the benefits of green tea
Over the last couple of months, I have been reading a lot! Until recently, I had no idea that there has been so many studies correlating the positive effects of food on decreasing the spread and growth of cancer. It has been an eye opening journey.
All of the books I have been reading agree that green tea is one of the best liquids to drink to keep cancer at bay. It appears that drinking anywhere from 2 to 3 cups a day over a period of time will have a positive impact on your health. For any of you who don’t know (and I didn’t know until I started doing some research), green tea contains a natural compound called EGCG. This compound, otherwise known as a catechin, has many health benefits. Green Tea actually has sixteen times the level of EGCG compared to black tea. Here is a quick summary for you on why you should start incorporating green tea into your daily health routine.
Dr. William Li, M.D, states the following in his book, Eat To Beat Disease:
EGCG reduces cancer growth, lowers blood pressure, improves lipids, restores homeostasis of immune cells and has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. (pg. 114)
Drinking two to three cups of green tea a day is associated with a 44% percent reduced risk of developing colon cancer. (pg. 114)
EGCG in green tea dampens the ability for cancer to form. (pg. 203)
Green tea has the ability to kill cancer stem cells. Scientists in China studied the effect of the green tea polyphenol EGCG in the lab and found that it could reduce the growth of colon cancer stem cells by 50 %. (pg. 150)
Here are the nuggets I gleaned from reading The Metabolic Approach to Cancer by Dr. Nasha Winters, ND, L.Ac., FABNO and Jess Higgins Kelly, MNT
Green tea is probably the most well-known and widely accepted anticancer beverage and for good reason. The catechins found in tea are the most extensively studied flavonoids that show anti-invasive and antimetastic activity.
EGCG has an antioxidant activity about twenty five to a hundred more times effective than either Vitamin C or E (pg. 220)
It is most likely the most potent antitumor and antimetastasis beverage you can consume. (pg. 220)
Green tea is the least processed of all tea and provides the most antioxidant polyphenols. (pg. 220)
What type of green tea should I buy?
I don’t know about you, but I get overwhelmed at the grocery store when faced with the endless choices confronting me. There are a ton of green teas on the market these days. So I spent some time tasting different types of green tea. I often find that green tea is bitter. But after doing some research I learnt that one of the reasons green tea can taste bitter is that the leaves have been steeped for too long. So it’s super important to read the instructions on your box of green tea and remove the tea bag at the allocated time. And the higher quality the green tea, the less bitter the tea. Whenever possible, I love to buy local and organic. Two Leaves and A Bud are based in Colorado and I love their ethos, pyramid tea bags and compostable tea packets and of course the taste of their tea! Their green tea has a sweet, light flavor and is never bitter. I love this note from their founder:
‘This tea goes back to the first days of Two Leaves. I wanted an awesome Japanese Green Tea, one that was actually green in the cup, sweet, rich, but not too strong and bitter. So many green teas in the US are just not that great. When I first approached tea suppliers and told them that I wanted a tea of this quality to go into a tea sachet they told me I was crazy. “Americans don’t like this quality of green tea," they said. One grower didn’t even want to sell us! He would only sell me his tea when I reassured him that we would strictly maintain the quality of the packing to keep the tea fresh.’
Here are some thoughts on buying tea from The Metabolic Approach to Cancer.
Green teas do absorb high pesticide loads however so buying organic is absolutely necessary. (pg. 220)
The highest quality green teas are the Japanese varieties such as sencha, matcha and gyokuro. To properly brew green tea, let the water barely reach boiling, then to cool slightly before pouring over the tea. Let steep for 3 to 10 minutes to release the catechins. (pg. 221)