Thursday, December 20, 2007
How does the nutrition analysis of regular green tea compare with decaffeinated green tea?
In general, decaffeinated green tea is simply a more processed form of the green tea that has not been decaffeinated. Like all foods, green tea will have its nutrient content decreased as it becomes more and more processed. It would be very rare for a processed food to contain the same amount of nutrients, or more nutrients, than a processed food. (The only exceptions would be artificially fortified or enriched foods that have had vitamins or other nutrients deliberately added back during the manufacturing process).
All green teas undergo some processing since some form of heat is necessary to stop the oxidation processes that occur naturally with freshly picked tea leaves. However, this processing can be very minimal and can leave the vast majority of nutrients intact.
There is no question that nutrients are lost from green tea in any decaffeination process. We've only seen two published studies in this area, however. We have been impressed by one very recent research study that showed very little loss (about 5%) of certain key phytonutrients (called catechins) from hot-water-decaffeinated green tea leaves. It's important to note, however, that this study involved fresh tea leaves that had not been either dried or rolled. The researchers themselves pointed out that far more catechins were lost in the case of dried or dried/rolled tea leaves. Still, it's encouraging that a decaffeination process can result in so little damage to these components. These research results were in keeping with a second animal study that showed significant skin protection from nutrients in water-decaffeinated green tea. In comparison with non-processed green tea, water-decaffeinated green tea lost about 16% effectiveness in protecting the skin cells of mice.
For individuals sensitive to caffeine, or individuals simply choosing to follow a caffeine-free diet, water-decaffeinated green tea or effervescence-decaffeinated green tea makes good sense to us. There is definitely a nutrient loss that occurs in the decaffeination process, but the degree of loss seems acceptable to us and would make a good trade-off for many individuals.
For more on this topic, please see:
Green tea (SOURCE)
All green teas undergo some processing since some form of heat is necessary to stop the oxidation processes that occur naturally with freshly picked tea leaves. However, this processing can be very minimal and can leave the vast majority of nutrients intact.
There is no question that nutrients are lost from green tea in any decaffeination process. We've only seen two published studies in this area, however. We have been impressed by one very recent research study that showed very little loss (about 5%) of certain key phytonutrients (called catechins) from hot-water-decaffeinated green tea leaves. It's important to note, however, that this study involved fresh tea leaves that had not been either dried or rolled. The researchers themselves pointed out that far more catechins were lost in the case of dried or dried/rolled tea leaves. Still, it's encouraging that a decaffeination process can result in so little damage to these components. These research results were in keeping with a second animal study that showed significant skin protection from nutrients in water-decaffeinated green tea. In comparison with non-processed green tea, water-decaffeinated green tea lost about 16% effectiveness in protecting the skin cells of mice.
For individuals sensitive to caffeine, or individuals simply choosing to follow a caffeine-free diet, water-decaffeinated green tea or effervescence-decaffeinated green tea makes good sense to us. There is definitely a nutrient loss that occurs in the decaffeination process, but the degree of loss seems acceptable to us and would make a good trade-off for many individuals.
For more on this topic, please see:
Green tea (SOURCE)
Labels: decaffeinated, green tea
Post a Comment