Belgian researchers testing plant phenolics found epigallocatechin-3-gallate, kaempferol and quercetin inhibited pancreatic lipase, the fat-digesting enzyme, more strongly than the anti-obesity drug orlistat. EGCG, found in green tea, was the most potent.
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Conner's Column
For healthy green tea, brew your own
Bottled tea drinks carry about two tablespoons of sugar per 8-ounce glass and have 10 to 100 times less polyphenol and antioxidant activity than brewed tea, and plastic bottles and can linings may add bisphenol-A exposure. For cancer prevention, the author says brew your own.
Supplements
Warren Buffet gets prostate cancer, study suggests green tea may help him
Korean researchers report in the International Journal of Molecular Medicine that the green tea catechins EC, EGC and EGCG triggered apoptosis in prostate cancer cells and suppressed androgen receptor activity. The piece also questions treating early prostate cancer in men over 70.
Supplements
Green tea extract fights cancer, but this supplement makes it more effective
In mice, brewed green tea plus a diet with 0.4% quercetin raised total and non-methylated EGCG two- to threefold in lung and kidney. Quercetin also quadrupled EGCG uptake in lung cancer cells and cut the methylation that would otherwise deactivate the tea's anticancer compounds.
Herbs
This beverage cuts risk of gastric cancer in women
Pooling eight cohort and three case-control studies, researchers found women drinking five or more cups of green tea a day 21% less likely to be diagnosed with gastric cancer. No such link appeared in men, and none of the studies were trials.
Chemical
Drinking green tea protective against lead poisoning
In rats given lead acetate, green tea in the drinking water eased the weight loss, glutathione and SOD depletion, DNA fragmentation and brain tissue damage the metal caused, Egyptian researchers report. The work was done in animals, not people.
Food
Green tea tied to low risk of frailty, disability in the elderly
A Japanese study of 14,000 people aged 65 and over found 13% of those drinking under a cup of green tea a day became functionally disabled, against just over 7% of those drinking five or more cups. The writer warns this is an association, not proof of cause.
Cancer
Green tea prevents colorectal cancer
Following 60,567 Shanghai men aged 40 to 74 for five years, researchers found green tea drinkers 46% less likely to develop colorectal cancer than non-drinkers, with each extra two grams of dry leaves tied to 12% lower risk. The benefit did not show up among smokers.
Food
Drinking green tea may help prevent Alzheimer's disease
Screening bioactive compounds, University of South Florida researchers found green tea's EGCG and luteolin most effective at correcting amyloid-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in vitro, and EGCG restored mitochondrial measures by 50 to 80% in several mouse brain regions.
Phytochemicals
Green tea helps immunity
The green tea compound EGCG blocked DNA methyltransferase and raised Foxp3 and regulatory T cells in lab tests and in mice, Oregon State researchers found, suggesting green tea may help maintain normal immunity. A separate study found green tea polyphenols delayed herpes lesions in mice.
Food
Green tea may cut thyroid cancer risk in postmenopausal women
Among 100,507 Japanese adults followed 14.2 years, postmenopausal women drinking five or more cups of green tea a day were 53 percent less likely to develop thyroid cancer. Premenopausal women at that intake showed 66 percent higher risk, and no link appeared overall.
Phytochemicals
Green Tea and Medicinal Mushrooms for Health
Newcastle University researchers reported in Phytomedicine that the compounds left after gut enzymes break down green tea polyphenols bound toxins more strongly and supported cellular and neurological health better than the intact polyphenols did.
Food
Green Tea Helps Prevent Heart Disease
A meta-analysis of 18 studies tied each daily cup of green tea to 10% lower coronary artery disease risk, and the heaviest green tea drinking to 28% lower risk. The authors found no protective role for black tea and call the green tea association tentative and observational.
Cancer
Cigarette smoke damages DNA within minutes, selenium, green tea reduce the risk
University of Minnesota researchers gave 12 volunteers cigarettes spiked with a labeled carcinogen and found blood levels of a DNA-damaging breakdown product peaked 15 to 30 minutes after inhaling. Separate research suggests dietary selenium may curb smoke-related DNA damage.
Food
Digested green tea prevents dementia like Alzheimer's
Newcastle University researchers found that gut enzymes break green tea into compounds that guard brain cells more effectively than the undigested ones, by interacting with hydrogen peroxide and beta-amyloid. Digested green tea also slowed tumour cell growth in their lab tests.
Food
Green tea helps prevent breast cancer or not?
A Japanese study of 53,793 women found no overall link between green tea and breast cancer over about 14 years. Those drinking 5 or more cups a day were 12 percent more likely to be diagnosed than those drinking under one a week, but the difference was not statistically significant.
Food
Update: Drinking green tea helps prevent breast cancer
An added warning says bottled green tea often contains little EGCG, so readers who want the effect must brew their own leaves. The underlying Harvard review of nine studies found more than three cups a day correlated with 27 percent lower breast cancer recurrence risk.
Food
Tea, coffee don't cut breast cancer risk in black women - study
Boston University researchers tracking 52,062 women in the Black Women's Health Study recorded 1,268 breast cancers over 12 years and found no significant link to tea, coffee or caffeine. Four or more cups of tea a day tracked with 13 percent lower risk, but not significantly.
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