Those of us who drink green tea have sometimes felt left out of all the enthusiastic reports of benefits for coffee. While coffee racked up benefits against cancer, HBP, CVD, diabetes, ACM etc., green tea has in recent years been more often in the news for being debunked as showing any benefits for cancer, diabetes and so on.
Well, green tea lovers have finally scored one, and it’s an important benefit: the brain.
Japanese scientists looked at the consumption of green tea at various amounts and cerebral white matter lesions and hippocampal and total brain volumes. What’s more they compared it to coffee drinkers. And for once, green tea came out ahead:
Green tea consumption and cerebral white matter lesions in community-dwelling older adults without dementia
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-024-00364-w
Quote:
“Multivariable-adjusted analysis revealed significant correlations between fewer cerebral white matter lesions and higher green tea consumption, whereas no significant differences were found between green tea consumption and hippocampal or total brain volume. Regarding coffee consumption, no significant differences were observed in cerebral white matter lesions or hippocampal or total brain volumes. Hence, higher green tea consumption was associated with fewer cerebral white matter lesions, suggesting that it may be useful in preventing dementia.”
And then there are of those who are both green tea and coffee drinkers, hoping for benefits from both.
A summary of this research: