Tea to Top Cancer?
You’ve heard the health claims associated with drinking tea, but can tea really save us? Get the antioxidant answers from Memorial-Sloan Kettering.

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Healthy Living NYC Interview

February 24, 2006

These days each individual Lipton tea bag is wrapped in paper bearing the phrase “150 mg of protective antioxidants.” Research studies continuously emerge hoping to strengthen the association between tea and its antioxidant characteristics. So can drinking tea really prevent cancer?

Before getting our hopes up, we spoke to Barrie Cassileth, Ph.D., the Chief of the Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, for some sensible discussion and a realistic examination of the facts.

Recent research studies attribute the decreased risk of some cancers in Asian populations to their daily consumption of green tea. Can that finding be applied to our situations?

I think an over simplification is taking place. Actually green tea, as part of the Asian diet—not green tea per se, but the entire Asian diet—is protective against developing cancer. But, you cannot apply that to a 60 year-old person who has been living in NY all his or her life and eating poorly, and now, diagnosed with or hoping to prevent cancer starts to eat soy or drink green tea. That will not work.

It is the overall Asian diet throughout life that is important and that reduces cancer risk. Asians have a lower incidence of breast cancer and other hormone related cancers, in large part because of their diet. They have low fat intake, they eat a lot of fish and dark green vegetables (seaweed in particular); they consume many soy products and a lot of tea. All of the components of this good diet combined, and again, having consumed this type of diet throughout childhood and puberty, make the difference.

We’re looking for a quick fix if we try to take a piece of a typical Asian diet and superimpose it on an otherwise unhealthy, life-long style of eating. It will not work.

Is it important then to look for a definitive answer on whether or not teas have this particular health benefit?

It’s more important that people realize that we already know the answer to healthy diets and the role of green tea in those diets. If one has a healthy diet, they’re going to do better throughout their life.

The reason that green tea is thought to be healthy is that it is high in antioxidants. But so is everything else that grows in the ground. And that’s the whole point. If you eat a plant-based diet, one that emphasizes vegetables and fruit and whole grains, you’re much more likely to enjoy good health. It doesn’t matter what specific type of tea you like, or what vegetable you prefer.

And one antioxidant is not necessarily more beneficial than another. The chemicals in blueberries are not necessarily better than those in tea. They are both healthy, high in antioxidants. But you can’t eat blueberries or drink tea all day and expect that to make a difference. It has got to be part of a broader, balanced, healthier diet.

There is also current research examining green tea extracts in cancer treatment. Would progress in this area come as a surprise?

An active chemical in green tea is under study now for potential use in cancer prevention and care. However, scientists are looking not at green tea with all of its constituents, but rather at a particular chemical from green tea that may have anti-carcinogenic qualities.

There is always the possibility that some element, some chemical in almost any botanical agent might have a beneficial effect against cancer. About half of all pharmaceutical products come from botanicals. So it wouldn’t surprise me if it turns out that some specific chemical within green tea does have a beneficial effect. If one ingredient in tea eventually becomes a drug-like product with the intensity of chemotherapy or another pharmaceutical agent, it would be a great deal more powerful and effective than drinking a lot of tea.

There is no reason not to drink tea if you like it, but people shouldn’t think it’s a safeguard against developing a serious illness. It’s not, unless it is consumed as part of a well-rounded, healthy diet and lifestyle.