Steepedteablog.com

Another Green Tea Study: Green Tea and the Fight Against Lung Cancer

An article reported by Fox News and reprinted in Tea News Direct sheds light on a study involving green tea and its effects on lung cancer.

Many studies have identified the compound in green tea called EGCG that seems to suppress tumour growth, and we've shared many of them here on this blog. This new study wanted to determine how the compound suppresses the growth of tumours. So far, this study has involved using lung cancer samples in a petri dish, but the study is promising and researchers are hopeful to begin working with humans in the future. Working with the samples, researchers found that EGCG "raises levels of a molecule called mi-R210 inside lung cancer cells". The article continued to explain that "cancer cells with higher levels of mi-R210 multiplied more slowly than lung cancer cells with lower levels" and that "cells with high mi-R210 levels lost the ability to grow on top of each other, a hallmark of cancer cells."

The new study was published Sept. 28 in the journal Carcinogenesis.

If you already drink green tea, here's just another reason to keep doing so! If you do not, perhaps it's time to try and there are so many delicious flavoured green teas, in addition to the classic Japanese Sencha. Check out the Steeped Tea catalogue and insert and give your consultant a call!

 

Tea Made from Panda Feces

When I read the headline, "Tea Made from Panda Feces Expected to be Most Expensive Brew in the World" in the Tea News Direct (who got it from New York Daily News), I immediately thought about the expensive coffee beans that apparently pass through an Philippino cat's system. Coffee connoiseurs talk about the smooth dark chocolate flavour without a hint of bitterness, and the demand for this coffee is helping to provide work for impoverished people in the Philippines.

But, I sure hoped this article wasn't about someone trying to pick tea leaves from panda poop!

It turns out that a wild life expert from Sinchuan University, An Yashi, is planning to fertilize tea plants with the panda feces. Apparently the college lecturer plans to launch a special blend of green tea, which will fetch up to $36,000 per pound. The article goes on to explain why the tea would be so costly:

"Yashi, a college lecturer at Sinchuan University, said using panda excrement to fertilize the tea plants has a health-promoting upside because it contains nutrients from one of the bear’s favorite meals — bamboo.

 “Pandas have a very poor digestive system and only absorb about 30 percent of everything they eat: that means their excrement is rich in fibers and nutrients,” said Yashi, noting that those nutrients make their way into the tea through the fertilization process.

“Just like green tea, bamboo contains an element that can prevent cancer — and enhance green tea’s anti-cancer effects — if it is used as fertilizer for the tea.”

 

It's a Green Christmas!

Well, the weather outside has not been frightful here in Ontario, and it could very well be a green Christmas this year.

I know regardless what the weather does, it will be a green Christmas for me as I enjoy some wonderful Steeped Tea green teas this month!

I placed an order recently (it arrived as I prepared this post - how cool is that?) and I am looking forward to restocking a favourite green tea, Snow Cap, as well as the classic standby Japanese Sencha. That's the Snow Cap in the picture - isn't it gorgeous?

I'm also going to be trying a blended green/rooibos when Holiday Treat arrives. This tea also incorporates the tastes of caramel, coconut and vanilla. Dessert in a cup! In fact, I bet you could add a bit of this tea to whipping cream as you are making whipped cream and it would be just dreamy!

 What teas are you looking forward to savouring over the Christmas season?

I'll leave you with a song about a green Christmas. This is a live performance a few years ago - Green Christmas by the Barenaked Ladies. (Canadian tea company, Canadian band, Canadian performance site.)

Last Few Days for November Special Offers!

Get your parties closed now, to take advantage of these great offers! New specials start on Thursday.

The Asian Influence on Canadian Tea Drinkers

This article recently appeared in the Montreal Gazette, via Tea News Direct. Since green tea is so amenable to natural flavours, you can easily find a green tea you'll love in the Steeped Tea catalogue and holiday flyer 

Canadians’ tastebuds turning eastward as Asian flavours take root

 

As Asians become a higher percentage of the Canadian population, tea-flavoured drinks such as green tea are among the dietary climbers, along with pork, rice and seafood.

Canadians are eating less beef and potatoes and more pork, seafood and rice, thanks to the fact that about 10 per cent of us now are of Asian descent. We’re also snacking more, even more so on fruit, and drinking more green tea — both again due to eastern influences, according to a study by Toronto-based market research company NPD Group.

There are 3.3 million Asians in Canada, or 11 per cent of the population, and the food and beverage industry ignores them at its competitive peril, says the study’s authors.

 By recognizing the similarities and differences between Asians and others, restaurants and retailers “will be better equipped to make the strategic decisions necessary to fuel their success,” said NPD analyst Joel Gregoire.

