Does decaf tea retain all the health benefits of caffeinated tea?
Mostly talking about black teas here, tea bags and loose.
Thanks!
Depending upon how it is decaffeinated, it can be good or bad. Most quality decaf teas retain about 90% of their antioxidants and other health benefits. You definitely want to go with the higher quality decaf black teas. Also, you might want to find out which tea companies use chemical processing and which use natural processing as it makes a difference. The more natural the processing used to decafinate the tea, the more health benefits that are retained.
Some teas are just naturally decaf and need no processing, and so they retain all of the health benefits inherent in the tea (white tea, green tea, etc.).
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:05 am
Negative
References :
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:53 am
Depending upon how it is decaffeinated, it can be good or bad. Most quality decaf teas retain about 90% of their antioxidants and other health benefits. You definitely want to go with the higher quality decaf black teas. Also, you might want to find out which tea companies use chemical processing and which use natural processing as it makes a difference. The more natural the processing used to decafinate the tea, the more health benefits that are retained.
Some teas are just naturally decaf and need no processing, and so they retain all of the health benefits inherent in the tea (white tea, green tea, etc.).
References :
tea lover
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:20 am
Decaffeinated tea usually taste quite metallic and has little nutrients.
Studies conducted by US Department of Agriculture found that it contains less than a third of the catechins in regular tea.
This is bad news. Catechins are THE antioxidants.
Avoid the so called "natural decaffeinated". They are processed using chemical solvent.
If you must, pick a "carbon dioxide" decaf. It costs more, but is supposed to have more nutrients intact.
The article below explains it in more details.
References :
Decaffeinated green tea – a review http://www.amazing-green-tea.com/decaffeinated-green-tea.html