Green tea versus black tea?

5 responses so far ↓

• 1 cad // Feb, 2008

  Not sure about having similar benefits but green tea has more caffiene.

• 2 doer // Feb, 2008

  Hi,
  Recently there have been reports that black tea has more anti-oxidants than green tea. However one has to take both without adding milk because some component in milk kinds of reverses the health benefits of tea.

• 3 Trade W // Feb, 2008

  Black tea and green tea are made from the same plant, the tea bush, but they are processed differently.

  Green tea is dried and very slightly fermented (this basically means that the cells in the leaves are broken down by a process called oxidation), while black tea is completely fermented.

  The result, apart from the difference in color, is that green tea is closer to its original state. That means that the antioxidants in the tea leaves, which are the main reason tea is healthy, are preserved.

  In black tea, on the other hand, a greater portion of the antioxidants are oxidized and converted to other and less useful substances.

  In other words, green tea contains more antioxidants than black tea. Exactly how much more is hard to measure, but two to three times more is a common ballpark estimate. Note that white tea, which is not fermented at all, contains up to three times as much antioxidants as even green tea.

  The fermentation process also means that the caffeine content in black tea rises, compared to green tea. Of course, all teas contain much less caffeine than, say, coffee.

• 4 Julian // Feb, 2008

  It has still to be decided.

  Scientists are still arguing which tea has more powerful antioxidants. Although more scientists seem to say it is green tea.

  But if you are looking at the number and proportion of studies saying which tea has more health benefits, than it is definitely green tea.

  Which go to google and type in
  green tea health benefits
  black tea health benefits

  and compare.

  At the end of the day, just drink whichever make you feel great.

  I will argue that a high quality black tea (darjeeling for example) will be better than a cheap green tea.

  Hope it helps. Personal taste rules.

• 5 epic_laydown // Feb, 2008

  black tea is tea leaves that have been heavily oxidized. It was popular in England because it was the only way to get the tea to that part of the world without it going bad.

  But to answer your question, it has a bit less antioxidants, but still has EGCG and antioxidants. You should drink all kinds of tea so that you dont' get bored of tea. It's such a wonderful drink.

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