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Antioxidant properties
For some years now, there has been much talk of green tea products, cleverly proposed to consumers as true beauty elixirs, antidotes against aging and so on and so forth. The much-vaunted health-giving effects of green tea are linked, for a change, to its precious antioxidant content, which as everyone now knows, helps the body defend itself from free radicals (reactive molecules implicated in cell damage).
Epigallocatechin aside, the mixture of the various substances present in green tea has shown a superior antioxidant action compared to the individual components, confirming the now accepted thesis that food phytocomplexes are much more active than the single isolated and purified components.
In a world where the success of a particular food or dietary supplement is increasingly linked to its real or presumed anti-aging, anti-degenerative and anticarcinogenic capacities, the antioxidant virtues of green tea certainly could not have gone unnoticed. In this regard, the Food and Drug Administration has proved cautious, due to conflicting results among the various studies. If, on the one hand, as the American institution has rightly done, it is necessary to acknowledge the researches that contradict many of the alleged virtues of green tea, on the other hand the increasingly numerous studies that punctually exalt them cannot be ignored.
Weight loss properties
Another interesting property ascribed to green tea is the slimming one; this time the chemicals involved are methylxanthines (caffeine, theobromine, theophylline) and there is no doubt about their actual ability to stimulate lipolysis.
By promoting the mobilization of localized fat in adipose tissue and their oxidation for energy purposes, methylxanthines promote weight loss. The same substances are also able to increase the metabolism; they also have a mild diuretic effect (useful for fighting water retention) and anorexitis (suppressing hunger). The concentrations of methylxanthines present in green tea are however limited and totally insufficient to make the aforementioned properties appreciable (it takes more than half a liter to obtain the caffeine equivalent of a cup of coffee).
Green tea extracts in cosmetics
Green tea or black tea?
In addition to the variety and cultural differences, the various types of tea are classified according to the processing process to which they are subjected. In particular, while in the preparation of black tea fermentation is essential to obtain the desired aroma, green tea is obtained from young and fresh leaves, treated to inhibit fermentation processes.
Compared to black tea, green tea is poorer in caffeine (about 50% less), but has greater antioxidant properties.
In conclusion: even if we do not find anything miraculous in a cup of green tea, it is still a drink with many appreciable characteristics, which can therefore easily fit into everyday eating habits. However, the recommendation remains to set your diet on the consumption of a wide variety of foods: regularly drinking green tea is therefore important, provided that you do not forget all the other precious antioxidant foods that nature offers us (citrus fruits, berries, tomatoes and in general all fresh fruit and vegetables).
