What Exactly is Green Tea?

Introduction

Today, the benefits of green tea are well documented. With all of the data available, it’s a little confusing to determine exactly what will work for your own health needs. This article is designed to give you a few facts about green tea to help you make good nutrition choices when drinking it.

While green tea is not a vitamin or a mineral per se, it does contain powerful antioxidant properties similar to vitamins and minerals. Perhaps the best way to start a conversation about green tea is to define exactly what an antioxidant is.

Topics:

Antioxidants
EGCg/Polyphenols
How Much Green Tea Should you drink?

Antioxidants

Antioxidants are becoming a very hot topic of late. We often hear about them, but you may have questions as to exactly what they are or exactly how they work.

Oxidation – the oxidation process in humans is much the same as that which occurs in metals. Oxygen atoms mutate by losing one or more electrons which then form what are known as “free radicals”. These free radicals circulate throughout the body seeking to find electrons to make them whole again. In the process, they invade healthy cells and take from them, causing these cells to be weakened and susceptible to disease.

How do we ingest the mutated oxygen atoms? Unfortunately, the answer can be as simple as breathing. Pollution, ozone depletion causing excessive sunlight, X-rays, smoking even exercise as well as other naturally occurring phenomena cause the deformation of oxygen.

Because there is not strong offense against ingesting free radicals, a strong defense of combating them is the only answer. Combating free radical damage is where antioxidants come in.

Antioxidants block free radicals by neutralizing them. In short, as free radicals scavenge for lost electrons, antioxidants provide that electron instead of allowing the free radical to steal it from a healthy cell. The resulting oxidative product decays into something which will not harm the body.

The active agent which makes green tea such a powerful antioxidant is a chemical known as EGCg or epigallocatechin gallate.

EGCg/Polyphenols

EGCg is one of 4 elements which collectively are referred to as “catechin”. EGCg is the most potent of the 4 catechins which make up green tea. Catechins are subclasses of polyphenols. Polyphenols are the same compounds found in grape skins which researchers have discovered creates some of the antioxidant properties of wine.

Polyphenols are responsible for the coloring you find in some foods. Green tea is high in polyphenols.

Green tea is much higher in polyphenols and catechin than black or oolong tea because of the preparation process. The leaves are steamed instead of fermented (the fermenting process oxidizes the tea leaves). The steaming process retains much more of the color and nutritive properties of the tea.

How much green tea should you drink?

Estimates on how much green tea to drink vary widely – from as many as ten cups (about 8 ounces each) a day to as few as one to two cups a day. Of the many estimates, the most consistent amount appears to no less than four to six cups of green tea a day to get the maximum benefit of the tea. Below are several references to studies which detail how dosing has been determined.