I'm confused with the so many competing claims out there.
We have Japanese Researchers claiming that Green Tea he;ps cut the risks of cardiovascular disease by > 25% ( a significant benefit ). Then we had an FDA study last year rejecting this claim.
How do you account for this for instance :
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/05/10/144156.php The Food and Drug Administration has rejected the petition of Ito En Ltd, a Japanese company and supposedly the world's largest green tea manufacturer that wanted to sell this tea and make the claim that drinking five ounces a day can reduce the risk of cardio vascular disease.
Despite the wide spread popularity of green tea there has been no scientific evidence to indicate that these unfermented tea leaves offer any preventative health benefits whatsoever.
The FDA found "no credible evidence to support qualified health claims for green tea or green tea extract and a reduction of a number of risk factors associated with cardio vascular disease." Translation: green tea does nothing for you.
This latest FDA ruling gives green tea a batting average of .000, as the FDA has already ruled that this tea does not offer any protection from contracting any type of cancer.
Despite these rulings people will still cling to the superstitious belief that green tea offers some kind of benefits. And in the face of this stake through the heart, I fully expect the green tea believers and the other natural remedy folks to make the claim that the FDA is somehow in cahoots with the drug companies in the effort to discredit an alternative remedy, or some other conspiratorial nonsense.
People can still buy Green Tea, but they will have to face the reality that it does nothing for them.
Perhaps this ruling — which adds more weight to the preponderance of scientific evidence that these panaceas don't work — will help some people understand that there are no individual foods that can prevent disease or cause disease, and to understand that the term "lifestyle" means more than just drinking something or not eating something
SEE ALSO HERE :
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12718769/ FDA rejects green tea health claims
No credible evidence that drinking it reduces heart disease risk
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:53 p.m. ET May 10, 2006
WASHINGTON - There is no credible scientific evidence that drinking green tea reduces the risk of heart disease, federal regulators said Tuesday in rejecting a petition that sought to allow tea labels to make that claim.
The Food and Drug Administration said it reviewed 105 articles and other publications submitted as part of the petition but could find no evidence to support claims of the beverage’s health benefits.
“FDA concludes there is no credible evidence to support qualified health claims for green tea or green tea extract and a reduction of a number of risk factors associated with CVD” or cardiovascular disease, Barbara O. Schneeman, director of the agency’s Office of Nutritional Products, Labeling and Dietary Supplements, wrote in a letter denying the petition. The FDA posted the letter to its Web site Tuesday.
Ito En Ltd., a Japanese company that bills itself as the world’s largest green tea company, and its U.S. subsidiary, Ito En (North America) Inc., petitioned the FDA in June 2005, seeking to make the claim that drinking at least five ounces of green tea a day may reduce the risk of heart disease.
A message left for a spokesman for Ito En (North America) Inc. was not immediately returned late Tuesday. A message left for the AAC Consulting Group, a Rockville, Md. company that filed the actual petition, also was not immediately returned.
Green tea is brewed from the leaves of Camellia sinensis, also known as Thea sinensis. Unlike black and oolong tea, green tea is made from unfermented tea leaves.
The FDA previously has said that green tea likely does not reduce breast, prostate or any other type of cancer risk.
Nonetheless, the belief that drinking green tea confers health benefits has driven its popularity over the last decade, the Tea Association of the United States has said.
A health claim, in the language of the FDA, characterizes the relationship between a substance and a reduction in the risk of contracting a particular disease.
So, who to believe, the Japanese Researchers or the FDA ?
ANYONE WITH A BETTER OPINION OUT THERE ?
We have exchanged views before and have always agreed. On this I beg to take issue. The FDA is de facto against any preventive approaches and believes that drugs are the only things that solve diseases but that also keeps the FDA in business. Anything that cannot be patented is viewed with suspicion by the FDA and drug companies and obviously green tea falls in that category. The preventive benefits of green tea have been known for thousands of years and it is a very inexpensive way to add a layer of protection. It is not a panacea and does not take off the hook from living a healthy lifestyle. I am 37 and in better shape and health than anyone including 99% of doctors that base their health on drugs. I will take phramas only in a life and death situation and have fights with my doctor because I refuse her prescriptions. Meanwhile she is 80 lbs overweight and I have 12% body fat and feel like 20 !