The study, Eating Patterns in Canada, found that over the past 10 years, the number of meals featuring potatoes has dropped by 703 million “eatings” every year, while those that included rice jumped by 297 million eatings.

Beef consumption was down by 384 million meals since 2001, while pork during the same time jumped by 372 million meals a year and seafood by 248 million eatings.

“As the face of Canada’s population continues to change, our eating behaviour is sure to follow suit,” said Gregoire.

The study also found Asians snack more than other cultures, at an average of 309 snacks per year per person, with fruit being the dominant food choice 38 per cent of the time. The average Canadian chooses fruit as a snack 30 per cent of the time, it said.

There has also been a hike in the number of meals consumed by Canadians that included a flavoured tea drink, to 44 a year per individual from 25 in 2001.

The jump is most noticeable with green tea, which falls in that category. In 2001, Canadians included green tea in their meals just four times a year and that number is now almost 15.

Immigration is expected to grow by 15 per cent over the next decade and most of the new Canadians are expected to come from Asia, NPD said.

“The Asian community is a prime growth target in Canada whose dietary preferences should not be overlooked by corporations seeking longevity,” NPD said in a news release issued Tuesday.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Are you among the statistics? Have increased your consumption of green tea?

Study Shows Green Tea Protects Against Prostate Cancer

This article recently appeared in the Tea News Direct and is written by Robin Williams Adams of The Ledger.

The Power of Green Tea

Watson Clinic Trial is Studying Impact of Green Tea Leaf Extract.

Green tea has a soothing, comforting connotation, and its concentrated power may be able to put pre-cancerous prostate cells in their place.

A drug called polyphenon E, a concentrated extract from green tea leaves, has shown promise in lab and animal studies at controlling pre-cancerous prostate conditions that could develop into prostate cancer.

 “The green-tea polyphenon stops the cells from multiplying in a crazy, rowdy manner,” said Nagi Kumar, director of cancer chemoprevention at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. “It helps the cells behave like they’re supposed to behave.”

A clinical trial sponsored by Moffitt, in which Lakeland’s Watson Clinic is participating, now is measuring polyphenon’s effect on men.

The men being enrolled are those identified through biopsies as having abnormal, excessive growth of prostate cells, called high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN) or atypical small acinar proliferation (ASAP).

They aren’t eligible if they have prostate cancer, prostatitis or urinary tract infections.

“This is a way for us to be on the front end of things,” said Noreen McGowan, a registered nurse who heads the clinical trials program at Watson Clinic Center for Research.

People are positive about this study and others that focus on prevention, said Susan Collins, a registered nurse supervising the polyphenon E trial there.

Patients with HGPIN usually have symptoms and go to their urologists, said Kumar, who is also a professor of oncologic sciences at the University of South Florida College of Medicine.

A biopsy discloses cells that can be precursors of prostate cancers.

She said 27 percent to 35 percent of men will develop prostate cancer within a year or two if they are at the HGPIN stage.

The other condition, ASAP for short, sometimes gets called stage zero because it’s almost cancer but isn’t quite there yet, she said.

The previous lab and animal trials had positive results in controlling development of cancer from those conditions and in controlling the progression of cancer that developed, Kumar said.

In this clinical trial, men take either the polyphenon E capsule or an inert placebo capsule twice a day. They also take vitamins, Collins said.

Neither the men nor the researchers know which patient is given the actual ingredient being tested.

After six months, participants’ prostate specific antigen level will be checked and they will get rectal exams.

If those are normal, they continue in the trial for another six months.

Previous research led by Kumar, reviewing women’s tea drinking patterns, found a 37 percent reduced breast cancer risk in women younger than 50 who drank three of more cups of green or black tea a day. That was in comparison to younger women who didn’t drink tea.

That supports a “potential beneficial influence,” but further research is needed to confirm the association, she said.

A similar link hasn’t been made with ovarian cancer, but Dr. Patricia Judson, a gynecologic oncologist at Moffitt, said lab research in petri dishes on 12 different cell lines of ovarian cancer found fermented wheat germ extract could kill ovarian cancer cells.

The ongoing study of polyphenon E and pre-cancerous prostate cells could assume more importance in view of disagreement about prostate cancer screening and treatment.

Confusion and disagreement exist with HGPIN as well, according to an article in the October 2010 issue of Renal & Urology News.

Many urologists ignore its presence completely, wrote Dr. J. Stephen Jones, chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Department of Regional Urology and a professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University.

If HGPIN is found in multiple places within the prostate, it’s associated with cancer development in approximately half of patients within the next five years to six years, he said.

If an adequate biopsy finds HGPIN in just one place, it may be insignificant.

Just another great reason to get the men in your life drinking tea!

