I want to address a potentially misleading point in this article; the article says "So what gives green tea such an advantage against others such as oolong or black tea?"
Is green tea actually better than other types of tea like black or oolong? There are many websites making this claim--especially those run by companies trying to sell green tea.
The study this article is about (like many of the studies about green tea) was conducted in Japan, where nearly all tea consumed is green tea. The study compared rates of depression in green tea drinkers to non-tea drinkers, and did not look at other varieties of tea. We thus cannot conclude anything about other varieties of tea from this study. It is possible that other types of tea would show a similar effect.
This article also mentions antioxidants and implies that green tea contains more antioxidants than other types of tea. This is not necessarily true. ECGC and other antioxidants are not only present in green tea but also in black tea, oolong tea, and other teas. I recently wrote an article that summarizes some of the research on antioxidant content of different teas:
The conclusions I came to by looking at studies that measured antioxidant content is that antioxidants vary hugely from each tea to the next, but no generalizations can be made about green tea (or black, or oolong) being any healthier than the others.
How about caffeine? Again, I explore the same question of green vs. black and other teas in my article on caffeine in tea. The results are the same--green or white tea does not necessarily contain less caffeine, in spite of what a lot of websites and tea companies claim!
Green tea is healthy, but so are other varieties of tea. Don't ignore black and oolong teas...and be cautious about what you read and what conclusions you draw from scientific studies.
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The original paper about tea and depression (or a summary to those without a library subscription) can be found here:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/90/6/1615
I want to address a potentially misleading point in this article; the article says "So what gives green tea such an advantage against others such as oolong or black tea?"
Is green tea actually better than other types of tea like black or oolong? There are many websites making this claim--especially those run by companies trying to sell green tea.
The study this article is about (like many of the studies about green tea) was conducted in Japan, where nearly all tea consumed is green tea. The study compared rates of depression in green tea drinkers to non-tea drinkers, and did not look at other varieties of tea. We thus cannot conclude anything about other varieties of tea from this study. It is possible that other types of tea would show a similar effect.
This article also mentions antioxidants and implies that green tea contains more antioxidants than other types of tea. This is not necessarily true. ECGC and other antioxidants are not only present in green tea but also in black tea, oolong tea, and other teas. I recently wrote an article that summarizes some of the research on antioxidant content of different teas:
Health Benefits of Tea - How These Effects Vary Among Different Types of Tea
The conclusions I came to by looking at studies that measured antioxidant content is that antioxidants vary hugely from each tea to the next, but no generalizations can be made about green tea (or black, or oolong) being any healthier than the others.
How about caffeine? Again, I explore the same question of green vs. black and other teas in my article on caffeine in tea. The results are the same--green or white tea does not necessarily contain less caffeine, in spite of what a lot of websites and tea companies claim!
Green tea is healthy, but so are other varieties of tea. Don't ignore black and oolong teas...and be cautious about what you read and what conclusions you draw from scientific studies.
December 21, 2009 - 5:13pmThis Comment
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