I am hesitant to accept bold generalizations that white tea contains more antioxidants than green tea. People who are selling white tea will usually tell you that it has more antioxidants. Do a google scholar search though...and you'll quickly find that it's very complex and hardly clear-cut.
White tea is really diverse. Silver Needle or Bai Hao Yinzhen is a very light white tea made only out of buds, which contain more caffeine. Shou Mei, on the other hand, is a very dark-colored white tea, almost like an oolong...it contains larger leaves, fewer buds, and more stem...and has less caffeine. The antioxidants are mostly the same chemicals that give tea its unique aroma--and because these teas taste so different, they obviously have different antioxidant properties. Are they both equally beneficial or is one better than another? Who knows?
The same can be said of green teas. Dragon Well Tea is pan-fired, whereas Sencha is steamed, and Hojicha is (heavily) roasted.
There are very few studies out there that compare different styles of green tea to each other, or white tea or black tea for that matter. The few studies that I have read, however, suggested that each type of tea can have radically different chemical profiles. So...likely some of them are better for you than others.
I think the safest thing to do is to drink lots of different kinds.
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I am hesitant to accept bold generalizations that white tea contains more antioxidants than green tea. People who are selling white tea will usually tell you that it has more antioxidants. Do a google scholar search though...and you'll quickly find that it's very complex and hardly clear-cut.
White tea is really diverse. Silver Needle or Bai Hao Yinzhen is a very light white tea made only out of buds, which contain more caffeine. Shou Mei, on the other hand, is a very dark-colored white tea, almost like an oolong...it contains larger leaves, fewer buds, and more stem...and has less caffeine. The antioxidants are mostly the same chemicals that give tea its unique aroma--and because these teas taste so different, they obviously have different antioxidant properties. Are they both equally beneficial or is one better than another? Who knows?
The same can be said of green teas. Dragon Well Tea is pan-fired, whereas Sencha is steamed, and Hojicha is (heavily) roasted.
There are very few studies out there that compare different styles of green tea to each other, or white tea or black tea for that matter. The few studies that I have read, however, suggested that each type of tea can have radically different chemical profiles. So...likely some of them are better for you than others.
I think the safest thing to do is to drink lots of different kinds.
:-)
October 6, 2009 - 1:55pmThis Comment
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