Green Tea Improves Memory, especially as you age

Forgetting where you left the keys can happen to anyone at any age, but as we age, it can be very distressing as we struggle to remember significant details of a story we're sharing. When we mix up the locations or the people who were there, it can be confusing to us and the listener. If you had to appear as a witness in court, how would you do with the details?

The good news is that studies are showing that caffeine, especially that in tea, can help prevent the decline in memory. A study published in the 7th issue of Neurology in August 2008, describes how scientists studied the effects of caffeine on cognitive decline and dementia in people over the age of 65. They found that women over the age of 65, who drank 3 or more cups of coffee or tea a day, showed less decline in verbal retrieval and in visuospatial memory over 4 years than women consuming one cup or less. This benefit was shown to increase with age. Basicly women who drink tea seem to keep mentally sharp as a result of the caffeine in tea as they get older. Another study described at Anti-Aging.org suggests that the polyphenols, especially ECGC, available in green tea, seem to lower the incidence of dementia and Alzheimer's.

Although the studies have mostly centred on green tea, it would appear that white tea would also be effective as it also has high concentrations of ECGC. According to livestrong.com,

White tea is a good source of EGCG and is a viable alternative to green tea for people who seek a slightly different flavor but still want to take advantage of EGCG's health benefits. Studies show that the two types of tea are essentially equivalent in their catechin content, depending on the tea's source and processing. And, as shown in a 2008 "Journal of Analytical Toxicology" study, there is not an appreciable difference in caffeine content between green and white teas.

[Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/397497-does-white-tea-contain-egcg/#ixzz1XJbk3JNn]

As you stock up on your favourite Steeped Fine loose teas, be sure to include some green or white teas and work proactively on preserving your memory!

Green Tea and Cancer

I've been reading Knockout by Suzanne Somers. The woman made famous for playing ditzy Chrissie way back when on Three's Company has authored over a dozen books, organically grows her own veggies, seeks alternative solutions for maintaining her health, and looks pretty amazing for 64 years old.

Knockout is, as the the subtitle states, a book about curing cancer. Each chapter is an interview with a different doctor who has rejected the western medical model to further study and pursue alternative ways to control, treat and cure cancer. In addition to the chapters on treating cancer, there is also a chapter on preventing cancer. This book will not be everyone's cup of tea. Some people will always put their trust in doctors and pharmaceuticals and if that is you, this book will only frustrate and possibly anger you. For those who realize there may be a place for both, that botanical elements exist to aid in our health and healing, you may find this book enjoyable.

We've shared the results of many green tea studies here on the blog, and this book reveals more. In one of the chapters, Somers interviews Dr. Burzynski, whose studies have identified missing peptides, antineoplastons, in the blood and urine of people who have cancer. He indicates some supplements help put back the peptide, and that "the chemicals in green tea are also molecular switches which can activate some of the genes and switch off oncogenes."

Another doctor interviewed, Dr. Faloon, discusses how removing a tumour may cause other metastatic cancers elsewhere in the body as certain cells go into overactivity after the surgery. Suppressing the growth, for example of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), in the blood vessels can prevent the metastatic cancer. VEGF appears in, among other things, green tea. "In one experiment, EGCG - the active constituent of green tea - was administered to mice with stomach cancer. The results demonstrated that green tea reduced the tumor mass by 60%, while also reducing the concentration of blood vessels feeding the tumor by 38%. Remarkably, EGCG decreased the expression of VEGF in cancer cells by an astounding 80%! The authors of the study concluded that EGCG 'is a promising candidate for antiangiogenic treatment of gastric cancer.'"

As we've stated before, you should always seek advice from your medical practitioner, and they should be informed of any independent or alternative treatments you are trying.

Meantime, isn't it great to know that as you sip your green tea you are doing something that is good for you, and you may be preventing cancer at the same time?

What kind of green tea will you drink today? Will it be the new aptly named Divine Goji Berry green tea, a classic like Tart Granny Green, something exotic like Hawa ya-doin, or something a little spicy and rich like Superior Snow Cap? Whichever green tea you choose, enjoy!

Green Tea for Your Bones!

There have been many many studies done on green tea, and even many more health claims made about it.

Here's one that seems to have some body to it.

There's been a recent study on the effect of green tea on Bone Mineral Density (BMD) and how that relates to the treatment of osteoporosis.

Author Jessica Hodges describes the study and its results:

A five-year Australian study of 1,500 women, aged between 75 and 80, looked at the effects of tea drinking and calcium supplements on osteoporosis and found that the tea drinkers had a 2.8% greater BMD at the end of the study. Another study, which looked at 632 Japanese women of 60 years or over, found a significant link between green tea drinking and a higher BMD.

