Drinking green tea prevents cardiovascular and liver diseases

The association between consumption of green tea and various serum components in a Japanese population was studied, with special reference to the preventive effects of green tea against cardiovascular and liver diseases. Specially, 1,371 men aged over 40 years were surveyed on living habits, including daily consumption of green tea, and their peripheral blood samples were subjected to several biochemical assays. We first found that increased consumption of green tea was associated with decreased serum total cholesterol and triglyceride; increased proportion of high density lipoprotein cholesterol and decreased proportion of low density and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol, reflecting in a reduced atherogenic index. In addition, increased consumption of green tea, especially more than ten cups a day, was also related to decreased concentration of hepatological serum markers such as aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase, and serum ferritin. These observations indicated that drinking green tea acts protectively against cardiovascular and liver diseases.