The Health Benefits of Tea
Disclaimer: iTeaWorld sent me their Classic Tea Selection and asked me to share about it on my blog and on social media. They had no input in the content of any of the posts, including this one.
Over on Instagram, I tried all eight teas (four oolong, four black) in iTeaWorld’s Classic Tea Selection:
One thing that was missing from my reviews was commentary on the health benefits of tea. While this was partly because the Instagram reel format limits the amount of content I can include, it’s also because…
Antioxidants are so last decade
Typically, when people talk about the health benefits of tea, they cite its polyphenol content. Polyphenols are a class of compounds that can be found in plants, and are known for their antioxidative properties. I would say about 10 or 15 years ago, there was definitely a lot of hype around antioxidants (Flashback to the MLM berry juices boasting their thousands of units of antioxidant activity) but the trend has definitely died over the years.
The problem with polyphenols and antioxidants is that studies on its benefits are usually done at the cellular level, and involve extracting the specific polyphenol from the food or beverage, rather than studying the effects of the food/beverage itself. This means that we don’t know:
What or how much we’re actually getting in a cup of tea, including the effect of different brewing methods (though we do know that because oolong and black teas are partially or fully oxidized, they have lower polyphenol levels than green teas, which are not oxidized at all)
How well we will absorb the polyphenols in the tea
What happens when the tea is being consumed with other foods and nutrients
Whether these benefits are clinically significant
While there have been some studies trying to look at the effects of tea consumption on health, they either include small sample sizes and are of short duration, or they are observational studies and only show correlation, not causation.
So are there any health benefits to drinking tea?
Yes! First, the most obvious one is that tea is hydrating, and can count towards meeting an individual’s fluid needs. While caffeine is a diuretic, the small amount in tea does not cancel out its hydrating effects.
Secondly, for some, the act of preparing and drinking tea is ritualistic and can be its own mindfulness practice. As someone who is of Chinese descent, sampling and learning about different Chinese teas has been a way for me to connect back to my own culture.
Bottom Line
If you are a tea lover like me, it can be a great way to stay hydrated (and a little bit caffeinated!) throughout the day. Sure, its polyphenol content may confer some health benefits, but I would view that as a bonus rather than trying to use tea as some sort of medicine.