Citrus Juice Boosts Green Tea’s Health Benefits
If you want to make the most out of the health benefits of your green tea, pass on the milk, and add a zest of lemon instead. A preliminary study indicates that citrus juices enable more of green tea’s unique antioxidants to remain after simulated digestion, making the lemon-tea even healthier than previously thought. Using a model simulating gastric and small-intestinal digestion, it has been found that citrus juice enables more catechins to be available in the intestines for absorption. The study has been published this month in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.
Catechins display health-promoting qualities and may be responsible for some of green tea’s reported health benefits, like reduced risk of cancer, heart attack and stroke. The problem, Ferruzzi said, is that catechins are relatively unstable in non-acidic environments, such as the intestines, and less than 20 percent of the total remains after digestion.
Citrus juice increased recovered catechin levels by more than five times, the study found. Ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, used to increase shelf life in ready-to-drink products, increased recovered levels of the two most abundant catechins by sixfold and 13-fold, respectively.
Ready-to-drink green tea products should optimally contain 100-200 mg of catechins, but to make the most out of these, they recommend adding some citrus juice to your cuppa or to choose a brand pre-formulated with ascorbic acid.
Source: Purdue University
Oh wow, I had no idea that citrus would improve the benefits so much. – Ohh, and I love that Green Tea to Go!
Interesting. But it is not a natural combination, is it, green tea and, say, an orange? Perhaps it would work in a dessert. Like, oh, green tea sorbet and orange slices.
Still, good to know.
Cheers!