Tea, and Why You Should Drink it
TLDR: Tea is great, you should drink it. (Green is best) But if you donât like it? Not that big of a deal, youâll only be shunned by the British public as a whole.
Not only is Tea a British institution (if we conveniently ignore the fact that we stole it from India and China) and quite frankly, a delicious beverage, itâs also full of impressive-sounding antioxidants which are supposed to be good for us and stuff.
Er, what are those again?
In order to understand what happens when a molecule is oxidised weâre going to need to go back to your sixth form chemistry class. (I hope this doesnât bring back too many painful memories!)
All molecules are groups of atoms that are bound together in various ways by electrons. These electrons like to sit in pairs. When you have certain kinds of single electrons, you get a free radical, which you may have heard of! They react with basically everything and can cause mutations that trigger cancer development (think UV rays).
The name âantioxidantâ is kind of misleading because whilst they do prevent a molecule from being oxidised, itâs not exclusively related to oxygen. Sorry! They essentially stop molecules from losing electrons and ending up with free radicals!
As you may have guessed, this means that antioxidants can help to protect you from getting cancer! A pretty big claim!
Hereâs the catch. Your body gets hit by free radicals all the time and is extremely good at fixing effected cells or killing them off to stop any adverse effects to your body. So the reality is that antioxidants have a minuscule contribution to your bodyâs defences. But, every little helps, right?
If youâre going to go ahead and slurp on all of the tea you can get your hands on, you might want to look at what some current researchers have to say about where to get them, and how much you should be getting!
 This is the most common Catechin found in tea- EGCG (Epigallocatechin gallate)
Catechins are what youâre looking for, according to Ellis et al. They are apparently the chemicals in tea that are responsible for the benefits associated with it. Along with their antioxidant cancer-suppressing qualities, these little beauties help your heart to stay healthy and help to slow down the ageing process! What a bonus!
Yang et al explains that much of the evidence found, was shown in animal studies. It should, in theory work in humans, but more research is required. Whereas Jung et al. are sure that tea prevents cancer, but just arenât sure quite how! Scientists disagreeing⊠now where have I seen that before?
Ellis LZ, Liu W, Luo Y et al. (2011) âGreen tea polyphenol epigallocatechin-3-gallate suppresses melanoma growth by inhibiting inflammasome and IL-1 beta secretionâBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 414(3): 551-556
Jung YD, Ellis LM. (2001) âinhibition of tumor invasion and angiogenesis by epigallocatechin gallate (EGEC), a major component of green tea.â International Journal of Experimental Pathology 82(6):309-316
Yang CS, Lambert JD, Sang S. (2009) âAntioxidative and anti-carcogenic activities of tea polyphenols.â Archives of Toxicology 83(1):11-21
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