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The right cup of tea for
good health?
September 11, 1997
Web posted at: 7:22 p.m. EDT (2322 GMT)
LAS VEGAS (CNN) -- Green tea
contains twice the disease-fighting punch as red wine, according to new research presented
Thursday at an American Chemical Society meeting in Las Vegas.
Researchers from The
University of Kansas measured the antioxidant content of green tea and found that it is
100 times more effective than vitamin C and 25 times better than vitamin E at protecting
cells from damage believed linked to cancer, heart disease and other illnesses.
This is the first research
to quantify the effectiveness of green tea's disease-fighting capabilities and measure it
against other popular antioxidants.
The researchers also found
that the disease-fighting compound in green tea, EGCG, is twice as powerful as
resveratrol, which is found in red wine.
But Mark Kantor, associate
professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Maryland, cautioned consumers
to digest the new information carefully.
"No one really knows
for sure if these compounds give protection against cancer and heart disease. So it's very
premature to make comparisons between foods with the implication that one food is
healthier than another food," he said.
Green tea has been the focus
of nutrition research because of population studies linking green tea consumption with
lower rates of cancer and heart disease.
      Copyright © 1998 Tealand.
All rights reserved.
Revised:
May 11, 2008.
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