which is not nearly as effective in preventing and fighting various diseases.
Till now , while experiments have been done on tea itself to isolate which tea is better and what it contains , no experiments had been done on whether adding milk or sugar to it has any implications. Sugar does nothing for the body except add calories. But what impact does milk have ?
Research published in the European Heart Journal and the New Scientist in January 2007 has found that the protective effect that tea has on the cardiovascular system is totally wiped out by adding milk.A German study done at the Charite Hospital at the University of Berlin compared the effects on arteries of drinking black tea with skimmed milk or plain, hot water. It found that caseins - proteins in milk - blocked the powerful effect of catechins - the flavonoids in tea - that helped to protect the arteries and kept cardiovascular disease at bay.
The scientists believe their findings can explain why countries where tea is regularly consumed with milk, have not shown a decreased risk of heart disease and stroke from drinking tea. In a healthy artery, blood vessels are able to relax if the blood flow increases — a process called flow-mediated dilation (FMD).
The researchers measured FMD levels in the forearms of women who drank black tea and those that had tea with milk. This was done before the tea was drunk and at several intervals afterwards.They wrote: “Black tea significantly improved FMD in humans compared with water, whereas addition of milk completely blunted the effects of tea.” "The beneficial effects of drinking black tea are completely prevented by the addition of milk, said Dr Verena Stangl, a cardiologist at the hospital. If you want to drink tea to have the beneficial health effects you have to drink it without milk. That is clearly shown by our experiments,"
She said their findings could also have implications for cancer, against which tea has also been shown to be protective. “Since milk appears to modify the biological activities of tea ingredients, it is likely that the anti-tumour effects of tea could be affected as well. I think it is essential that we re-examine the association between tea consumption and cancer protection, to see if that is the case
You will drink, in India ,80,000 cups during your lifetime. Don’t add milk.
Maneka Gandhi
