#1

Those of us who drink green tea have sometimes felt left out of all the enthusiastic reports of benefits for coffee. While coffee racked up benefits against cancer, HBP, CVD, diabetes, ACM etc., green tea has in recent years been more often in the news for being debunked as showing any benefits for cancer, diabetes and so on.

Well, green tea lovers have finally scored one, and it’s an important benefit: the brain.

Japanese scientists looked at the consumption of green tea at various amounts and cerebral white matter lesions and hippocampal and total brain volumes. What’s more they compared it to coffee drinkers. And for once, green tea came out ahead:

Green tea consumption and cerebral white matter lesions in community-dwelling older adults without dementia

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-024-00364-w

Quote:

“Multivariable-adjusted analysis revealed significant correlations between fewer cerebral white matter lesions and higher green tea consumption, whereas no significant differences were found between green tea consumption and hippocampal or total brain volume. Regarding coffee consumption, no significant differences were observed in cerebral white matter lesions or hippocampal or total brain volumes. Hence, higher green tea consumption was associated with fewer cerebral white matter lesions, suggesting that it may be useful in preventing dementia.”

And then there are of those who are both green tea and coffee drinkers, hoping for benefits from both.

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#2

A summary of this research:

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#3

This feels like more of the art rather than science of longevity, but it’s all fun. Cold day and a tea ceremony, can’t hurt.

I should go back to drinking a cup of tea every now and then.

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#4

I chose this option. One cup of black coffee and one of green tea per day :slight_smile:

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#5

Green tea has not only EGCG, but also epicatechin (which is tested in ITP 2021 cohort). But GT has quite a bit lower content of epicatechin than what you find in cacao and GT also has lower bioavailability. But Green tea is ofc, just like coffee, a healthy choice.

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#6

Yup, exactly what I do. Morning cup of coffee and early afternoon matcha green tea.

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#7

I’ve been taking a EGCG extract for several years, wonder if that is as effective as the GT?

#8

My approach is the black box paradigm. Inputs (intervention, drug) go into the black box, we don’t know what happens inside, but we can speculate (and that is all), and then we observe the outputs (outcomes). And if there are good outcomes, then I try to duplicate the inputs as closely as possible. The reason is simple - all too often we’ve seen supplements, vitamins or isolated molecules from food not have the same good effects (outcomes) as the food itself, because we speculate (wrongly) about what happens inside the box and what’s responsible for what. Instead, the black box approach acknowledges that our knowledge is incomplete and therefore if we want the outcomes, we must duplicate the inputs as closely as possible.

If a study shows benefits of green tea, I will drink green tea for the benefits (hopefully). An extract of anything from that tea is speculating that this is what is responsible for the effect - we don’t know the mechanism, cannot be certain - and we risk not getting the same outcome.

GT–>Black Box (body)–>healhier brain is not equal to GTE(Extract)–>Black Box–>??Brain??

Of course, I don’t know - maybe the extract is just as good. YMMV.

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#9

to maximize EGCG of your green tea:
Based on this article (and its cited research), I bring my green tea to boiling in the microwave and then keep it there for 4 minutes by using a 50% power setting.

#10

Or use Matcha green tea to obtain 100% of available EGCG since it’s basically dissolved powdered leaves.

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#11

Does the digestive process liberate EGCG from the leaf matrix as effectively as hot water brewing? When drinking GT, one gets the various polyphenols suspended in water coming into contact with the digestive system directly from early on in the chain - mouth, esophagous, stomach etc. I assume, when digesting the matcha green tea leaves, the polyphenols are liberated - again assuming they are liberated - much further down the digestive chain, and so are made available much later and further in the system, does that result in the same absorbtion as polyphenols suspended in water? Are the health effects the same with these different methods of obtaining the polyphenols? I personally honestly can’t answer those questions, hopefully these are known and somebody can tell us.

Instead, given my incomplete knowledge, the available rational strategy for me is to come back to the black box paradigm. I observe that the inputs have changed, from drinking GT to matcha. I have no idea - and can only tentatively, with low certainty speculate - about what goes on inside the black box (my body). I therefore do not assume that with different inputs, I will obtain the same outputs (health outcome claimed in the paper).

