Lisa Barger's Alternative Medicine

“I know everybody’s talking about green tea but what about black tea? Does it have any health benefits?”

Yes, it does, and for people who just can’t develop a taste for the green stuff, black tea is absolutely a healthy alternative.

Remember, the 4 major varieties of tea are all made from the same part of the same plant. All true (non-herbal) tea is made from the leaves of Camellia sinensis. The only difference is in the amount of fermentation the leaves undergo. Here’s what I mean:

• White teas are just immature leaves. Other being picked early, they’re produced just like green teas.
• Green teas are picked and then very lightly steamed or “fired” to arrest the process of oxidation then dried and packaged.
• Oolong teas are produced by taking tea leaves and “bruising” them to release the oxidizing chemical but they’re not allowed to oxidize fully before they’re dried and packaged.
• Black teas are bruised just like oolongs but they’re allowed to oxidize, or “ferment”, fully. Then they’re dried and packaged.

A lot of my “natural” peers seem to forget that oolong and black teas also have significant health benefits associated with them. All teas, for example, are rich sources of a group of chemicals called flavonoids—and that includes the plain old black tea that most of us grew up drinking.

It’s true that the flavonoids vary from one type of tea to another but all teas have them and both green and black teas have demonstrated anti-cancer activities in numerous studies involving animals.

Tea is also an excellent natural source of fluoride and the amount of fluoride in green and black tea is just about equal.

So the next time you pass that big display of green tea in the supermarket, don’t feel guilty.

Sources:

Emekli-Alturfan, E., et al. (2009). Fluoride levels in various black tea, herbal and fruit infusions consumed in Turkey. Food and Chemcial Toxicology.

Fukushima, Y., et al. (2009). Coffee and green tea as a large source of antioxidant polyphenols in the Japanese population. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.