To health:Tea, green and white

Raise a glass of green or white tea in a toast to better health, says Cynthia Finley, clinical dietitian specialist at the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center in Baltimore.

“If you are going to drink beverages, you should get the best for your buck,” Ms. Finley says. “Drink to your health. Move away from soda and drink tea instead.”

Drinking green and white tea has many health benefits, dietitians and nutritionists say. Green tea has antioxidants called polyphenols that enhance the body. Consuming white tea is believed to have even more health benefits.

White tea has the same type of antioxidants as green tea, but in greater amounts, says Demetre Whitmore, an oncology nutrition specialist at the Washington Cancer Institute at the Washington Hospital Center in Northwest.

All teas come from the camellia sinensis plant, she says. White tea comes from the bud of the plant. Because the bud is so young, it hasn’t had a chance to develop chlorophyll and green coloring. When the leaves are picked, they are steamed or fried immediately. Then they are dried.

Green tea is made from a more mature tea leaf. The green tea leaf may have had time to wither a bit before processing, she says.

“Green tea has a distinct flavor,” Ms. Whitmore says. “It’s less harsh than the flavor of black tea. White tea is pretty mild. It has a softer, pleasant flavor.”

Not as many studies have been done on white tea as have been done on green tea, Ms. Whitmore says. Research shows that the polyphenols in green tea protect against cancer, especially prostate cancer. Polyphenols actually can help prevent or decrease the size of small tumors.

Polyphenols stop the damage caused by free radicals — incomplete oxygen molecules — in the body, she says. A free radical seeks to bond with something and therefore might break up the deoxyribonucleic acid in a cell and bond with it. This would create a “mistake” in the DNA. If that mistake keeps reproducing, it can create the beginnings of cancer.

If a free radical bonds with an antioxidant, it is no longer available to bond with damaged cells.

Antioxidants also can reverse damage that already has been done, in case free radicals already have interfered with genetic materials, Ms. Whitmore says.

Polyphenols also have been known to prevent blood clotting and lower cholesterol, preventing heart disease, she says.

To receive the health benefits in green tea, people should drink at least two cups a day, Ms. Whitmore says. The tea should be steeped for three to five minutes.

In general, people should consult their doctors about consuming large amounts of green or white tea in case the substances in the teas could interact with some medications, she says. For instance, the teas may interfere with adenosine, a medication used to treat irregular heart rates. The vitamin K in green tea also may interfere with warfarin, a medication used for blood thinning.

Many studies have shown that cancer is less likely to occur in people who drink five cups or more of green tea a day, says Julie Leopold, a registered dietitian at Inova Health Source in Fairfax.

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