Now, it being a black box, it’s possible, from my perspective, that indeed the outcomes with matcha will be the same, or even superior than with GT.

Unfortunately, I don’t know what’s going on inside the black box (others may!), therefore I have no choice but to duplicate the inputs as closely as I can in hope I can obtain the same outcome. The study used GT. I therefore will continue to drink GT hoping for the benefits outlined in the study.

The simplest and most accurate way of showing the effects of matcha on the markers of brain health (as in the study) would be to run the same study with matcha instead of GT.

That said, matcha may have other, perhaps superior health benefits in general, but I have not studied that issue.

As happens, I now do drink matcha once a week, about an hour after taking rapamycin on an empty stomach, but that’s just to get some liquid in the morning. I was gifted a box of matcha packets, and have decided to use them this way. I don’t have the faintest clue about what health impact this may have, but I like the taste! YMMV.

#12

Well, you still brew Matcha - finely pulverized leaves that will increase the surface area for liberating all water soluble compounds and then you swallow the whole complex. I don’t see a downside unless there are some swallowed insoluble compounds that are actually harmful - no evidence of that I know of.

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#13

Good point. In the link EnrQay provided matcha is discussed, though the conclusion is not very clear.

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#14

Well obviously the article you quote has not looked at all the bad consequences of that tea destruction.
Maybe you get 10x the toxins? Or you get toxins you wouldn’t get? Or the heat will destroy good metabolites and turn them into toxic ones.

I’m pretty sure all the multiples studies showing the benefits of green tea are not done with that mixture but with normally brewed tea.

Then there is the mental health and well being issue. Instead of savoring a delicious cup of some high end Gyokuro tea carefully brewed at 60ºC you end up with… something else.

And then what next? Microwaving wine for concentrating resveratrol and blending wild caught salmon or grass fed and finished filet mignon before microwaving them to death to increase protein absorption?

That said, people can do whatever they want obviously :slight_smile:

BTW Here is my preferred Gyokuro and I’m not going to boil it in a microwave for sure!

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#15

cl-user you bring up something important. The study showed effects on the brain when drinking GT using conventional brewing methods. So, using the black box paradigm, to assure the greatest chance of getting the same results, conventional brewing methods are preferred. Sorry to keep bringing up the black box paradigm, ad naseum, but it provides the explanation for choosing one course of action vs another.

For all we know, EnrQay’s method delivers superior outcomes, but I for one can’t prove it, so I humbly follow the BB paradigm. YMMV.

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#16

When you make moonshine, proper boiling temperature is a difference between blindness and good buzz. :rofl:

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#17

This is the Consumer lab report on various brands of green tea, comparing the levels of polyphenols as well as toxins, which both vary greatly between brands! Green Tea Review: Tea Bags, Matcha, & Supplements & Top Picks - ConsumerLab.com

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#18

Very nice… if you are a consumerlabs subscriber. Otherwise, this link takes you to a page that tells you that they found all sorts of interesting things from these particular popular brands. A good advertisement. I suppose it’s a very useful resource worth the cash, but in the spirit of full disclosure, the link is useless if you’re trying to actually learn specifics and are not a subscriber.

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#19

Consumer lab: green tea: top picks for Matcha powder is Jade leaf organic ceremonial Matcha with 84 mg EGCG 35 mg caffeine, good flavor, $.55 per cup made with half teaspoon of powder. 100 g cost $54.95. Minimal metals.

Brewable teabags top pick is Trader Joe’s organic green tea, only $.15 per bag, 118.3 mg EGCG, very little lead. Next would be Lipton green tea at $.14 per bag, 57.1 mg AGCG, 29.3 mg caffeine and no deductible lead or heavy metals. Tazo had the highest lead at 1.2 µg per cup. Top pick for decaf durable teabags is Yogi pure green decaf, with 59 mg ECG and $.26 per bag.

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