Benefits of tea: freshly brewed beats bottled

Salada Tea has announced a campaign that Mellow Monk can definitely get behind: to promote the health and environmental benefits of freshly brewed tea over bottled tea:

Freshly brewed green tea has up to 95 percent higher levels of the antioxidant EGCG than bottled tea (2006 U.S. Department of Agriculture database of flavonoid content in foods). Antioxidants in green tea are sensitive to heat, oxygen, sweeteners and other additives and can easily be destroyed during processing, transportation and storage of bottled tea. Studies have shown that antioxidants help with weight loss, cholesterol, cardiovascular diseases and stress.

And speaking of EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), the many benefits of this antioxidant — which is found only in green tea — may include the ability to prevent Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.





—Mellow Monk

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Green tea shown effective against breast cancer

In a study done at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the green tea catechin epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) significantly inhibited breast tumor growth in female mice.



The Medical Center at Ole Miss, where the research was conducted.


—Mellow Monk

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Study: green tea can prevent colon cancer

The latest issue of the journal Gastroenterology contains an article about how green tea can prevent colorectal cancer.


The chemistry involved is complex, but it basically breaks down like this:


The green tea antioxidant epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) interferes with the production of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Normal cells use bFGF to form blood vessels, but cancer cells produce it in excessive amounts to reproduce and spread (metastasize) to other parts of the body.


So, by impeding the overproduction of bFGF by cancer cells, EGCG stops cancer in its tracks.


In other words, green tea may be the beverage of mellowness, but it gets tough when it comes to cancer.



Cover of the issue of Gastroenterology containing the linked-to article about green tea and colorectal cancer.


—Mellow Monk

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Freshly brewed is healthier than instant

Remember, everyone — freshly brewed green tea has more antioxidants than instant tea.



Registered dietician Katherine Zeratsky talks about brewed versus instant tea.


—Mellow Monk

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Green tea and Sjogren's syndrome

Sjogren's syndrome (SS) is a common autoimmune disorder that affects up to 4 million people in the U.S. alone. It's associated with arthritis, and the most common symptoms include dry mouth and dry eyes, a result of lymphocytes (a kind of white blood cell) clustering in salivary and other glands.

Current treatment for SS is theraputic, i.e., targets the symptoms but cannot reduce or prevent damage to the glands.

However, a study published in the journal Autoimmunity suggests that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and other green tea polyphenols "may provide a degree of protection against autoimmune-induced tissue damage in SS.


—Mellow Monk

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Breast cancer inhibited by green tea

Not too long ago I blogged about a study suggesting one way green tea inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells — by disrupting the cancer cells' metabolism of fatty acids, which they need to survive.


Now a new study suggests yet another way that green tea fights breast cancer cells — by suppressing angiogenesis, or the growth of blood vessels in tumors.


The magical substance in green tea responsible for these cancer-fighting effects is epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which is found only in green tea.



A "first day of tea harvest" event in Japan.


—Mellow Monk

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Citrus juice boosts green tea's antioxidents

Adding citrus juice to your green tea increases the amount of EGCG and other green tea antioxidants that make it into your bloodstream. It seems that the vitamin C or something else in the juice binds to the antioxidant molecules and protects them during digestion.


So the British custom of putting lemon in black tea and the Japanese custom of putting pieces of orange peel in a pot of green tea could be rooted in ancient knowledge of the health benefits involved. Pretty cool!



No, we said green tea!


—Mellow Monk

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The ultimate (green) tea diet

Mark "Dr. Tea" Ukra's book The Ultimate Tea Diet is getting consistently excellent reviews on Amazon.com. Here are quotes from a couple of reviews:

On January 1, I cozied up with my copy of The Ultimate Tea Diet, steaming mug of coffee in hand, and by page eleven I was firing up the teakettle.

—The Culinary Tourist


I have read this book and found it to be totally fascinating and informative. I have already started the diet and have started shedding pounds but more importantly inches! It's great... they are just melting away. Plus I have more energy and feel great. I bought some of the craving teas on line and love the way they taste. I have a real sweet tooth and they have really helped me stay away from my daily dose of candy and ice cream.

