TEA BEVERAGE-A CASE FOR CHANGING TO GREEN TEA!

The "Tea Vs Coffee" debate is an ever interesting one with people from southern part of India strongly backing coffee with out which their day does not start! In contrast those from the north, pitch for tea, not because it is better health-wise but for its characteristic flavor. No doubt both Tea and Coffee contain the stimulant Caffeine which makes one more alert and relaxing. That said, the distinction between tea and coffee is getting blurred day by day as India is progressively becoming a national village without any restraining state borders. Efforts of Indian Coffee Board years ago to popularize coffee in the north were some what futile as even to day tea continues to be the dominant beverage in most of the northern states. One of the reasons could be that the taste and flavor of brewed coffee are widely varying, depending on the variety of seed, seed processing method, roasting practice, particle size of the ground coffee and method of brewing. This makes coffee making an extremely adventurous task. As coffee drinking was prevalent in the south for centuries, the art of making good coffee got transferred from generation to generation. In spite of this situation, surprisingly tea gained a firm foot hold in the south during the last 5 decades with many people opting for tea as a change from the coffee drinking routine.

Tea is a historical beverage with its origin attributed to China. There seems to be evidence that tea was a popular drink in both China and India almost 5000 years ago, though its discovery was attributed to Chinese royalty. It was an accidental contamination of hot water with tea leaves and the finding that the tea leaves soaked water was flavorful to the King, led to popularity of tea in China. Its origin in India is shrouded in mystery. Interestingly Chinese discovered that the tea leaves soaked hot water was not only refreshing but also health protective which helped tea to be propagated all over the world. As fresh tea leaves were some what perishable, drying was resorted to reduce moisture and extend its life for some time. Again the observation that bruised tea leaves tended to darken with time and produced aromatic flavors, led to the modern CTD tea technology widely used in the manufacture of black tea. Coincidentally most of the world liked black tea in preference to green tea which led to a thriving tea industry that produces about 2.5 million tons of tea world wide out of which green tea constitutes roughly 20%.

One of the influencing factors that made Chinese population healthier than others might be that they consume green tea regularly in their daily lives and therefore it can be probably considered as their national drink. If that is so what does green tea contain which is not present in black tea? A look back at the massive scientific literature available to day, dwelling on various aspects of tea, will reveal that tea the leaves are a rich source of poly phenols, accounting for about 8-12% of its solid content. These include a number of flavonoids like catechin, epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin gallate (better known as EGCG) and proanthocyanidinsmost of them with high antioxidant properties. As antioxidants play a vital role in neutralizing oxyradicals in the human body that is considered one of the causative factors in cancer development, tea with its rich antioxidant content is the darling of the health purists world over.

One of the most startling discoveries during the last few years of research on tea poly phenols was that all of them are not equal in conferring health benefits on human beings and the most important component that makes the difference is EGCG which was found to have a significant but specific influence on boosting many enzymes involved in neutralizing oxyradicals at the cellular level and prevent on set of cancers of various types. Unfortunately during the extreme processing conditions involved in converting green tea leaves into black tea, EGCG is converted to theaflavins and thearubigins  with no therapeutic properties. Logically therefore green tea beverage will have to be consumed if the benefit of EGCG is desired. The bud and the first leaves of the tea plant contain highest concentration of EGCG and are therefore plucked for making green tea products.

Green tea poly phenols in general were found to increase the biological activity of several enzymes involved in neutralizing the activity of oxyradicals and detoxification and EGCG is the most potent one. The enzyme found to be positively influenced include glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione S transferase, catalase and quinine reductase in small intestine, liver and lungs. EGCG is considered to have excellent therapeutical significance in preventing and treating a host of disease that include HIV, cancers affecting prostaglandin, brain, cervix and bladder, besides neurodegeneration. Drinking about two cups of green tea a day can confer most of the benefits attributed to EGCG, while consuming 4-6 cups a day is considered a therapeutic dose.

The health supplement industry seems to have got into the EGCG band wagon by putting in the market many products containing this phytochemical though most of them are non-standard ones containing very little or no EGCG at all! In the absence of a regulatory environment these fly by night operators are able to catch the attention of gullible consumers, laughing all the way to their banks! The most blatant use ( or misuse?) of green tea credentials is by the weight reduction products industry which is offering green tea solids containing health supplements based on some studies that a combination of EGCG and caffeine, when consumed,  produces thermogenesis in the body leading to depletion of fat, causing some weight reduction. However there is no standardization of these products and the claims are not substantiated by real time studies involving human subjects. 

One of the most surprising off shoots of studies using green tea  and the EGCG is the finding that sugar spikes that occur after carbohydrate ingestion by diabetic patients can be reduced significantly by consumption of green tea, provided they are consumed together. The scientific logic is that EGCG has an inhibitory effect on starch degrading enzyme alpha amylase which in turn slow down break down of starch into maltose and glucose in vitro. As the ptylin enzyme present in the saliva has also starch digesting ability, the starch hydrolysis which starts immediately after ingestion in the oral cavity itself is retarded. Further exposure in the small intestine to alpha amylase as the food is swallowed and as it travels down the digestive tract, glucose generation is significantly retarded in presence of EGCG. According to recent findings if Egcg and a starchy food are consumed without any gap of time, glucose spike can be slowed down by almost 50% which by itself is remarkable. This finding confers additional benefits on those consuming green tea regularly  include insurance against a host of modern day diseases affecting almost all organs in the body. Probably the health food industry will latch on to this discovery and it is a question of time before health supplements containing EGCG or green tea solids are marketed both for targeted consumer groups as well as general population.   

