Is Green Tea Better For Your Heart Than Black Tea?

Coffee is the  caffeinated beverage most consumed by Americans and the skeptical cardiologist. It is good for the heart (unless adulterated by titanium dioxide or lots of sugar, a horror that Starbucks likes to promote).
coffee_teaWorldwide, however, as this cool graphic demonstrates (interactive at the Economist)  tea dominates over coffee in lots of places.
Tea in general and particularly green tea is perceived by many to be incredibly healthy: fighting cancer, dementia, obesity and heart disease. But is this perception justified?

The Green Tea Superfood Hype

If you Google search the health benefits of green tea you might conclude that it is a panacea for all that ails modern civilization. However, bad nutritional advice is the norm on the internet and even  websites like Web MD, which you might consider to be reliable, spread inaccurate, misleading and poorly researched information regularly.
WebMD has an article on green tea that starts off

“Green tea is so good for you that it’s even got some researchers raving.“It’s the healthiest thing I can think of to drink,” says Christopher Ochner, PhD. He’s a research scientist in nutrition at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital.”

Who is Chris Ochner and why is he “raving” about the health benefits of green tea you might ask? That’s certainly what I wanted to know, particularly since this same quote or variations on it are all over the internet on sites like “Herbal Republic” which ups the green tea ante with the title “”Green Tea is Beyond a Superfood”-Dr. Christopher Ochner”  (by the way, any source of nutritional information that uses the term superfood should be considered bogus.)
ochnerAlthough no source is provided for this quote from Dr. Ochner, there is a Christopher Ochner, Ph.D listed on the Icahn Medical School Staff. His Ph. D. is in psychology and he works in the areas of adolescent obesity (perhaps he pushes green tea on his obese adolescents).  I can find no publications by him on the topic of green tea and no evidence that he made these comments. I have sent him an email asking for clarification and edification.
The website,  juicing for health.com lists “5 scientifically proven reasons to drink green tea” (by the way, I consider articles with headlines that start with a number, i.e.  “3 health foods that are actually killing you from the inside”,  “5 veggies that kill stomach fat”, and “35 celebs who’ve aged horribly” are worthless and should be ignored and avoided at all costs)

Green Tea and Catechins: Magical Weight Loss elixir?

It’s hard to find good studies on green tea that aren’t somehow funded by the tea, nutraceutical or food industry.  For example, one “S Wolfram” has written extensively on the benefits of green tea in marginal scientific journals. He works for DSM Nutritional Products, LTd., a Swiss food conglomerate.(“DSM Nutritional Products is the world’s largest nutritional ingredient supplier to producers of foods, beverages, dietary supplements, feed and personal care products” says one DSM PR release”).
DSM developed a highly concentrated extract of  a catechin called Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) in green tea that had been identified as having potential health benefits for humans.
In one recent “review” Wolfram wrote  in somewhat vague but highly optimistic terms

“Dose-response relationships observed in several epidemiological studies have indicated that pronounced cardiovascular and metabolic health benefits can be obtained by regular consumption of 5-6 or more cups of green tea per day. Furthermore, intervention studies using similar amounts of green tea, containing 200-300 mg of EGCG, have demonstrated its usefulness for maintaining cardiovascular and metabolic health. Additionally, there are numerous in vivo studies demonstrating that green tea and EGCG exert cardiovascular and metabolic benefits in these model systems.”

I’m not sure what “model systems” he is referring to but it is certainly not humans. He may be talking about rodents, because in 2005  Wolfram published  a paper entitled:

“TEAVIGO (epigallocatechin gallate) supplementation prevents obesity in rodents by reducing adipose tissue mass”

In the conclusions of this “landmark” study performed in mice and rats he wrote

“Thus, dietary supplementation with EGCG should be considered as a valuable natural treatment option for obesity.”

Voila! From a few experiments in rodents and a few short-term, small studies in humans performed by heavily biased scientists, DSM’s version of EGCG emerged as a leading nutraceutical (I prefer the term, snakeoil) and now you can buy this online from a host of bogus supplement/nutraceutical sites as Teavigo.

The production and marketing of TeaVigo is a classic example of how the cynical food/supplement/nutraceutical industry creates a product that has a thin veneer of scientific credibility for health promotion but is considered “natural” (despite being manufactured)
teavigo
It’s Really Pure…. and Really Useless!

and therefore appeals to Americans who are seeking “natural” ways to prevent or treat the common  chronic  diseases of Western civilization.
Because there is no good scientific evidence supporting a role for green tea extracts or ECGC in preventing any specific disease, there is no FDA scrutiny of
Screen Shot 2015-12-27 at 7.51.35 AM
Teavigo: Good for everything that ails you plus can be put in anything you would like to consume and spread on your face! The perfect nutraceutical!

