|
Shinichi Kuriyama, MD, PhD, Tohoku University School of Public Policy in
Sendai, Japan, and colleagues. reported in the Sept. 13, 2006 issue of The
Journal of the American Medical Association that people who drink at least a
pint of green tea each day have a lower risk of death, mainly from a
reduction in heart attacks and strokes. The study was conducted on more than
40,000 people in Japan.
They found that women who drink five or more 3.4-ounce cups of green tea
every day cut their risk of heart disease by 31% compared with women who
drink one or fewer 3.4-ounce cups. Men who drink this much green tea cut
their heart disease risk by 22%.
Yang and his
colleagues reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2004 the results
of analysis of 1507 tea drinking individuals in Taiwan. They found that tea
consumption of 1 to 5 cups per day reduced the risk for incident
hypertension by 46% after adjusting for other risk factors.
In another study
of 17,143 Japanese individuals between the ages of 40 and 65, regular
consumption of coffee or green tea reduced the risk of incident diabetes by
approximately one third. This data was published in the Annals of Internal
Medicine in 2006. Both hypertension and diabetes are major culprits in the
development of atherosclerosis and its associated complications: heart
attack and diabetes.
Other benefits touted to drinking green tea include a protective effect
against several cancers. Tea may also help arthritis. It improves the
cognitive functioning of the brain, and may help delay the onset of
Alzheimer's disease. Green tea also contains epigallocatechin gal late, which
is purported to help speed the metabolism and increase energy use when
combined with caffeine, and may help in weight loss. But most importantly,
the health benefits of tofu food are difficult to ignore. Low in calories
and high in protein, tofu contains no cholesterol and in some cases has been
shown to reduce the risk of heart disease. It’s no wonder that more and more
people have begun to include tofu food as a part of their healthy lifestyle. |