Black Tea’s Benefits Are Surprisingly Different From Green Tea
Now I know, I’m drinking black tea more often
Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world after water and is a major source of dietary flavonoids. Yet surprisingly, the way in which tea supports our health is still unknown (June 2019).
If you don’t yet drink enough tea (I don’t) then perhaps it is time to take up the habit. Here’s why.
For centuries, tea has been anecdotally linked to digestive health, and way back some 5000 years tea was drunk purely as a medicinal concoction fortified with vital nutrients. Over time it transformed into a social drink.
Modern research studies have convincingly associated consumption of black tea with reduced cardiovascular risk. This benefit is attributed to substances called polyphenols, such as catechins.
Breakdown of black tea improves our gut biome
Polyphenols are also in other (non-black) teas and in orange skin, for example. What’s different about the black tea polyphenols (BTP) is that they are heavier molecules and can resist breakdown in our stomach. In other words, BTPs are too large for direct bioavailability for our metabolism — like some fibres which are not readily…
