Tea's health benefits in brew not bottle

If you drink plenty of green tea daily for the antioxidant health benefits it is important to note that green or black tea's ability to keep disease away is limited to home-brewed teas; bottled teas don't offer the same health perks.

On August 22, Shiming Li, PhD, co-author of the study and an analytical and natural product chemist at WellGen, Inc., a biotechnology company in New Jersey, discussed the team's findings at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Boston.

"Consumers understand very well the concept of the health benefits from drinking tea or consuming other tea products," noted Li.

"However, there is a huge gap between the perception that tea consumption is healthy and the actual amount of the healthful nutrients -- polyphenols -- found in bottled tea beverages. Our analysis of tea beverages found that the polyphenol content is extremely low."

According to an ACS announcement, "After water, tea is the world's most widely consumed beverage.

"... Scientific evidence [shows] that the polyphenols and other antioxidants in tea may reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, and other afflictions."

Should you want to get the most out of your tea make sure it is a freshly steeped cup, otherwise the chemists conclude that by drinking commercially bottled tea you are consuming a beverage packed with sugar and miniscule amounts of polyphenols. It is estimated that you would have drink 20 bottles to get the benefits found in one cup of freshly brewed tea.