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

FOOD MISCELLANY-WHAT IS "COOKING"?

Health campaigners in Australia are proposing to change the current labeling regulations to make more explicit the message about the quality of food in packed food products. The basic premise is that consumers must understand whether a food is balanced in terms of various nutrients and whether they contain too much "negative" nutrients like salt, sugar and fat, the three most dreaded food constituents thought to be responsible for almost all health afflictions noticed amongst the population in many countries. According to these experts food processing industry must be forced to categorize their products into low, medium and high levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar and sodium per 100 gm of the product. Each category must be given red, amber or green color depending on the composition just like the traffic light signal and these color codes must be printed on the front of the pack so that consumers can choose invariably the ones having a green color code for healthy living and pick up others only occasionally. Probably such a move may persuade processors to strive for getting green code for their products. While the idea may sound good, how far such a move will help alleviating the present food driven health crisis remains to be seen.

After red wine it is the turn of Cranberry juice to claim that regular consumption of this highly colored juice can control blood pressure (BP) in people afflicted by this disorder. According to some scientists from the UK, presence of oligomeric procyanidins in Cranberry juice helps to strengthen the blood vessels and resist their constriction due to which high blood pressure develops. Probably Cranberry juice is recommended for those people who are teetotalers reluctant to consume alcohol containing beverages. Reports like this make the consumers confused, especially if they are on prescription drugs for controlling their BP. The unanswered question is whether modifying the diet to include cranberry juice can obviate the need for taking these medicines regularly. No one knows!

Bisphenol A (BPA) contamination of food from polycarbonate packing material used in food contact applications is assuming serious dimension vis-à-vis safety of foods from the processed food industry. First detected in polycarbonate infant feeding bottles, the contamination was noticed in many packed foods subsequently. The estrogenic property of BPA allows it to interfere with some metabolic functions with undesirable consequence. Now comes the news that BPA exposure for pregnant women can result in permanent reproduction problem for their off springs. Though this has been shown only in experimental animals by a US study, the implications for humans are grave. Of course there will be further studies to confirm whether what was observed in mice can happen in humans also.

Green tea is universally acclaimed as a healthy beverage because of its rich content of antioxidants that can neutralize the effect of oxyradicals generated in the body, known to accelerate cellular death which can curtail the life span in humans. There are many other antioxidants like Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Lutein, Zeaxanthin, many poly phenolic substances that can do the job to varying extent depending on the efficacy of bodily absorption. Catechins which are present in green tea in abundance have been found to reach the eye tissues after absorption from GI and transportation to retina and the aqueous humour area. Both gallo catechin and epigallo catechin, the two important catechins in green tea reduced the undesirable oxidative stress in the eye up to 20 hours after ingestion. These findings with rats need confirmation in humans where absorption mechanics are some what different and the efficacy of transportation of the active ingredients in green tea to the eye tissues can be vary considerably.

Baby foods have become a taboo, especially with health experts who find them a temptation for many mothers to discontinue breast feeding which is considered important for the optimal development of new born babies. The recent finding that introduction of solid foods can be delayed as much as possible to ensure a more healthy child is going to be another factor in persuading young mothers to persist with breast feeding for maximum periods. According to Danish researchers, late introduction of solid and supplementary foods might cut down the risk of developing obesity significantly amongst such children when they reach middle age. For each month's delay in introducing solid foods the obesity risk is reduced by 10%. How ever medical community, especially pediatric doctors, must be convinced before implementing such changes in child feeding practices.

Is it possible that a child brought up by grand parents could become possible candidates for developing over weight when they grow up? If some researchers are to be believed such a contingency is possible and these findings come after surveying 12000 kids of 3 years old in the UK. Possible reasons attributed to this phenomenon is the indulgence shown by grand parents in feeding the children and lack of physical activity amongst them due too much fondling. Whether this is true amongst the children and grand parents out side the UK may need further study.

The fact that scientific research does not leave any thing to imagination is borne out by the following "gem"! According to a Swedish study drinking just 3 cups of coffee daily can reduce the bust size of women. It was further brought out that breast cancer has links with the size of the bust and larger the breasts higher is the risk of developing cancer. One can only guess how this finding is going to upset the "beauty industry" in future.

There are thousands of such research findings coming out every day from laboratories all over the world, most of which use mice for carrying out their studies and splash their findings in popular media without any peer review. As long as these findings get published in peer reviewed scientific periodicals, they may remain there as scientific curiosities which may attract researchers to take the studies further. Probably more constraint is called for on the part of the media in giving undeserved publicity and create confusion and fear amongst common man.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com