Green Tea linked to better Asian health rate!

Researchers at Yale University writing in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons are offering a body of evidence linking green tea to better heart health and a lower risk of cancer.

Researchers indicated that the high concentration of antioxidants called catechins in green tea may offer a range of health benefits, especially for smokers, according to Dr. Bauer E. Sumpio and his colleagues at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn.

In Asian countries, it is a social custom to drink green tea, which is less processed and richer in catechins than the black tea commonly consumed in the West. The results are that, even with Asia 's high rate of smoking, only half as many die each year from coronary heart disease than their American counterparts.

Lab studies also suggest that EGCG and other green tea antioxidants may block tumor formation or growth in a number of ways, explaining why the lung cancer death rate in Korea is so surprisingly low.

The rate of lung cancer death among Korean men is less than 40 per 100,000, versus 67 per 100,000 among U.S. men, and among women 13 per 100,000 in Korea compared with 45 per 100,000 in the U.S.

Only 37% of Korean adults smoke compared to 27% of Americans.