Hey guys you're probably here because you want to know all about green tea is it good for you?
Is it bad for you? What does the scientific research have to say? well i'm going to answer
that question in this week's responding to your comments where we look at fun questions
we look at science-based questions but most importantly we always look at the evidence
now this week's comment comes from hillrom59 love your videos please can you explain if green tea is
actually good for you hill 159 i'm going to answer that question i'm going to tell you everything you
need to know this comment is from the collagen video if you haven't seen that i'm gonna leave
it up there and in the description below so let's begin now as a healthcare professional
i have seen some pretty bold claims about green tea and its marvellous health benefits so today
we are really gonna dig in deep we're gonna look at all the scientific evidence we're gonna see
what the actual facts are about green tea so green tea where to begin it's been used for centuries in
traditional indian and chinese medicine it's been used to control bleeding regulate temperature aid
digestion and although it's been used for a long long time from traditional medicine
there isn't actually much evidence supporting a lot of the claims out there now green tea is
one of the most widely consumed drinks around the world and it's usually seen in the media as one of
these superfoods or if you want to call it a super drink because it's got loads of different health
benefits that are attributed towards it and this reputation kind of rests on all the nutrients that
are in green tea which give it its aroma taste and color and before we move on to all the science and
the facts about green tea and its potential health benefits just to let you know green tea is made
from the camellia sinensis plant so if you want to find out more information about that as well
you can do by just googling and see what the plant looks like but they dry this and essentially
the tea is made from this now let's begin with some science and the evidence behind green tea
now one of the key things about green tea is that it's believed to be fully loaded with
healthy nutrients such as bioactive compounds otherwise known as antioxidants which i'm
sure we've all heard of which have various different health benefits now in green tea
there's three main antioxidants that we're looking at so polyphenols flavonoids and catechins so you
may now be thinking well abraham what do these antioxidants actually do what's the point of them
well antioxidants are believed to prevent free radicals from forming and these free radicals
with time are believed to cause damage to the body to cause aging and can be potentially linked to
cancer and according to the free radical theory which was first outlined in 1956
free radicals break down cells and as we age our bodies are less able to stop these free radicals
from damaging our healthy cells so as we age we're gonna get more of these free radicals and more
damage to our healthy cells so now let's move on to cancers you may have seen in the media there's
been lots of news there's been lots of hype about green tea and its potential reduction of people
getting cancer in the future and research has linked this potentially to the massive amount
of antioxidants that are found in green tea now this is a really bold claim to link green tea
with the reduction of cancer because we need so much more research to be able to make that claim
to be able to make the claim that yeah green tea it can reduce the risk of cancer we need so much
more evidence because there's so many variables involved you never know if the people who are
drinking green tea they might live a healthy lifestyle they might exercise a lot they might
you know live somewhere rural where there isn't much pollution in the air they might eat certain
foods which reduce the risk of cancer so there's so many different variables that need to be taken
into consideration therefore what this means is you can't make such a bold claim that green tea
reduces the risk of cancer more research is needed to support that claim because there's so many
different variables however saying all this there have been some recent studies which show some good
evidence about green tea reducing the risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer so watch this
space but again more evidence is needed now moving on to brain function there have been
some claims that green tea can help improve your brain function and increase your focus
in a cup of green tea there's about 50 milligrams of caffeine that's about the same amount in half
a cup of coffee now to put this into perspective there is research out there that recommends up to
400 milligrams of caffeine a day to be safe for most healthy adults that's roughly the amount of
caffeine in four cups of brewed coffee 10 cans of coke or two energy shot drinks now there are much
more strict regulations for pregnant ladies for example they cannot drink that sort of caffeine
level and for various different individuals as well so if you do want more information
on the recommended amount of caffeine intake for different individuals i am going to leave a
really helpful link in the description below more information there too feel free to check it out
now one of the benefits with green tea and this improved brain function and focus is you're not
going to get those jittery side effects that you would do with high caffeine intake which a lot of
students do they drink lots of caffeine they're getting maximum high loads of caffeine which then
causes them to get jittery and anxious whereas with green tea because the levels of caffeine
are lower it can be associated with less side effects now caffeine isn't the only brain boosting
nutrient that's in green tea it also has something called l-theanine in there which you don't find in
caffeine and the l-theanine can work hand-in-hand with the caffeine to give your brain more of
a boost as well so it works with it and there's two ingredients now that causing that brain boost
now the next thing i want to talk about is degenerative diseases like alzheimer's or
parkinson's now there is some evidence that the catechins those antioxidants that are
found in we t can help with reducing the risk of alzheimer's or parkinson's disease however again
this is a really bold claim to make a lot more research is needed into this again like i said
