Tea: Home Brewed Is Best

By Dr. Reginald B. Cherry, M.D., Christian Post Contributor Wednesday, January 12, 2011

To get the most health benefits from your tea (and there are many!), you may want to brew your own cup rather than buy it in the bottle.

While tea is rich in antioxidants, findings presented at the American Chemical Society showed that the bottled varieties don't even come close to the levels found in home-brewed tea.

Researchers found as few as 3 mg of the polyphenol antioxidants in premade teas, compared with up to 150 mg in the kind you make at home. You need at least 125 mg a day to get benefits, so you would need to consume either dozens of store bought bottles, or else just one good cup of home-brewed tea to reach that level.

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To get the most out of your tea, steep the leaves/tea bag for 6-10 minutes, and consider adding lemon juice. Adding citrus juice to the antioxidant-rich tea led to a fourfold increase in disease-fighting catechins, according to a study in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research in 2007 Lemon juice is most effective, but orange and lime also work.

To find out more about the benefits of green tea, see Dr. Cherry on Green Tea's Benefits and More Green Tea Benefits.