Green tea restricts the
increase of blood cholesterol
Cholesterol is always indicted as the "bad guy"
for causing a wide range of diseases in adults. But it is a chemical present in
all animals and crucial in human bodies for such important processes as the
manufacture of cell membranes and the adhesion of cells. There are two types of
cholesterol: one is the so-called "bad" cholesterol (LDL and VLDL-
cholesterol) that accumulates in tissues and the other is the "good"
cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol) that collects excessive cholesterol from the
tissues. If the amount of bad cholesterol in the blood increases too much, it is
deposited on the walls of blood vessels and can lead to atherosclerosis.
Atherosclerosis in conjunction with high blood pressure can cause myocardial
infarction and cerebral infarction. Good cholesterol, however, prevents
atherosclerosis and must exist in a proper balance with bad cholesterol for
proper health.
Prof. Muramatsu,has demonstrated in experiments
with rats that green tea catechin restricts the excessive buildup of blood
cholesterol. When rats were fed a diet high in fat, the amount of bad
cholesterol in the blood increased rapidly. But the addition of only l% catechin
to the food checked the increase of bad cholesterol (LDL) with only minimal
effect on the amount of good cholesterol (HDL). In another series of
experiments, rats fed normal food with catechin exhibited no decrease in blood
cholesterol and remained unaffected by the supplement. We can see from these
results that green tea catechin acts to limit the excessive rise in blood
cholesterol. Recently Dr. Goto 8) reported similar results for human blood
cholesterol.
7) K. Muramatsu and Y. Hara, j. Nutr. Sci. Vitaminol.,32, 613 (1988) .
8) K. Goto, S. Kanaya and Y. Hara, Proc. of the International Symp. on Tea
Science,314 (Shizuoka, Japan: August, 1991).
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