Can
I use cream, sugar, honey, or sweeteners? Will
this effect the health benefits?
Green tea
is unlike black tea in that it is always meant
to be consumed straight with no additives. In Asia
it is unheard of to add cream, sugar, etc. And
these additives will only add unwanted calories
or, with artificial sweeteners, disrupt the delicate
taste.
There are
also negative effects on health benefits. If you
add milk to your tea, the milk protein, casein,
binds catechins, making them unavailable to the
body. German researchers recently focused on this
effect in a small study, which included 16 postmenopausal
women who first drank black tea without milk. The
investigators found that the tea improved the ability
of arteries to relax and expand, increasing blood
flow. But when skim milk was added to the tea,
this healthy effect was blocked. They also looked
at how tea alone and tea with added milk affected
blood vessels in rats and observed the same effects
seen in the women.
Not surprisingly, this study got a
lot of attention in Britain, a nation of tea drinkers,
most of whom take their tea with milk. The findings
may explain why the lower rates of heart disease
and cancer seen in Asians (who traditionally don't
add milk to tea) haven't shown up in the UK.
Like tea, cocoa is rich in polyphenols, but of
a different chemical class. A study published in
the April 2007 Journal of Food Science found that
milk proteins don't reduce the bioavailability
of the polyphenols found in cocoa. The reasons
for the difference in milk's effects on polyphenols
in tea and cocoa aren't completely understood.
I don't imagine the tea-drinking Brits are going
to change their ways and give up adding milk to their
tea, but if you really want the health benefits of
green tea, you should try to develop a taste for
it without milk
Source: Dr. Andrew Weil
www.drweil.com
Green tea
is delicious when you drink it straight.
A cup of good sencha, gyokuro, or matcha can
make a delightful morning beverage or an invigorating
beverage in the afternoon!
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