Protective Antioxidants - Is Green Tea Really Better For You?
I hear a lot of people saying that green tea is better for us than coffee or the traditional orange pekoe and black tea. But is it really? If it is, what makes green tea so special?
Well, according to Lipton, green tea provides 190 milligrams of something called 'protective antioxidants' and that is 40 milligrams more than the amount of protection found in the regular tea blend. The regular tea is a blend of orange pekoe and black tea.
Protective antioxidants help our bodies by providing an internal shield against free radicals. Free radicals are the molecules that can damage our other cells.
However, we should be careful when comparing what is better for us. The protective antioxidants found in green tea provide benefit to many, sure, but the amount of antioxidants is only a single factor. How your particular body absorbs antioxidants is actually more important.
If you need to watch your caffeine, green tea is better for you than black tea blends. Unlike black tea which has about 40 milligrams of caffeine per cup, green tea has very little caffeine -- 1/2 the caffeine of black tea in fact. But guess what? The latest research on caffeine shows that caffeine provides some health-related benefits, too. So people who need caffeine to stay focused, alert and productive may prefer to have a cup of black tea instead of the green stuff. It may be safer for them healthwise as well.
You can skip both green tea and black tea altogether and get your antioxidants from fruit and vegetables -- the way nature intended. Other sources of antioxidants are collard greens, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, oranges, watermellon and red wine. What is "better for you" is a matter of who you are, what your health needs are and what works for you Comments about this article are welcomed and can be posted to www.askblax.com.
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