In case you haven’t heard, but tea is making headlines—and for all the good reasons! Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world.
Next to water, there is no drink that has more raving fans—and growing.
And it’s no wonder why tea is so popular—it contains potent antioxidants that could improve your health, prevent heart disease, slow age-related brain decay, and could even help you shed a few pounds in the process.
All in one glorious cup of tea!
But there is one question that always seems to come up:
Is caffeine-free tea as effective at improving your health like caffeinated tea is?
The answer is YES!
For those who are sensitive to caffeine … have a medical issue that prevents you from enjoying caffeine …
There is hope …
The Power of Antioxidants
Although we are talking about tea here, it’s important for you to understand exactly what antioxidants are and what they can do for your health.
Antioxidants are nutrients found in certain foods that improve your health. They work in a very specific way, helping to neutralize free radicals from destroying healthy cells.
You see, free radicals are a byproduct of cellular metabolism. They are highly
unstable and highly dangerous when it comes to healthy cells.
They are basically seeking to stabilize themselves, and they do so by bumping into healthy cells.
When this occurs, damage to your DNA and cells occur, therefore starting a devastating process in your body.
However, antioxidants are the kryptonite to free radicals. They absorb the negative charges of free radicals, therefore neutralizing them and preventing further damage to your healthy cells.
Even though this seems very simple, it’s not. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
But not all antioxidants possess the same power or the same chemical structure--one that may work to improve your heart health, may not necessarily improve your joint health, for example.
That’s why it’s highly recommended that you get antioxidants from various food sources, including colorful fruits and vegetables, superfoods, and decaffeinated teas to avoid any side effects.
What the difference between caffeinated and decaffeinated teas?
The Benefits of Antioxidant Tea
As you know, tea is full of amazing nutrients that could improve your health, nourish you brain, boost your weight loss, lower cholesterol, manage blood sugar, and other potential health benefits.
Most tea comes from the same plant, camellia sinensis, and are jammed packed full of nutrition (when found in its natural state).
The antioxidants found in tea leaves come in the form of catechins, which is a very powerful class of antioxidants found in the flavonoid family.
Now, when you consume the tea, you’re nourishing your body with these catechins (also antioxidants) so they can do a specific job in your body—to keep you healthy.
Normally, tea leaves contain natural caffeine, which could give you a boost of energy during the day. It’s not a whole lot of caffeine, but it’s enough that people who may be sensitive to caffeine or those with health issues that may be aggravated by caffeine, may experience symptoms they may not tolerate very well.
That’s why some people turn to decaffeinated teas. Basically, the caffeine is stripped from the tea leaves, through a chemical process that may also damage the catechins.
Let’s take a closer look at the different processes:
1. Ethyl Acetate
This solvent is applied to the tea leaves to eliminate the caffeine. Even though it does a great job—only a tiny bit of caffeine may be left over—it may strip the tea leaves of the antioxidants that you’re looking to consume by drinking the tea.
This process strips away up to 70 percent of the antioxidants, which leaves roughly 30 percent of the antioxidants left for your body to consume.
But it gets even worse from there …
This process may also change the chemical structure of the antioxidants, therefore making them less effective once they enter into your body.
Although this process may eliminate the caffeine from the tea leaves, there is a heavy price that is paid to the antioxidants, rendering them less effective at stopping free radicals from causing damage to your healthy cells.
2. CO2
This is a much safer practice that only uses carbon dioxide and water to strip the caffeine from the tea leaves.
Although it may do the same job at eliminating caffeine, this way is much safer for the antioxidants.
In fact, this process may preserve up to 95 percent of the antioxidants from the tea leaves, therefore providing your body with plenty of nutrients for fighting free radicals.
However …
Just like the other process, this may also change the chemical structure of the antioxidants, therefore rendering them less powerful.
Although research isn’t quite clear on how the chemical changes impact the antioxidants, it’s certain that they don’t act like the antioxidants found in the unaltered tea leaves.
The Best Tea With Antioxidants
Even though the best option for tea would be to drink caffeinated tea, some people may not tolerate caffeine with antioxidants as well as others.
That’s why they choose decaffeinated or caffeine free tea. If you were to buy a brand, you must do your research to discover what processing method they use to eliminate the caffeine.
You would want to ensure that you’re getting the tea that is processed with only CO2 and water. This keeps a higher amount of antioxidants that your body can use to improve your health and prevent chronic diseases.
Even though the chemical structure may be different, you’re still getting more antioxidants that your body can use to neutralize the free radicals that could damage your DNA.
But:
There is a decaffeinated tea that may pack a higher nutrient punch than regular caffeine-free tea brands.
Decaf Amla Green Tea, which is a combination of Oolong green tea leaves and Amla (Indian gooseberry), may pick up where the processing has left off.
Our sourced Amla powder is a nutritional and antioxidant powerhouse that delivers vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B, gallic acid, and many other powerful polyphenols your body needs to scavenge free radicals.
By combining it with Oolong green tea leaves, you’re flushing your body with even more antioxidants to prevent damage to your DNA.
You may also lower your risk for heart disease by lowering inflammation and cholesterol levels … reduce your risk for diabetes by naturally lowering blood sugar … and could nourish your brain and prevent age-related brain disorders from ruining your Golden years all from caffeine-free antioxidant tea.
If you’re looking for the best caffeine-free antioxidant tea around, then Amla Green Tea Decaf should be the obvious choice.
Tea