Whether you like your beverage prepared at home, in a bottle, or ordered at a café, tea will always fit the description. Black tea has always been the most popular, but green tea began making a big fuss about a decade ago for its supposed health benefits. So which one packs the most zing?
What is the difference between green tea and black tea?
The main difference between black and green tea is black tea is oxidized and green tea isn’t oxidized. The leaves of green tea are heated immediately after harvesting, which halts the oxidation process. They also retain most of the original green color and the antioxidants – tea’s major selling point.
On the flip side, black tea is allowed to oxidize for longer before it is heated. As a result, the leaves turn to a mix of black and brown. Black tea has fewer antioxidant properties but boasts unique properties absent in green tea.
Green Tea Benefits
Green tea’s powerful combination of nutrients, antioxidants, and trace minerals is believed to help with:
- Detoxification: A 2015 study showed that the antioxidants in green tea help fight free radicals in the body.1✅ JOURNAL REFERENCE
PMID: 26380240 Its high polyphenols play a direct role in the liver, your body’s main detox organ. - Weight Loss: antioxidant compounds and catechins present in green tea promote the release of fat from fat cells and support fat burning in the liver.2✅ JOURNAL REFERENCE
PMC: PMC3649093 - Anti-cancer: thanks to its antioxidants and catechins that help fight free radicals, green tea has anti-cancer properties, as ongoing studies suggest.3✅ JOURNAL REFERENCE
PMID: 10559550
Black Tea Benefits
Much like green tea, black tea has a lot of beverage benefits. These include:
- Does black tea have more caffeine than green tea: both tea types have caffeine. However, if you are looking for a boost of energy, black tea’s higher caffeine content – which is 1/4 of what’s in coffee – is just what you need. Green tea only has 1/3 of what’s in coffee.
- Antioxidant properties: not as much as green tea, but still there. So, technically, any of green tea’s benefits related to its antioxidants are available in smaller amounts in black tea.
- Heart health: it gets interesting – black tea beats green tea in antioxidants called flavonoids, which are good for heart health. A study linked black tea to 36% lower triglyceride values, 17% less LDL/HDL plasma ratios, and an 18% drop in blood sugar levels.4✅ JOURNAL REFERENCE
PMID: 24889137 - Easy to prepare: black tea is less demanding to brew and makes for a great coffee alternative for tea newbies.
CONCLUSION
Both green tea and black tea are packed with undeniable benefits, and both are excellent dietary recommendations.
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