Green, White, Black Tea

[acrosstheveil]

I have always noticed benefits from taking green tea extract so I decided to stop drinking coffee which makes my symptoms 10x worse anyway and start drinking tea. I have been ordering from mountain rose herbs and they have a ton of exotic, pure teas. White, black, green, fermented, powdered, etc.

What types of teas offer different health benefits? Like what is the difference between black and green teas? White and green?

Any tea connoisseurs here?

 

[Alea Ishikawa]

I find that caffeine can help with some of my symptoms. I used to not be all that big into coffee or tea prior to becoming ill, but afterwards caffeine seemed to be one of the few things that helps me to function better. Some people can't take caffeine, however.



White, green, oolong, and black teas are all products of Camellia sinensis. They are just manufactured differently. Here's a neat little flowchart on how the 6 main types of tea are produced.

Offhand, I know that green tea has anti-inflammatory properties. Black tea has a higher caffeine content. Wiki on white tea benefits and black tea benefits. Dr. Oz and WebMD on specific teas, though I don't have any studies. Harvard on general tea benefits. The NYTimes notes that brewing cold can reduce the caffeine level.

Wiki on negative health effects, which does not include effects from herbal teas. I've heard that some bad substances have been found in tea, but amazingly the tea bags of specific manufacturers seem to help prevent said substances from getting into the liquid. I forget which manufacturers.



Personally, I prefer green tea, but I also drink black and even mix the two. When I was healthier, I visited a tea place which had a good selection of herbal teas, which included wildflower and rose. I liked their wildflower one the best.

 

[eafw]

What types of teas offer different health benefits? Like what is the difference between black and green teas? White and green?

There is a difference between drinking ordinary amounts of tea and taking "extracts". It is rather like those studies that say how good the flavanols found in chocolate are for you, but in the research they are using doses many times that you would get from just eating the stuff (rough calc says 2kg standard dark choc per day needed to match the amount given in fortified drinks in the study)

So for day to day consumption, there's probably not that much difference green, black or white it just boils down to whatever tastes nicest to you or what you can tolerate best. Black seems to have more caffeine and less flavanols, but can depend how you dilute, the brand etc.

 

[L'engle]

I feel worse from either green or black tea, which is too bad since I like both. I sometimes drink other teas but none on a daily basis. Everything seems to cause 'something'!