Tea Council Newsletter

Welcome to the second newsletter from The Tea Council. This service will keep you up to date with current Tea4Health activities and events and inform you of the latest published research. We'll keep you updated on a quarterly basis with news and views from across the tea industry.

Research Update

Tea, Coffee and Broken bones in Swedes
Both tea and coffee have had a bad press when it comes to their caffeine content, despite tea having less than half the caffeine levels of coffee. Bone health and caffeine has been a particularly contentious issue with opinion split as to whether tea has a beneficial or negative affect - existing studies show a lack of consistency.

A new Swedish paper adds a more positive light to the body of evidence, concentrating on fracture risk in tea and coffee drinking women between the ages of 20-76 years. The drinking habits of more than 31,000 subjects were analysed over a 10-year period during which 3,279 fractures were observed. A high coffee intake was associated with a modest, albeit significant increase in the risk of fractures whereas tea drinking was not associated with risk.
Coffee, tea and caffeine consumption in relation to osteoporotic fracture risk in a cohort of Swedish women. Hallstrom H, Wolk A, Glynn A, Michaelsson K.
Department of Toxicology, National Food Administration, P. O. Box 622, 751 26, Uppsala, Sweden, heha@slv.se.

Antibiotic activity of teas
While the antioxidant activity of tea is well documented its antibiotic activity is a lesser-known quality. Researchers from the US Department of Agriculture set out to evaluate the antibiotic properties of the flavonoid components of tea and separately the antibiotic effect of green, black, white and herbal tea when made up as an infusion. All were pitched against the common food poisoning bacteria, Bacillus cereus.

The researchers found that in laboratory tests, most teas were more active against B.cereus than comparable amounts of medicinal antibiotics, with the exception of herbal tea, which has no real tea content and thus no flavonoid content. Fresh tea, rather than day old tea was also found to be more active against the bacteria. The researchers suggest that more work be carried out in the area.
Antimicrobial activities of tea catechins and theaflavins and tea extracts against Bacillus cereus. J Food Prot. 2006 Feb;69(2):354-61.
Friedman M, Henika PR, Levin CE, Mandrell RE, Kozukue N.
Western Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, Albany, California 94710, USA. mfried@pw.usda.gov

Colon cancer prevention?
Of all the various cancers, evidence for the beneficial effects of tea in relation to colorectal cancer has always been positive. In particular, experimental studies have supported tea as a possible cancer preventative measure.

A recent publication by American scientists has expanded the research base to include a meta-analysis including 25 papers with research conducted in 11 countries. Although initial findings were interesting, the research groups concluded that despite strong evidence from in vitro and non-human in vivo studies in support of green and black tea, available epidemiologic data are insufficient to conclude that either tea type may protect against colorectal cancer in humans.
Green tea, black tea and colorectal cancer risk: a meta-analysis of epidemiologic studies.
Sun CL, Yuan JM, Koh WP, Yu MC.
The Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.

Tea 4 Health update
The past few months have seen the tea4health team make inaugural visits to two high profile health professional exhibitions, the RCN Congress and Primary Care.

The exhibitions were very successful in helping nurses, dietitians, doctors and health visitors to understand the positive effects of including tea in a healthy lifestyle. The tea4health stand attracted lots of attention with delegates showing genuine interest in finding out more about the health benefits of tea. Most commonly asked questions centred around: caffeine and hydration, iron absorption, bladder incontinence and the best age to start children drinking tea.

Dr Carrie Ruxton was commissioned to explain some of the scientific research behind the tea & health messaging in more detail in special lectures. Such a high level of interest was shown in the lectures that they were enormously oversubscribed.







Tea Council Newsletter Welcome to the second newsletter from The Tea Council. This service will keep you up to date with current Tea4Health activities and events and inform you of the latest published research. We'll keep you updated on a quarterly basis with news and views from across the tea industry. Research Update Tea, Coffee and Broken bones in Swedes Both tea and coffee have had a bad press when it comes to their caffeine content, despite tea having less than half the caffeine levels of coffee. Bone health and caffeine has been a particularly contentious issue with opinion split as to whether tea has a beneficial or negative affect - existing studies show a lack of consistency. A new Swedish paper adds a more positive light to the body of evidence, concentrating on fracture risk in tea and coffee drinking women between the ages of 20-76 years. The drinking habits of more than 31,000 subjects were analysed over a 10-year period during which 3,279 fractures were observed. A high coffee intake was associated with a modest, albeit significant increase in the risk of fractures whereas tea drinking was not associated with risk. Coffee, tea and caffeine consumption in relation to osteoporotic fracture risk in a cohort of Swedish women. Hallstrom H, Wolk A, Glynn A, Michaelsson K. Department of Toxicology, National Food Administration, P. O. Box 622, 751 26, Uppsala, Sweden, heha@slv.se. Antibiotic activity of teas While the antioxidant activity of tea is well documented its antibiotic activity is a lesser-known quality. Researchers from the US Department of Agriculture set out to evaluate the antibiotic properties of the flavonoid components of tea and separately the antibiotic effect of green, black, white and herbal tea when made up as an infusion. All were pitched against the common food poisoning bacteria, Bacillus cereus. The researchers found that in laboratory tests, most teas were more active against B.cereus than comparable amounts of medicinal antibiotics, with the exception of herbal tea, which has no real tea content and thus no flavonoid content. Fresh tea, rather than day old tea was also found to be more active against the bacteria. The researchers suggest that more work be carried out in the area. Antimicrobial activities of tea catechins and theaflavins and tea extracts against Bacillus cereus. J Food Prot. 2006 Feb;69(2):354-61. Friedman M, Henika PR, Levin CE, Mandrell RE, Kozukue N. Western Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, Albany, California 94710, USA. mfried@pw.usda.gov Colon cancer prevention? Of all the various cancers, evidence for the beneficial effects of tea in relation to colorectal cancer has always been positive. In particular, experimental studies have supported tea as a possible cancer preventative measure. A recent publication by American scientists has expanded the research base to include a meta-analysis including 25 papers with research conducted in 11 countries. Although initial findings were interesting, the research groups concluded that despite strong evidence from in vitro and non-human in vivo studies in support of green and black tea, available epidemiologic data are insufficient to conclude that either tea type may protect against colorectal cancer in humans. Green tea, black tea and colorectal cancer risk: a meta-analysis of epidemiologic studies. Sun CL, Yuan JM, Koh WP, Yu MC. The Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. Tea 4 Health update The past few months have seen the tea4health team make inaugural visits to two high profile health professional exhibitions, the RCN Congress and Primary Care. The exhibitions were very successful in helping nurses, dietitians, doctors and health visitors to understand the positive effects of including tea in a healthy lifestyle. The tea4health stand attracted lots of attention with delegates showing genuine interest in finding out more about the health benefits of tea. Most commonly asked questions centred around: caffeine and hydration, iron absorption, bladder incontinence and the best age to start children drinking tea. Dr Carrie Ruxton was commissioned to explain some of the scientific research behind the tea & health messaging in more detail in special lectures. Such a high level of interest was shown in the lectures that they were enormously oversubscribed.
You have been sent this newsletter because you previously requested to be added to the Tea Council mailing list. If, for whatever reason, you would like to stop receiving these emails then simply unsubscribe here \| Page Top United Kingdom Tea Council, 9 The Courtyard, Gowan Avenue, London, SW6 6RH \| Tel: +44 (0)20 7371 7787 \| Fax: +44 0(2)0 7371 7958 \| Email: info@teacouncil.co.uk