Conscious Choice: Thank God It's Tea

January 1999

Thank God It's Tea

by Victoria Lord

"Thank God for tea. What would the world
do without tea? How did it exist? I am
glad I was not born before tea."—
Sir Walter Scott

How indeed did the world exist before tea? The real origins of tea are lost in time but Chinese myth tells us that the Emperor Shen Nung was the first tea drinker. Some time around 2700 B.C., leaves from the tea plant blew into a pot of boiling water. When the emperor drank the liquid he pronounced it delicious and the custom of tea drinking was born.

By about the second century A.D. Chinese medical texts recorded the health benefits of drinking tea. Today, researchers from around the world are beginning to confirm that tea can have a beneficial effect on health.

What is tea?
While many drinks prepared from dried leaves are called tea there is a distinction between herbal infusions and real tea. If you are drinking something made from chamomile leaves, rose hips, or pennyroyal, you’re consuming an herbal infusion, not a tea. Technically, to be called tea, the product must come from the leaves of Camellia sinensis, a warm weather evergreen commonly known as the tea plant.

Although real tea always comes from the Camellia sinensis plant, you may find it under many different names in the store. The nomenclature appears confusing, but once you know a few simple facts about tea names, it becomes easy to understand.

Types of tea
Packagers may sell tea by its type. There are only three types of tea: black tea, green tea, and oolong tea. The processing of the fresh leaves determines the type of tea. Tea leaves exposed to oxygen for up to three hours become black tea. Partially oxidized leaves are called oolong tea which falls between black and green tea in color. Green tea is not oxidized at all and retains almost the same composition as fresh tea leaves. It is this processing which gives each tea type its characteristic taste and color.

Varietal names
Varieties of tea, such as Darjeeling or Assam, refer to the region where the tea is grown. Tea afficionados may prefer the distinctive flavor of leaves from plants grown in one specific part of the world. Since tea grows in over 30 countries, there are thousands of varieties of tea. But remember, all those varieties consist of the three basic types of tea, black, green, or oolong.

Leaf size
Names like Pekoe, Orange Pekoe, Broken Pekoe, or Souchong actually indicate the size of the tea leaf, not the variety or flavor. This is simply another way to categorize teas.

Whatever the variety or leaf size, Americans favor black tea above all other types. According to the Tea Council of the USA, black tea constitutes more than 94 percent of the tea consumed in this country. Although green tea is the most popular type in China and Japan, Americans drink only about of their tea in this form. Oolong tea is the least popular, making up a mere one percent of all tea consumed in the United States. But rest assured, whether you choose black, green, or oolong, you are making a surprisingly healthy choice.

"Current research shows that tea contains powerful specific antioxidants and health promoting ingredients, lowering the risk of heart disease, stroke and certain types of cancer," claims Dr. John Weisburger of the American Health Foundation.

Like many other plants, Camellia sinensis contains antioxidants which prevent the harmful effects of free radicals on the body. Antioxidants are the biochemical compounds that have made broccoli, garlic, and carrots the weapons of choice for dieticians and others working to improve health through better nutrition. Interestingly, researchers recently announced that a single serving (one cup) of black or green tea has a greater antioxidant effect than many fresh fruits, such as apples, grapes, and grapefruit. No one is suggesting that you give up eating fresh fruits and vegetables, but tea can be part of a health-conscious diet.

Weisburger, who has both an M.D. and a Ph.D., has studied tea for years: "Tea blows away the mutagenicity of fried meats and other unhealthful foods. It induces enzymes that detoxify the carcinogens found in tobacco and fried meats."

Tea and Cancer
Perhaps the most surprising result of recent research is the discovery that tea may serve as protection against skin cancer. In a recent study by several researchers at Rutgers, drinking tea inhibited the formation of tumors associated with exposure to UVB sun rays. Where UVB tumors already existed, tea drinking slowed their growth and in some cases, actually decreased their size. In yet another study, researchers applied green tea compounds directly to the skin and then exposed it to ultraviolet rays. Skin protected by the tea compound suffered significantly less damage than unprotected skin. Manufacturers of sunscreen are intrigued and have begun using green tea in their products.

Tea may also work against the development of oral cancer. In China, patients with precancerous mouth lesions — a warning sign in the growth of oral cancer — were treated with a combination of black and green tea or a placebo. Those treated with the tea compounds showed a significant decrease in abnormal cell growth. Lesions present at the beginning of the study actually shrank in size and no new lesions appeared.

Researchers speculate that the heavy smoking of certain populations in Great Britain may be offset to some degree by an equally heavy consumption of tea. Tea appears to slow the growth of lung cancer in mice and rats exposed to cancer causing agents from tobacco. Studies have also revealed an association between heavy tea drinking and a reduced risk of digestive and urinary tract cancers. While scientists continue to study the effect of tea on cancer, they have also changed their own habits to incorporate these findings.

"I myself drink several cups of tea a day," says Weisburger. "It’s very refreshing and healthful and it certainly can’t hurt."

Tea and Heart Disease and Stroke
Tea consumption may also decrease the incidence of heart attacks and strokes triggered by blocked arteries. Although tea cannot lower blood cholesterol or decrease blood pressure, it may improve the health of the circulatory system and reduce the risk of blood clots. Flavonoids, one class of antioxidant found in tea, may prevent blood platelets from clumping and blocking arteries. (Aspirin, frequently recommended to patients vulnerable to heart attack, works in the same way.) In a study of 805 Dutch men, researchers found a 69 percent reduced risk of stroke in those consuming four or more cups of tea daily.

Tea and Caffeine
Like coffee, tea contains caffeine. Unlike coffee, however, tea contains only modest amounts of caffeine. An eight ounce cup of coffee contains approximately 100 milligrams of caffeine; an equivalent cup of tea has only about 40 to 50 milligrams of caffeine. The exact amount of caffeine depends on the blend and brewing time of the tea. According to the Tea and Health Information Center, moderate caffeine consumption is not associated with any health risk. (Moderate tea consumption is defined as about 300 mg., the equivalent of eight cups of brewed hot tea per day.) If you don’t want the caffeine, drink decaffeinated tea, which has only about 4 mg. of caffeine per cup. Remember, no decaffeinated beverage, including decaf coffee, is completely caffeine free.

The antioxidant level of decaffeinated tea is virtually the same as regular tea. Tea even maintains its antioxidant level, and thus, its health benefits, when milk, sugar, honey, or lemon are added. Iced tea and hot tea are equally effective; only instant tea (the powdered mixes) seems to lose some of the antioxidants normally found in tea. Whether you choose regular or decaf, black or green, Darjeeling or Assam, when you sit down to a cup of tea, you’re not just taking a break, you’re taking a health break.

Victoria Lord owes some of her findings to her attendance at the second International Scientific Symposium on Tea and Human Health, which took place during November, 1998 in Washington, D.C.

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