the drug for efficacy and safety. This is fine for nutraceutical manufacturers as they have been granted the ability to  sell their useless products without any regulatory or FDA approval.
Companies like DSM avoid making any specific health claims for their supplements (such as this drug reduces your chances of having a heart attack or stroke) because the FDA can then go after them.
Instead, the Teavigo website makes vague but optimistic statements such as
“Green tea has long been used for health benefits and Teavigo® is the purest and most natural form of the most active substance in green tea – Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG). EGCG contains potent natural antioxidants and efficient free-radical scavengers (free radicals being the highly reactive compounds that cause cellular damage).
Notice the key marketing buzzwords in this statement
-Purest
-Natural
-Active
-Antioxidants
-Efficient
-Free-Radical Scavengers
-Cellular Damage
Who wouldn’t want to take a pill that is pure and natural and full of those wonderful antioxidants that stop those nasty free-radicals  from causing cellular damage?
Unfortunately, any time a proposed powerful “anti-oxidant” ( b-carotene, vitamin E, vitamin C, selenium, retinol, zinc, riboflavin, and molybdenum ) has been studied in a well done scientific trial for prevention of cancer or cardiovascular disease it has failed.
We don’ know if this is because the wrong anti-oxidants have  been chosen (for example in green tea  there are hundreds of potential beneficial chemicals)  or because extracting a single chemical from its milieu in a complex food/beverage makes it inactive or if the whole idea of stopping free-radical damage is misguided.
Why take the time to actually brew and drink green tea the website points out after all:
“To get the optimal benefits from ordinary green tea would take an intake of four to eight cups of green tea a day. With Teavigo® you get the same pure, natural and healthy effects, with more convenience and without the caffeine.”
Finally, consumers of Teavigo can be reassured because it is produced using
“A patented and unique production process with constant product quality”
Let me see here, Teavigo is natural but it is made by a “production process” with “constant product quality”.  Isn’t natural production process an oxymoron?
I have asked the Teavigo people to tell me their “production process” but so far I’ve gotten no response. Your guess is as good as mine as to what chemicals or other potentially damaging processes tea undergoes to reach the colorless and tasteless powder that is Teavigo.
 Green Tea Reality
The evidence supporting tea and green tea health benefits  is weak, coming from observational studies.  A recent review of all these observational studies (supported in part by the tea industry) concluded that

Although the evidence appears to be stronger for green tea than for black tea, which differ greatly in their flavonoid profiles, it is difficult to compare this evidence because the populations and their baseline risks of cardiovascular disease differ greatly between the individual studies on these 2 types of tea, and few studies of green tea provide evidence in non-Asian populations.
Whereas there is reasonable observational evidence that high tea consumption is associated with lower cardiovascular risk, the evidence for green tea being healthier is mostly marketing hype.

If you like green tea by all means drink it in whatever quantity you desire. It’s not bad for you. Weak observational data suggests it may reduce your stroke risk, especially if you are Asian.
On the other hand, if you like black tea or oolong tea you can feel very comfortable that it is not bad for you.  It might also reduce your risk of stroke.
There is nothing to suggest tea is healthier than coffee.
Don’t add sugar or titanium dioxide to your tea but feel free to add cream or full fat milk.
Don’t worry about caffeine unless it makes you jittery or brings on palpitations. Common sense should tell you what amount you can tolerate.
Please don’t buy or consume green tea extracts or Teavigo or any other nutraceutical.
The makers of these products are cynically preying on consumer desire for “natural” treatments, selling chemicals which have not been proven either safe or effective, and employing  misleading marketing and promotional material that implies “scientific” support that is either nonexistent or comes from very weak studies, often run by researchers employed by the industry.
 I guarantea this post was unbiased
-ACP

 

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4 thoughts on “Is Green Tea Better For Your Heart Than Black Tea?”

    • Elizabet, thanks for the BBC article. Looks like it was based on a study initiated and paid for by the tea council.
      The author is wildly positive about black tea.
      The author quoted in the BBC article is Carrie Ruxton, a dietician who has her own nutrition consulting firm. The website for that firm indicates

      ” Dr Carrie Ruxton PhD, lead consultant at Nutrition Communications, has over 20 years’ experience as a registered dietitian and nutrition expert. Working with a team of freelance nutritionists, Carrie can tailor flexible projects to suit your company’s needs.
      Media
      Communication strategies
      New product launches
      Media briefings
      Podcasts
      Hostile media
      Radio campaigns
      Writing
      Scientific reviews of the literature
      Scientific papers
      Newspaper and magazine articles
      Health professional leaflets and newsletters
      Communication to the scientific community and key opinion leaders
      Content for websites and company literature
      Research
      Advice on new product development, especially using functional ingredients
      Desk research e.g. to support claims or to inform company literature
      Managing research projects and developing proposals
      Audits
      Speaking
      Workshops and conferences
      Training packages in nutrition or health claims
      Company away days

      I think this review’s conclusions are unjustified but understandable given the writer’s bias.

      Reply

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