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CNN Live Today

'Daily Dose'

Aired June 24, 2003 - 11:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's good news for tea drinkers, there's more evidence brewing about the health benefits of drinking green tea. The latest research is on tea and cholesterol.
CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here with the details in our "Daily Dose."

I think I'm going to like this.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You're going to like this. This is the second most commonly consumed beverage in the world. Tea, just second to water, which is interesting.

WHITFIELD: Is that right?

GUPTA: Yes.

WHITFIELD: I thought you were going to tell me coffee or something.

GUPTA: No, well coffee's up there as well, I'm sure. There's been a lot of evidence for some time that maybe tea has some health benefits besides the fact it just tastes good and people like to drink it, but there may be some health benefits to it as well. Now there's been a study out that actually shows a causal relationship, a cause and effect relationship between tea and actually lowering your cholesterol. Take a look there.

The study was done, 220 subjects. All of them were Asian. This was actually done in China, and it was done in people who are already on low-fat diets, people who already had moderately severely elevated cholesterol. Take a look at the result there, 11 percent decrease in overall cholesterol. More importantly, however, a 16 percent decrease in the bad kind of cholesterol we hear so much about.

They are not quite ready, Fredricka, to recommend tea to everybody. They still say they need to see the long-term results of the tea. They need to see how much tea with the dosing, and they need to figure out if it interacts with some other lipid medications, cholesterol-lowering medications, because again, this was all in people who had elevated cholesterol, but it looks like a pretty good thing.

WHITFIELD: Wow, so they still want to do a little bit more research, but they are already discovering that maybe some other benefits? GUPTA: Yes, that's the thing, is you know, first of all, people have been drinking tea for a long time; In China, for thousands of years. There is all sorts of anecdotal evidence about the benefits of tea.

Take a look at the list of some of the things that tea is associated with. Again, protects against heart disease, cancer- fighting antioxidants, benefits bone density. This is really important, when they found that people actually decreased the chance of hip fractures, knee problems, things like that, anti- inflammatories, anti-carcinogenic.

Again, we have been talking about China. The study was done in China. They've actually found that in men, it actually decreased the rate of esophageal and stomach cancer. That was after they controlled for diet, health and other societal sort of things. So it could really be this tea.

I want to point out as well, this particular study was actually funded in part by the company that makes these capsules. The people were given capsules of tea extract as opposed to drinking tea itself, but then it was done by independent reviewers.

WHITFIELD: So they didn't get the benefit from the calming effects of tea, because that's what I say is the best benefit of tea.

GUPTA: People swear by it. Some people drink it every morning for that calming effect. And you might get a two-fer now -- you're cholesterol might come down as well.

WHITFIELD: So I guess now, are they going to start looking at black tea, because that's also a very common tea, and...

GUPTA: Yes, and really quick, quick difference between green tea and black tea. Not a lot of differences between the two, but the green tea probably has more antioxidants. We hear so much about those. Again, those are the cancer-fighting property of certainly elements, antioxidants. Steep your tea for at least five minutes. That'll get you 80 percent of your antioxidants, green or black tea. Iced tea, you don't get it, because there's not as much steeping involved, so you don't get as much as the antioxidant properties.

WHITFIELD: OK, good, I'm not an iced tea fan anyway. OK, well, thanks a lot.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired June 24, 2003 - 11:38   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's good news for tea drinkers, there's more evidence brewing about the health benefits of drinking green tea. The latest research is on tea and cholesterol.
CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here with the details in our "Daily Dose."

I think I'm going to like this.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You're going to like this. This is the second most commonly consumed beverage in the world. Tea, just second to water, which is interesting.

WHITFIELD: Is that right?

GUPTA: Yes.

WHITFIELD: I thought you were going to tell me coffee or something.

GUPTA: No, well coffee's up there as well, I'm sure. There's been a lot of evidence for some time that maybe tea has some health benefits besides the fact it just tastes good and people like to drink it, but there may be some health benefits to it as well. Now there's been a study out that actually shows a causal relationship, a cause and effect relationship between tea and actually lowering your cholesterol. Take a look there.

The study was done, 220 subjects. All of them were Asian. This was actually done in China, and it was done in people who are already on low-fat diets, people who already had moderately severely elevated cholesterol. Take a look at the result there, 11 percent decrease in overall cholesterol. More importantly, however, a 16 percent decrease in the bad kind of cholesterol we hear so much about.

They are not quite ready, Fredricka, to recommend tea to everybody. They still say they need to see the long-term results of the tea. They need to see how much tea with the dosing, and they need to figure out if it interacts with some other lipid medications, cholesterol-lowering medications, because again, this was all in people who had elevated cholesterol, but it looks like a pretty good thing.

WHITFIELD: Wow, so they still want to do a little bit more research, but they are already discovering that maybe some other benefits? GUPTA: Yes, that's the thing, is you know, first of all, people have been drinking tea for a long time; In China, for thousands of years. There is all sorts of anecdotal evidence about the benefits of tea.

Take a look at the list of some of the things that tea is associated with. Again, protects against heart disease, cancer- fighting antioxidants, benefits bone density. This is really important, when they found that people actually decreased the chance of hip fractures, knee problems, things like that, anti- inflammatories, anti-carcinogenic.

Again, we have been talking about China. The study was done in China. They've actually found that in men, it actually decreased the rate of esophageal and stomach cancer. That was after they controlled for diet, health and other societal sort of things. So it could really be this tea.

I want to point out as well, this particular study was actually funded in part by the company that makes these capsules. The people were given capsules of tea extract as opposed to drinking tea itself, but then it was done by independent reviewers.

WHITFIELD: So they didn't get the benefit from the calming effects of tea, because that's what I say is the best benefit of tea.

GUPTA: People swear by it. Some people drink it every morning for that calming effect. And you might get a two-fer now -- you're cholesterol might come down as well.

WHITFIELD: So I guess now, are they going to start looking at black tea, because that's also a very common tea, and...

GUPTA: Yes, and really quick, quick difference between green tea and black tea. Not a lot of differences between the two, but the green tea probably has more antioxidants. We hear so much about those. Again, those are the cancer-fighting property of certainly elements, antioxidants. Steep your tea for at least five minutes. That'll get you 80 percent of your antioxidants, green or black tea. Iced tea, you don't get it, because there's not as much steeping involved, so you don't get as much as the antioxidant properties.

WHITFIELD: OK, good, I'm not an iced tea fan anyway. OK, well, thanks a lot.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com