Pros and Cons of Green Tea

Green Tea


When looking down my news feed on various social media platforms I saw many people supplementing the bog standard tea for brands such as Bootea and SkinnyMint. What I wanted to find out is are they actually as good for our bodies as people think?


What are the Advantages?

1.Cancer Reduction

According to the National Cancer Institute Green Tea has properties like

  • Tea contains polyphenol compounds, particularly catechins, which are antioxidants and whose biological activities may be relevant to cancer prevention.
  • Few clinical trials of tea consumption and cancer prevention have been conducted and their results have been inconclusive.
  • Results of epidemiologic studies examining the association between tea consumption and cancer risk have been inconclusive.
  • Inconsistencies in study findings regarding tea and cancer risk may be due to variability in tea preparation, tea consumption, the bioavailability of tea compounds (the amounts that can be absorbed by the body), lifestyle differences, and individual genetic differences.
  • The National Cancer Institute does not recommend for or against the use of tea to reduce the risk of any type of cancer.

2. Reduce risk of Heart Disease 

Here’s what studies have revealed about this popular beverage.

Lowering your risk of cardiovascular disease may be as easy as drinking green tea. Studies suggest this light, aromatic tea may lower LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, which may be responsible for the tea’s association with reduced risk of death from heart disease and stroke.

Read more at: Harvard Health Publications

3. Can increase intellect

Green tea does more than just keep you awake, it can also make you smarter.

The key active ingredient is caffeine, which is a known stimulant.

It doesn’t contain as much as coffee, but enough to produce a response without causing the “jittery” effects associated with too much caffeine.

What caffeine does in the brain is to block an inhibitory neurotransmitter called Adenosine. This way, it actually increases the firing of neurons and the concentration of neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine

Read More at: Authority Nutrition


What are the Disadvantages?

1. Interference with Medication

This is nature’s one of the biggest ironies, if you ask me. Green tea has been marketed and used since ages for its anticancer properties. It has been named the ‘Miracle herb’ and has been lauded for its other healing abilities. But on the other hand, the polyphenols in green tea, which are known for their healing properties, were also found to block the anticancer properties of a drug named bortezomib.

Read More at: Style Craze

2.  Pregnant women shouldn’t drink Green Tea

Green Tea is prohibited for pregnant women. This is because the compound EGCG can severely affect the way in which folate is working in the body. Apart from EGCG another compound named methotrexate also affects the body when it reacts with an enzyme called DHFR. Otherwise in normal people this chemical helps fighting against the cancerous growths in cells.

Read More at: Vicony Tea Direct

3.  Harm to Internal Organs

Drinking green tea daily may cause nausea, insomnia, frequent urination, constipation and upset stomach in some person specially when taken in the morning in empty stomach. Green tea may cause serious problems in the people having peptic ulcer.

Read More At: Women Planet