Green tea is a beverage that has grown to be fashionable the past decade or so, but it's been very popular for centuries. Green tea has been around for about 5,000 years and was "discovered" in China. I say "discovered" because there's a legend of a Chinese emperor who was drinking hot water when some green tea leaves fell into it, making an exciting new healthful hot beverage. There's an ancient Chinese proverb that says it's better to go three days without food than without tea.
Like black tea, green tea is comprised of the leaves of the Camellia sinsensis plant. What makes tea become green is the steaming process which preserves the leaves, specifically, the green pigment, chlorophyll. Black tea is produced by the enzymatic oxidation which breaks down the chlorophyll and yields tannins (which are actually a brownish orangey color). The enzymatic oxidation that turns green tea into black does not involve bacteria and thus should not be called "fermentation", though this term is frequently mistakenly used.Besides its lovely verdant color evocative of health, green tea is characterized by a healthy nutrient, EGCG, epigallocatechin gallate. This is a powerful antioxidant, up to 20 times more potent than Vitamin E, a type of catechin.
Both green and black teas are abundant in antioxidants called polyphenols which promote health by reducing the damaging effects of free radicals in the body. Free radicals are unstable molecules that steal electrons from other molecules, which in turn need to steal electrons. The free radical chain reactions are believed to cause many diseases and the aging process. Green tea has EGCG, but black tea does not. Green tea has about 30% catechins while black tea has 10%. Some research has shown that the combination of catechins and caffeine in green tea boost the metabolism conducive to weight loss. There has been much research on green tea suggesting that it prevents various types of cancer. Most recently, it was shown to prevent lung cancer in one study.
No comments:
Post a Comment