Thursday, April 17, 2008

Green Tea - more reason to drink it

Dr. Andrew Weil says: "An antioxidant found in green tea seems to fight breast cancer in mice and might be beneficial in humans as well. A study at the University of Mississippi found that the EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate) in green tea slows the growth of breast tumors in mice. Researchers added EGCG to the drinking water of female mice and gave plain water to a mouse control group. Then they injected all the animals with breast cancer cells. After five weeks they found that the breast tumors developing in the mice that drank water laced with EGCG, were much smaller than those of the mice who drank plain water. The study leader suggested that the EGCG helped by suppressing formation of new blood vessels needed to nourish the tumors as well as hindering the proliferation and migration of the cancer cells. The findings were to be presented at the 121st Annual Meeting of the American Physiological Society. While there’s still no proof that EGCG will work this way in human breast cancer patients, its potential to prevent oxidative cell damage and premature aging have been established in previous studies."

I'm not wild about the flavor of green tree, but have found a widely available product I like well enough to drink daily: Good Earth's decaffeinated Green Tea Blend which is flavored with lemongrass.

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