TCM-Tea-中药与茶

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Health Benits of tea | Variety Comparison | TCM

Tea is a name given to a lot of varieties

As purists, we will consider only green tea, black tea, white tea, oolong tea, and pu’er (pu-erh) tea the real thing.

They are all derived from the Camellia sinensis plant, a shrub native to China and India, and contain unique antioxidants called flavonoids.

The most potent of these, known as ECGC, may help against free radicals that can contribute to cancer, heart disease, and clogged arteries.

All these teas also have caffeine and theanine, which affect the brain and seem to heighten mental alertness.

The more processed the tea leaves, usually the less polyphenol content. Polyphenols include flavonoids. Oolong and black teas are oxidized or fermented, so they have lower concentrations of polyphenols than green tea; but their antioxidizing power is still high.

Green Tea 绿茶 lǜ chá

Made with steamed tea leaves, it has a high concentration of EGCG and has been widely studied. Green tea’s antioxidants may interfere with the growth of bladder, breast, lung, stomach, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers; prevent clogging of the arteries, burn fat, counteract oxidative stress on the brain, reduce risk of neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, reduce risk of stroke, and improve cholesterol levels.

Learn more about green tea

Black/Red Tea 红茶 hóng chá

Made with fermented tea leaves, black tea has the highest caffeine content and forms the basis for flavored teas like chai, along with some instant teas. Studies have shown that black tea may protect lungs from damage caused by exposure to cigarette smoke. It also may reduce the risk of stroke.

White Tea 白茶 bái chá

Uncured and unfermented.

One study showed that white tea has the most potent anticancer properties compared to more processed teas.

Learn more about White Tea

Oolong Tea 乌龙茶 wū lóng chá

In an animal study, those given antioxidants from oolong tea were found to have lower bad cholesterol levels. One variety of oolong, Wuyi, is heavily marketed as a weight loss supplement, but science hasn’t backed the claims.

Pu’er | Pu-erh Tea 普洱 pǔ ěr

Many people drink pu'er tea because it not only provides the health benefits of tea but also those of fermented food.

There’s some limited evidence to support the use of Pu’er tea for weight loss. Animal and test-tube studies have shown that Pu’er tea may help synthesize fewer new fats while burning more stored body fat — which can lead to weight loss (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source). Yet, given the lack of human studies on the topic, more research is needed.

Additionally, Pu’er tea is fermented, so it can also introduce healthy probiotics — or beneficial gut bacteria — into your body.

These probiotics may help improve your blood sugar control, which plays a key role in weight management and hunger (3Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source).

A single study in 36 people with overweight found that consuming 333 mg of Pu’er tea extract 3 times daily for 12 weeks resulted in significantly improved body weight, body mass index (BMI), and abdominal fat measurements, compared with a control group (6Trusted Source).Still, this research doesn’t prove that drinking Pu’er tea can help you lose weight. These studies employed highly concentrated extracts, which contained the active ingredients of Pu’er tea in much higher doses than those you’d get from drinking it. Improves cholesterol Several animal studies have observed that supplementing with Pu’er tea extracts benefit blood fat levels (7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source, 9Trusted Source).Pu-erh tea extracts may help reduce cholesterol levels in two ways (10Trusted Source).

First, Pu’er tea increases how much dietary-fat-bound bile acid is excreted in the feces, thus keeping the fat from being absorbed into your bloodstream (10Trusted Source). Second, in animal studies, Pu’er tea also decreases fat accumulation. Together, these effects can decrease heart disease risk (11Trusted Source, 12Trusted Source).
Yet, animal studies using concentrated extracts do not prove that drinking Pu’er tea will have the same effects in humans. Inhibits cancer growth in test-tube studies, Pu’er tea extracts have killed breast cancer, oral cancer, and colon cancer cells (13Trusted Source, 14Trusted Source, 15Trusted Source).

While these findings offer a promising starting point for future research, Pu’er tea should not be used as a cancer treatment. These studies involve applying highly concentrated extracts directly to cancer cells, which is not how drinking Pu’er tea would interact with cancer cells in your body. More research is needed to understand how drinking Pu’er tea would affect cancer cells. May boost liver health Because it can help decrease fat accumulation, Pu’er tea may help prevent or reverse nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a disease in which excess fat accumulates in your liver. However, this has only been noted in animal research so far (16Trusted Source). Another animal study also found that Pu’er tea extract may protect the liver from damage caused by the chemotherapy drug cisplatin (17Trusted Source). This is a promising area of research, but human studies are needed before any claims about Pu’er tea and liver function can be made.

Herbal Teas 草药茶 cǎo yào chá

Made from herbs, fruits, seeds, or roots steeped in hot water, herbal teas have lower concentrations of antioxidants than green, white, black, and oolong teas. Their chemical compositions vary widely depending on the plant used.

Varieties include ginger, ginkgo biloba, ginseng, hibiscus, jasmine, rosehip, mint, rooibos (red tea), chamomile, and echinacea.

Limited research has been done on the health benefits of herbal teas, but claims that they help to shed pounds, stave off colds, and bring on restful sleep are largely unsupported.

Here are some findings:

Chamomile tea: Its antioxidants may help prevent complications from diabetes, like loss of vision and nerve and kidney damage, and stunt the growth of cancer cells.

Echinacea: Often touted as a way to fight the common cold, the research on echinacea has been inconclusive.

Hibiscus: A small study found that drinking three cups of hibiscus tea daily lowered blood pressure in people with modestly elevated levels.

Rooibos (red tea): A South African herb that is fermented. Although it has flavonoids with cancer-fighting properties, medical studies have been limited.