What the FDA have to say about tea

Polyphenols in tea are being looked at for a potential to lower heart disease risk also. Biochemist Joe Vinson, Ph.D., at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania , found that hamsters fed green and black teas had lowered blood cholesterol levels and reduced LDL cholesterol oxidation. He also found that tea has an anti-clotting effect in rats, which could help prevent or reduce the severity of a heart attack.

In a review article published in the July 7, 1993 , issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Chung S. Yang, M.D., of Rutgers University in New Jersey reports that "many laboratory studies have demonstrated inhibitory effects of tea preparations and tea polyphenols against tumor formation and growth." The studies, though not conclusive, are intriguing.

Yang describes studies in which laboratory animals fed green tea had reduced formation or growth of skin tumors, esophageal tumors, gastrointestinal tract tumors, and tumors of the liver, lung and pancreas. Black tea also has shown activity against skin, lung, liver, and esophageal tumors.

Leaves from the plant Camellia sinensis are processed three different ways to produce the three major classes of tea, known as black (left), green (center), and oolong.

Photo by Stephen Ausmus.