The Healthy Diet

Known as China's Fountain of Youth, green tea has been recognized as a powerful healer in preventing cancer and slowing the aging process. Since its first recorded use 4,000 years ago, people have been drinking green tea for its health-preserving and revitalizing power. Lester Mitscher and Victoria Dolby explore the beverage's health claims in The Green Tea Book.

Using scientific research, The Green Tea Book examines each benefit, from the prevention of cancer and heart disease to simulating mental clarity and reducing cholesterol levels. Polyphenols, naturally occurring compounds found in green tea, supplement the body's antioxidant levels and are the primary mechanism by which green tea prevents the formation of cancer. In addition to the health benefits, Mitscher and Dolby present the history of green tea as well as guidelines for choosing, brewing, and storage.

The Green Tea Book is the complete guide to green tea and will help you understand why it works and how you can use it for both its health-promoting qualities and its great taste. --Gretel Hakanson

More about the Green Tea Book

Mitscher and Dolby's main point is that scientific investigations, particularly during the past 10 to 15 years, support the healthful and medicinal value attributed to green tea. Studies specifically corroborating the book's arguments that green tea can help prevent certain types of:

• cancer,
• heart disease,
• diabetes, and
• dental caries appear among the 17 pages of references, many of them to topflight scientific and medical journals.

That green tea helps mitigate the unpleasant effects of radiation and chemotherapy in the treatment of cancer is another revelation. A general history of tea offers enlivening relief from the large amount of hard information, and tables clarify such things as the amounts of caffeine and theophylline in various drinks (note to the chronically anxious: 125 cups of tea at one sitting constitutes a fatal dosage). William Beatty