—Sue from Chicago

And remember—of all the varieties of tea, green tea is thought to be the best at helping you lose weight, as it contains the highest levels of green tea polyphenols, including one found only in green tea—EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate).


Mr. Ukra has promoted his book, diet, and recipes on Good Morning America.


Here's a recipe from The Ultimate Tea Diet:

Rosemary Orange Tea Chicken
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 oranges
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon of dried, plus fresh sprigs for garnish
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground green tea
• 1-1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Mix together the olive oil, juice of 1-1/2 oranges (set aside the other half0, pepper, salt, chopped rosemary, and dry tea. Pour this marinade into a large resealable plastic bag. Add the chicken, seal the bag and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat a grill pan or barbecue until hot. Remove chicken from the bag, discarding the remaining marinade, and grill until browned on both sides. Thinly slice the remaining orange half and serve with the chicken. Decorate with a sprig of rosemary.

Serves 4.
Nutrition Per Serving: calories 170, fat 2.5g, protein 28g, carb 8g

—Mellow Monk

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Why small-farm green tea tastes better

A reader recently asked this question: Do eco-friendly farming practices [such as those of our growers] have an impact on the taste of the harvested tea?


Here is my response:

Most definitely! For instance, letting the tea plants grow naturally (instead of speeding growth with fertilizer and whatnot) lets all of the natural flavor-enhancing compounds develop to their fullest. Our growers water their tea groves with only rainwater from the sky, which avoids "diluting" the tea leaves in the same way we've all experienced firsthand in hydroponically grown grapes. Also, at harvest time, our growers harvest only what they can process right away. This stops oxidation and fermentation, locking in the flavor (and all the healthy antioxidants). On huge corporate farms, harvested tea sits around fermenting in huge piles before being processed.

For the same reasons I mentioned above, small-farm green tea is also healthier for you: since it's processed immediately after harvest, tea like ours has more EGCG and other antioxidants. The fermentation that occurs in large piles of harvested tea not only destroys the natural flavor-enhancing compounds, but also breaks down antioxidants, too.


This just shows, Grasshopper, that sometimes, such as when making tea from harvested leaves, an overly mellow approach is not necessarily the best approach.



Processed right after harvest, locking in the flavor and all the healthy antioxidants.


—Mellow Monk

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Green tea beats white tea hands-down

White tea is a type of Chinese tea in which harvested tea leaves are only lightly fermented before processing, compared with other types of Chinese tea such as oolong, which is heavily fermented.


White tea's comparatively light fermentation accounts for the higher levels of antioxidants that make white tea popular of late. But note, Grasshopper, that "comparatively light fermentation" means light compared to other types of fermented Chinese teas.


Japanese green tea, in contrast, is not fermented at all before processing, which gives it the highest level of EGCG and other antioxidants of all types of teas.


Mellow Monk tea is especially chock full of antioxidants because it's processed immediately after harvest. This stops oxidation and fermentation in their tracks and locks in the flavor along with the antioxidants.


(And unlike some bottled green teas, which have EGCG and whatnot artificially added to them after brewing, Mellow Monk green tea is naturally rich in antioxidants.)


This is one of the advantages of a small-scale family farm, where the growers harvest only what they can process right away. Contrast this with big corporate-run farms, where harvested leaves often sit around fermenting in massive piles for hours or even days before processing.


In short, Grasshopper, when it comes to EGCG and other antioxidants, small-farm green tea knocks the stuffing out of white tea.


And speaking of stuffing, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.



A close-up of a tea plant at a Mellow Monk grower's tea farm in Aso, Japan.


—Mellow Monk

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How green tea inhibits breast cancer growth

A study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment reports how a catechin in green tea inhibits breast cancer.


The paper explains that the catechin epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)—which is found only in green tea—blocks the activity of an enzyme that regulates the metabolism of the fatty acids that are necessary to the survival of breast cancer cells and most other common types of human cancer cells.