A recent review of laboratory work carried out on rats found that green tea helped increase bone mineral density both by promoting bone formation and inhibiting the bodies re-absorption of bone tissues. This study reinforces the work already done with people and helps scientists to start understanding the reason that green tea seems to work so well. Studies being done of the health effects of tea are increasing year on year, and it’s medical applications are starting to be taken very seriously.

As always, you need to treat tea as a complementary medicine and not an alternative to conventional treatment, but it certainly won’t do you any harm. In fact, the Japanese government recommends that its people drink ten cups of green tea a day, and the popularity of tea-based bottled drinks has rocketed as a result.

References:

Devine, A., Hodgeson, J.M., Dick, I.M. and Prince, R.L. – Tea drinking is associated with benefits on bone density in older women. Am J Clin Nutr 86(4) 1243-1247

Muraki, S., Yamamoto, S., Ishibashi, H., Oka, H., Yoshimura, N., Kawaguchi, H., Nakamura, K. – Diet and lifestyle associated with increased bone mineral density: cross-sectional study of Japanese elderly women at an osteoporosis outpatient clinic. J Orthop Sci 12(4) 317-320

Shen C-L, et al. Green tea and bone health: Evidence from laboratory studies. Pharmacol Res (2011) doi:10.1016/j.phrs.2011.03.012

Hara Y. Tea catechins and their applications as supplements and pharmaceutics Pharmacol Res (2011) doi:10.1016/j.phrs.2011.03.018

Wouldn't it make sense to drink green tea in your younger years and perhaps prevent osteoporosis? Whether you are preventing or preserving your bone mass from reducing, Steeped Tea offers so many delicious flavour options for green tea that you're bound to find at least 1 you like. Check out the summer flyer for some new flavours (Divine Gogi Berry anyone?), and the wellness flyer (Hawa-ya-Doin is a fave among our consultants) and catalogue for some classic options. To your bone health!

Super Tea!

The goji berry is popping up on lists that describe superfoods, along with items such as cinnamon, turmeric, pumpkin seeds etc. These lists help guide you as you make choices to improve your health through eating foods reknown for their nutritional content and/or healing components.

From the Canadian Living website, here is a brief description of the goji berry:

Hailed as the newest superfood, goji, a Himalayan berry, has inspired a surge of interest for its use in treating diabetes, hypertension, malaria, fever, cancer and other ailments. Gram for gram, goji berries pack more vitamin C than some oranges and more beta-carotene than carrots.

Some research has been conducted on the goji berry (obviously, or it wouldn't be on these lists!). From the About.com Alternative Medicine site, here is a bit of info on the health benefits that are being noticed:

Traditional Uses:

Goji berries have been used for 6,000 years by herbalists in China, Tibet and India to:

• protect the liver
• help eyesight
• improve sexual function and fertility
• strengthen the legs
• boost immune function
• improve circulation
• promote longevity

Goji berries are rich in antioxidants, particularly carotenoids such as beta-carotene and zeaxanthin. One of zeaxanthin's key roles is to protect the retina of the eye by absorbing blue light and acting as an antioxidant. In fact, increased intake of foods containing zeathanthin may decrease the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in people over the age of 65.

 Goji has only been tested on humans in two published studies. A Chinese study published in the Chinese Journal of Oncology in 1994 found that 79 people with cancer responded better to treatment when goji was added to their regimen.

There have been several test tube studies that show that goji berry contains antioxidants and that goji extracts may prevent the growth of cancer cells, reduce blood glucose, and lower cholesterol levels. However, that doesn't necessary mean that goji will have the same benefits when taken as a juice or tea.

Although goji berries like the ones used in traditional Chinese medicine aren't very expensive, goji juice is very pricey. Considering that a 32-ounce bottle of goji juice (about an 18-day supply) can run as high as $50 USD, the evidence isn't compelling enough at this time to justify the cost of goji juice.

What research has been done on goji berries?

 

While there are not nearly as many studies on goji berries as there are on other foods, Steeped Tea's Divine Goji Green Tea combines a sweet berry with another superfood, green tea.

The colour of the brewed tea is lovely - a chartreuse green that looked gorgeous in this glass tea pot with a tea light shining through it.

The taste was naturally sweet and fruity.

Although I seem to prefer black and white teas, I would definitely drink this green tea again. The goji berry enhanced the green tea flavour nicely and made a delightful anytime tea.

Even if the medical claims for the goji berry are inconclusive, it would seem that adding something like the goji berry with its anitoxidants to green tea with its antioxidants, should make a very healthful beverage, and at the same time,it makes a very smooth, enjoyable green tea that I believe would be tasty iced as well. This tea is listed on the summer flyer and is available through August. To your health!