with the other one that i spoke about with cancer there's so many different factors that you need
to take into consideration when you're researching something so with green tea for example they need
to do a massive trial a really big trial with more patients more individuals with different health
conditions different lifestyles because like i said there might be some correlation but it's
not going to be potentially the causation if that makes sense so much more research is needed before
any of these bold claims can be made now moving on to cardiovascular disease and diabetes so in
animal studies green tea has been shown to reduce your cardiovascular risk so reduce your risk of
potentially having a heart attack by increasing your good cholesterol and lowering your bad
cholesterol also in animal studies and in human studies green tea has been shown to potentially
help reduce your blood pressure which again a reduction in blood pressure when it's high
can result in a reduced cardiovascular risk i.e a reduced risk of heart attacks or reduced risk of
strokes in the future by controlling your blood pressure now another few studies to discuss one
is from the american journal of nutrition and they showed that green tea may help to improve
insulin sensitivity and reduce your blood sugar levels which is great news another study as well
done in japan showed that those who drank green tea had a 42 percent lower chance of getting type
2 diabetes and that's great news but with all of these studies we need more evidence we need more
trials on a larger number of people so we can actually get some solid evidence that proves it
and also when we talk about animal studies i always want you to remember this and i've said
it in previous videos about the collagen video for example is that just because something works on
animals doesn't mean that it's transferable to humans unfortunately it doesn't work like that
the human body can be a lot more complex what is a lot more complex than animals for example
and just because it works on them doesn't mean it's going to have the same effect on us so please
always bear that in mind when you look at research studies and research trials now if
you are someone who suffers with high blood pressure or you know someone in your family
or a friend who has high blood pressure i do have a few videos on this topic looking at tips
and things that you can do to help reduce your blood pressure and keep it under control if you're
interested to watch it i will leave a link to it up here and in the description below but now let's
continue with the green tea stuff now moving on to the next category green tea and burning fat
is it true you've probably seen it in the media in the papers on the news about green tea
helping people lose weight now the studies on this are a bit 50 50. some studies have shown that
green tea can potentially help improve metabolism and help you burn fat however there's been quite
a few studies that show that green tea has no effect on this whatsoever so to put this into
simple terminology the evidence is not there that green tea can help you lose weight and nor can it
improve your metabolism to help you burn fat easier now the best way for you to lose weight
however if you are interested i do have a few videos on this topic looking at different studies
done in oxford with some real real good results and they're really easy to do as well so if you
are interested in learning more i will leave links then videos up here and in the description below i
think cumulatively those videos probably have about 12 to 15 million views and have helped
loads of people around the world so if you are interested in learning more please feel free to
click and watch it now let's move on to probably one of the most popular health benefits that you
see in the media about green tea and that is that green tea potentially helps increase your lifespan
so you're going to live longer if you drink green tea now let's read more about this now there has
been quite a lot of research done on this and one particular research that comes to mind which is
quite good is one done in japan on 400 000 people who drank three to five cups of green tea per
day in summary these participants showed an increased lifespan a decrease in death from
all causes and decrease in deaths associated with heart disease and strokes now looking at
the numbers this was a big study and it showed some good evidence for potentially showing how
green tea can improve your lifespan but one thing i want you to remember just like we discussed
before there is a correlation there that you can see when you look at the study but correlation is
not causation so you always need to remember that because there could be various different factors
involved which are helping these people live longer their lifestyle might be healthy they
might have a really good diet they might do a lot of exercise there are so many different factors
that could be causing this we already know that people in japan tend to live a lot longer as well
so there's many different factors and just putting it all on green tea is quite a bold claim to make
so in summary green tea has a lot of potential health benefits we looked at the research there's
a lot of good stuff there but we need more evidence and i'm not someone who's anti-green
tea at all by the way i love green tea i drink it myself i've got nothing against it but as
a healthcare professional i'm used to reading research papers i'm used to looking at evidence
and i know when we need more evidence and green tea is one of those things that we need
more evidence to support these bold claims some of these claims are great they sound great they sound
really good but we need more evidence we need more studies to exactly come up with a definition of
what green tea is good for because at the moment there's a lot of bold health claims out there with
not much evidence to support those claims thank you for watching this week's video if you have any
of your own tips about green tea how to make it any other health benefits that you might
have read up about please do feel free to leave a link or some information in the description below
i'd love to read and i'm sure everyone watching this video would too always remember that you're
awesome and i will see you next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make sure
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