Groene
thee effectief in het voorkomen van borstkanker.*
Uit
steeds meer studies blijkt dat het drinken van dagelijks groene thee de kans op
het ontstaan van borstkanker flink kan verkleinen. Uit een kleine studie blijkt
dat het drinken van groene thee de bloedwaarden van oestrogeen doet verlagen.
Hoge bloedwaarden oestrogeen worden in verband gebracht met het ontstaan van
borstkanker.
While
tea has been used as an alternative medicine in China for the last several
thousand years, it is only recently that the Western hemisphere started to take
notice of the beverage’s potential health benefits, according to University of
Southern California researchers. Now, tea is being hailed as a miracle elixir
with the power to do everything from lower stress hormones and sooth the
symptoms of PMS to protect against disease.
Although many of the claims are unproven, tea has been shown to reduce the risk
of certain kinds of cancer, says Carol Koprowski, Ph.D., R.D., assistant
professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
”The tea that has been studied the most is green tea”, she notes. It’s one
of the few teas out there that has been shown to have antioxidants that may
protect against cell damage Epidemiologist Anna Wu, Ph.D., professor of
preventive medicine at the Keck School, is studying the relationship between
green tea consumption and breast cancer risk. An earlier study about breast
cancer risk among Asian-American women showed that green tea intake had a strong
protective effect, while the more commonly consumed black tea had no effect at
all, she says.
While both green and black teas come from the same Camellia sinensis plant
native to Asia, the leaves are processed differently. Black tea leaves go
through a fermentation process that strips the plant of its natural polyphenol
compounds, which are believed to give the tea its antioxidant properties, Wu
says.
Results from a small pilot study suggest that regular green tea drinkers had
lower blood estrogen levels, while regular black tea drinkers had higher blood
estrogen levels. Higher levels of estrogen are associated with breast cancer
risk, Wu explains.
While green tea is gaining in popularity around the world in part due to reports
of its disease fighting properties, consumption still lags far behind black tea
in most cultures. Regardless of whether the benefits are as widespread as some
reports claim, a few cups of either green or black tea is a smart addition to a
diet as a replacement for high-calorie sodas and fruit drinks.
Wu, a life-long black tea drinker, says she hasn’t given it up but now drinks
at least one cup of green tea a day as well.
University of Southern California (Juni 2007)