Why You Shouldn’t Drink Too Much Green Tea

Drink three cups of green or black tea daily. In 2015, the Health Council surprised many nutrition educators with this advice. This put tea in the list of healthy foods such as vegetables, fruit, whole-grain cereal products and fatty fish. Based on scientific research, the Health Council concluded that green and black tea lowers blood pressure and reduces the risk of stroke. Tea also seems to reduce the risk of diabetes. In short: enough evidence to advise tea. But the following also applies: the more, the better?

Flavonoids

First, let’s take a look at what would make tea so healthy. And we mean tea from the ‘tea plant’ Camellia sinensis. We are not talking about rooibos tea or other herbal teas, because the advice of the Health Council does not apply to those teas. Green and black teas are high in flavonoids. These are antioxidants, just like vitamin C. Antioxidants can protect the cells of our body against damage and therefore possibly reduce the risk of diseases. So healthy fabrics!

EGCG

There are many different types of flavonoids. In green tea, the flavonoids consist of 80 to 90 percent of so-called catechins. In black tea this is less: about 20 to 30 percent. That’s because black tea gets oxidized after picking and drying. Catechins are converted into other substances. Green tea is not oxidized and therefore retains not only the green color, but also many catechins. The most common catechin in green tea is EGCG. That’s the abbreviation for epigallocatechin gallate. The fabric is extremely popular with researchers. Beneficial effects are attributed to it, such as stimulation of fat burning, inhibition of cancer, delay of brain deterioration. It is even being investigated whether EGCG helps with a corona infection because it would have a virus-inhibiting effect. But the science is not yet beyond clues. Beneficial effects of EGCG have not yet been clearly proven.

Liver damage

In a way, EGCG is similar to vitamins. These are healthy substances, but you can also get too much of them. Just think of vitamin D: indispensable for strong bones, but poisoning can occur in an overdose. Something similar seems to apply to EGCG. If people ingest very high doses of EGCG, usually through supplements, they are at risk for liver problems. That is why the European Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority recommends EFSA as safe a maximum of 800 mg EGCG per day.

Three cups a day

Fortunately, you do not quickly reach the maximum of 800 mg EGCG per day if you drink green tea. It is not even known exactly how much EGCG is in a cup of green tea, because the content strongly depends on the growing conditions, the season and can even differ per tea plant. The EGCG content also decreases during the storage of green tea and also during the brewing of the tea due to the high water temperature. EFSA estimates that green tea drinkers in Europe consume an average of 300 mg EGCG per day. That is well below the stated maximum. This is an average. If you drink a lot of green tea, the daily EGCG amount can approach the safe maximum. Normal consumption of green tea is therefore not a problem and is even healthy. It is not without reason that the Health Council recommends three cups of green or black tea a day. But just to be on the safe side, don’t overdo it.

tea drink?

Are you a real tea drinker? Do not drink too many other teas, such as black tea or herbal teas such as rooibos tea, chamomile tea, nettle tea, ginger tea or fresh mint tea. The Nutrition Center warns against plant toxins that can accidentally end up in (herbal) tea due to pollution during harvesting. And the plant toxins allylakoxybenzenes naturally occur in fennel tea, anise tea and cinnamon tea. Licorice tea, including star mix, naturally contains the plant toxin glycyrrhizin. In short: when drinking tea, it is also about variation: alternate black, green and herbal teas. For example, the chance that you ingest large amounts of plant toxins is very small. Or just drink (warm) water.