Encouraging Health

Which is better for your brain — a glass of juice or a cuppa tea?

When it comes to preventing Alzheimer’s, juice may have the edge. In a recent study, three servings a week reduced Alzheimer’s risk impressively.

Drink Up
Polyphenols in juice may be one of the best things that’s ever happened to your brain. The ones in apple and citrus juices, in particular, are very brain friendly. That’s because they’re able to cross the blood-brain barrier. Once inside your head, they can protect neurons from a damaging chemical associated with Alzheimer’s. Some of those polyphenols, like quercetin, also squelch inflammation.

Tea Is Still Great
Of course, this juicy news about protection against Alzheimer’s doesn’t mean it’s time to toss your tea. Tea still has lots of other healthy benefits, like these:

Tea is great for your heart:

Compounds in green and black teas have a healthful impact on several markers of heart disease risk, but debate continues as to which kind of tea is healthiest. Recent research suggests it may be a dead heat. In a study, green and black tea appeared equally protective against fatty arterial plaque buildup.

Tea may help thwart this deadly female cancer:

Each daily cup of green or black tea helps beat down ovarian cancer risk. Two or more cups per day helped cut risk almost in half in a recent study. The likely good guys in this scenario are the tea polyphenols, which are potent cancer fighters in both men and women.

Tea turns down your stress response:

When a group of men were tested with two beverage choices, the men who drank a beverage that was rigged to mimic black tea’s constituents recovered more quickly from stress than the group sipping a beverage missing the black tea ingredients. The credit may go to black tea’s healthful polyphenols, flavonoids, and amino acids. Whatever the reason, it’s a good pick-me-up when the pressure’s on.

Tea may help keep your knees feeling fine:

The EGCG and ECG found in green tea are powerful flavonoids known as catechins. Seems these particular catechins may help fight inflammation, as well as some of the underlying mechanisms at work in both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

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