Study: A little citrus juice in your green tea adds to its health benefits

A researcher at Purdue University has found that citrus juices enable more of green tea's unique antioxidants to remain after simulated digestion, making the pairing even healthier than previously thought.

Green tea has been associated with such health benefits as reduced risk of cancer, heart attack and stroke. The problem is that the catechins in green tea are relatively unstable, says Mario Ferruzzi, the study's lead author. However the researchers observed that adding either citrus juices or vitamin C increased the amount of these catechins available for the body to adsorb.

The study compared the effect of various beverage additives on catechins, naturally occurring antioxidants found in tea. Results suggest that complementing green tea with either citrus juices or vitamin C likely increases the amount of catechins available for the body to absorb (by up to 5x).

"If you want more out of your green tea, add some citrus juice to your cup after brewing" Ferruzzi said.

The Purdue press release announcing the findings noted that although this study only examined green tea, they suspect that some of the results also could apply to black tea, which is produced by fermenting green tea. Many prefer black tea's flavor, although it contains lower total levels of catechins.

The Purdue study is being published this month in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research and was funded by the National Institutes of Health.