The structure of the amazing molecule EGCG.


—Mellow Monk

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Green tea prevents bladder inflammation

I previously wrote about a study showing that green tea may help fight bladder cancer.

While we're on the subject of bladders, another study shows that green tea catechins also protect the bladder from inflammation. This opens the door to using green tea as a treatment for inflammatory bladder diseases, which affect millions of Americans each year.

The two catechins in which this anti-inflammatory effect was observed were epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and epicatechin gallate (ECG). Of these, EGCG is found only in green tea.



It looks so welcoming... I think I'll brew up a cup right now!


—Mellow Monk

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Green tea may prevent autoimmune disease

Sjogren's syndrome (SS) is a common autoimmune disorder that affects up to 4 million people in the U.S. alone. It's associated with arthritis, and the most common symptoms include dry mouth and dry eyes, a result of lymphocytes (a kind of white blood cell) clustering in salivary and other glands.

Current treatment for SS is theraputic—it targets the symptoms but cannot cure the disease.

However, a team of researchers at the Medical College of Georgia have found that green tea could help treat this disease. Subjects given green tea extract exhibited significantly less salivary gland damage as well as significantly fewer lymphocytes and lower levels of autoantibodies—a sign of suppressed imflammation.

Researchers already know that one component of green tea – EGCG – helps suppress inflammation, according to Dr. Hsu. "So, we suspected that green tea would suppress the inflammatory response of this disease. Those treated with the green tea extract beginning at three weeks, showed significantly less damage to those glands over time.”

An abstract of the study, which was published in the journal Autoimmunity, is available online here.




The good doctor hard at work, studying how green tea fights autoimmune diseases.


—Mellow Monk

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Green tea may prevent HIV-associated dementia

At the conference Experimental Biology 2007, held from April 28 to May 2 in Washington, DC., a University of South Florida neuroscientist reported that green tea may help prevent and treat HIV-associated dementia, also known as AIDS dementia complex.

More specifically, the catechin epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) "greatly diminished the neurotoxicity of proteins secreted by [HIV]." EGCG is not only the most abundant catechin in green tea—it's found only in green tea.

This news comes on the heels of a report that green tea could also reduce the risk of becoming infected with HIV/AIDS and slow its spread in those already infected.


—Mellow Monk

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Green tea vs. rheumatoid arthritis

Researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School found that green tea may help treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Specifically, they found that when treated with EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), joint cells called synovial fibroblasts exhibited less inflamation when exposed to an inflammatory chemical linked to RA. In addition, "EGCG blocked a chemical chain reaction linked to inflammation and joint damage."

And EGCG, like all compounds that are beneficial to the human body, is best obtained in its natural form. And since EGCG is found only in green tea, the only way to get it naturally is by drinking natural green tea.

And sipping a nice, warm cup of green tea with one's feet up on the desk is so much more soothing than popping a green tea extract pill.





—Mellow Monk

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Green tea as a tool to fight malaria?

It's simply amazing how the list of diseases that green tea potentially fights keeps growing longer and longer with each passing day.

Researchers in Italy have added malaria to the list: They found that green tea catechins such as EGCG "strongly inhibit" the growth of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria.

However, this effect was observed in parasites growing in human red blood cells outside the body; whether this effect occurs inside the body has yet to be verified, although continued research is most definitely warranted, the scientists say.

The above link is to an abstract of the study. You can read the full-length version here.


—Mellow Monk

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The quest for answers about EGCG

The quest begins:

After seeing the Snapple commercial, promoting its "new green tea with the most EGCG on Earth," and reading about Coca-Cola's new green tea drink with EGCG content that creates "negative calories," my inquiring mind wanted to know, what exactly is EGCG, and what can it do for me?

The seeker's conclusion:

However, despite all the what-ifs, I'm still a little bit sold on EGCG's advantages. I'm not going to go out and spend the over four dollars it would take to get the right amount from Enviga... But I might substitute my usual mocha for a piping hot green tea.

You are wise beyond your years, grasshopper.

—Mellow Monk

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