Green tea has become hugely popular in recent years as a health product, promoted for purposes like weight loss, cancer prevention, skin health, and numerous other uses. Some of these uses have been backed by science, but others of them remain shaky, and green tea is ofter over-hyped as a medicinal product. Owing to the popularity of this beverage, many companies have begun to market green tea extracts, concentrated herbal supplements, usually in the form of pills, which supposedly offer the same "health benefits" as the drink itself.
In this article, I will explore whether or not I personally believe these extracts and supplements to be as healthy as the drink itself. I will conclude that they are not as healthy as drinking tea, and that drinking tea provides compelling health benefits that extracts and supplements cannot provide.
Tea varies widely in quality:
Green tea has a huge range of quality, ranging from broken-leaf tea and fannings and dust, which is often left over after the production of higher grades of tea, to whole-leaf tea. The higher-quality products tend to taste better, being fresher, more aromatic, and often less bitter and astringent, and they tend to look better, and of course, they fetch a higher price on the marketplace.
Although not always true, higher-quality green teas are often lower in contaminants such as pesticides, heavy metals, and other pollutants. Many of these contaminants can be harmful to health, ranging from mildly harmful to outright toxic. Although extreme cases of contamination are rare, as a general rule, I believe it to be much safer to buy high-quality tea. Organic certification is not enough--the quality itself is also very important as some products are produced using the bare minimum standards for organic certification, whereas other products may not be organic certified, but may still be higher in quality.
When you cannot taste the tea, you cannot assess quality:
In this article, I will explore whether or not I personally believe these extracts and supplements to be as healthy as the drink itself. I will conclude that they are not as healthy as drinking tea, and that drinking tea provides compelling health benefits that extracts and supplements cannot provide.
Tea varies widely in quality:
Green tea has a huge range of quality, ranging from broken-leaf tea and fannings and dust, which is often left over after the production of higher grades of tea, to whole-leaf tea. The higher-quality products tend to taste better, being fresher, more aromatic, and often less bitter and astringent, and they tend to look better, and of course, they fetch a higher price on the marketplace.
Although not always true, higher-quality green teas are often lower in contaminants such as pesticides, heavy metals, and other pollutants. Many of these contaminants can be harmful to health, ranging from mildly harmful to outright toxic. Although extreme cases of contamination are rare, as a general rule, I believe it to be much safer to buy high-quality tea. Organic certification is not enough--the quality itself is also very important as some products are produced using the bare minimum standards for organic certification, whereas other products may not be organic certified, but may still be higher in quality.
When you cannot taste the tea, you cannot assess quality:
