Forum / Tea, Connection?

[soup]

Ever since I joined this Forum I have been drinking more tea. My family has even commented on it. It isn't that I don't drink coffee, I have a couple of cups in the morning. I have looked around the Forum & used search to see if I could help myself on this subject but came up empty. Is there a connection between the Forum & drinking more tea or is it just the fact it is winter outside & a hot drink tastes good when you come inside?

[UncasMS]

depending on the kind of tea you keep drinking we might need to ask ourselves: is the forum content upsetting you?

[Gary D]

Skip the tea and move on to something with less caffeine like Jolt cola!!! HaHaHa! Just watch your caffiene intake and there should be no harm.

[Jack Lurker]

I never drink coffee, tea is much nicer. And it is better for you as it contains Flavonoids:

Flavonoids in Tea


Common green and black tea leaves consist of about 25-30 percent flavonoids, including quercetin and gallic esters. Like the flavonoids in grapes and other fruits and vegetables, they also protect against heart disease.


For five years, Dutch researchers Michaël Hertog, M.Sc., and Edith Feskens, Ph.D., followed the dietary and lifestyle habits of 805 men ages 65-84 in the town of Zutphen. After accounting for the men's physical activity, smoking habits, and intake of vitamins C and E, and beta-carotene, the researchers found that men eating a lot of flavonoids-in tea, onions, and apples-were far less likely to suffer heart disease or heart attacks than men eating few flavonoids.


"There is evidence that free-radical oxidation of LDL plays an important part in atherogenesis," Hertog and Feskins wrote in Lancet (Oct. 23, 1993;342:1007-11). "Flavonoids are scavengers of free radicals...It is possible that quercetin and other flavonoids reduce the rate of formation of oxidised LDL and thus inhibit the growth of atherosclerotic plaques."


The benefits of tea flavonoids were confirmed earlier this year by researchers at the Saitama Cancer Research Center, Japan. K. Imai, PhD, and K. Nakachi, PhD, studied 1,371 men enrolled in a 40-year study of eating habits and health. They reported that elderly men who drank 10 or more cups of green tea daily had lower blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides than men who drank less of the tea.


"Consumption of green tea was significantly associated with lower serum concentrations of lipids and lipoproteins," they wrote in the British Medical Journal (March 18, 1995;310:693-6). "An increase in consumption substantially decreased serum total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, and this strong association remained almost unaltered even after age, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and relative body weight were controlled for."


The heavy tea drinkers also benefited from higher blood levels of the HDL and lower levels of the "bad" low-density lipoprotein (LDL) form of cholesterol. In addition, they had lower levels of certain liver enzymes, suggesting a reduced risk of liver disease.


"Green tea has many advantages over chemical preventive agents-tea is non-toxic and thus readily available to the general population," Imai and Nakachi wrote.


Drinking either green or black tea also protects against skin cancer by ultraviolet (UV) light and hazardous chemicals. In an experiment, Allan Conney, Ph.D., of the College of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, brewed four types of teas in concentrations comparable to what people drink: black tea, green tea, decaffeinated black tea, and decaffeinated green tea. He gave one type of each tea to four different groups of mice as their sole source of drinking fluid, then exposed them to either cancer-causing UV radiation or chemicals. For comparison's sake, he gave another group of mice plain water to drink.


Conney reported in Cancer Research (July 1, 1994;54:3428-35) that the teas "markedly inhibited" the numbers and sizes of tumors. Black tea was most effective, reducing the number of tumors by 93 percent in comparison with mice fed water. Green tea was almost as good, resulting in 88 percent fewer tumors. The decaffeinated black and green teas resulted in 77 and 72 percent fewer tumors, respectively.


Conney wrote that the benefits of tea are probably related to the antioxidant effect of the flavonoids. Why were the decaffeinated teas less beneficial? It's very possible that the decaffeination process removes some flavonoids as well as caffeine.

Original story: http://www.thenutritionreporter.com/flavonoids.html

[techreactor]

Tea is good for health, it helps your body to detoxify, although excess of everything is Bad, as usual.

EDIT: Nice post Jack.

[Jack Lurker]

Thanks techreactor.

Although to be honest I drink Waaaaaaay too much tea. Get some good stuff from here:www.harney.com Here is good too:www.tea.co.uk

[soup]

Great post Jack & interesting, that would be post #4. Now I feel so ordinary just drinking plain old Tetley.

[Jack Lurker]

Tetleys is good, Yorkshire tea is a good plain tea if you can get it where you are, nice and strong. Dont forget good old PG Tips, Wallace and Grommits favourite brew!!!

www.yorkshiretea.co.uk

www.pgmoment.com

Crikey! How sad are we?? All this talk of tea us makes sound old!!!!

[Derree]

All I ever drink is Diet Coke...I am heading for an early grave I suspect

[soup]

We are only as old as we feel. It is just sometimes we feel a little bit older. I drank tea as a kid just not as much as I do now. I might even have to have some tea & scones this afternoon, damn forgot the scones. (LOL)

@ Derree at least it is diet.

[Derree]

Yeah I don't know why soup but since I was 12 or 13 its all I like...so for close to twenty years....of course I drink at least 2 liters a day...

[anonymez]

i drink tea all the time, but to say my own consumption is somehow related to DVF is nuts

i drink 'dilmah', indian tea

[BR7]

I drink tea a lot as well not hot but cold tea. I also drink a lot of cran-apple juice,grape fruit juice,Mango juice and tomato juice

[blutach]

Bugger tea, coffee, whatever.

How 'bout a nice glasssa wine and a long tall cold Foster's?

Regards

[Miss Marple]

How 'bout a nice glasssa wine and a long tall cold Foster's?

Young men shouldn't drink anything stronger than tea.