Bottled Tea Drinks Have Few, If Any, Health Benefits

Now that the health benefits of drinking tea (three to six
cups of tea a day is associated with a 45 percent reduced risk of
death from heart disease) have been demonstrated, curious readers may ask  which tea they  should be drinking. The answer, recent research suggests, is the kind you brew, and not the kind you buy in a bottle. Scientists speaking at this week's National Meeting
of the American Chemical Society report that many of the increasingly
popular bottled teas contain far fewer
polyphenols than a single cup of home-brewed green or black tea. An ACS news release tells us that researchers measured the level of polyphenols — natural antioxidants
linked to anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and anti-diabetic properties —
of six brands of tea purchased from supermarkets. Half of them
contained virtually no antioxidants, and the rest
had so few polyphenols that they would carry
little health benefit, especially when combined with the high sugar intake
from tea beverages. Want numbers? The six commercial bottled teas analyzed contained 81, 43, 40, 13, 4, and 3 milligrams
(mg) of polyphenols per 16-ounce bottle. One average cup of home-brewed
green or black tea, which costs only a few cents, contains 50-150 mg of
polyphenols.

Read more from the ACS.