"The question of whether milk will affect the absorption of tea polyphenols in the end" still needs more and other scientists' experiments to verify. During the following 10 years, scientists in the Netherlands, India, and the United Kingdom published other experiments. The result was that milk did not affect the absorption of polyphenols in the tea.
After the investigation of modern science, the incidence of chronic diseases such as central vascular diseases is lower in people who drink more tea. Scientists speculate that it is the polyphenols in tea that play a role. Polyphenols in tea are often referred to as "tea polyphenols" and have antioxidant properties that reduce the cells from oxidative damage. However, the proteins in milk may be combined with polyphenol compounds. Whether this combination will affect the efficacy of drinking tea has attracted people's attention. Although the history of adding milk to tea has been considered to be a long one, it may be that there are not many Europeans who believe that "the ancestors passed down." This problem has also triggered a lot of scientific research. It is not difficult to test this problem in test tubes. In science, there are many ways to detect the antioxidant activity of a substance. Scientists use these methods to detect well-dipped teas—of course, teas have quite good antioxidant activity. If the amount of milk that British people usually add to tea is added to tea water, the result is that the antioxidant activity is greatly reduced!
This seems to indicate that milk can indeed inhibit the "health function" of tea. However, this inhibition is caused by the combination of milk and polyphenols. After drinking into the stomach, the protein will be digested and digested, and polyphenols may be completely released. Are these polyphenols absorbed and are they still active? This is a more important issue.
So scientists need to design other experiments to answer such questions. They got some volunteers and hungry for them. After a night, they took their blood first and then gave them a cup of tea. Then they took another blood every few minutes. On the one hand, the content of these polyphenols in blood can be analyzed directly. Tea polyphenols are a general term for many substances and can be analyzed for the most important ones. This method is very intuitive, but it is only possible to analyze the known polyphenols and inevitably miss some unknowns. On the other hand, blood can be directly tested for its antioxidant activity. Then look for another day and come again, but this time add tea with milk.
Volunteers contributed a lot of blood samples, and scientists could draw a curve to describe changes in blood polyphenols content (or antioxidant activity) before and after drinking tea. The results showed that after drinking tea, the polyphenols and antioxidant activity in the blood gradually increased, different teas reached a maximum at different times, and then gradually decreased until the level before drinking tea was restored. In other words, it is a reliable method to detect if tea polyphenols come into the blood by analyzing blood.
Italian scientists published a study. Their result was that when milk was added to tea, the antioxidant activity in the body was completely suppressed. This result is consistent with the results of test tube experiments done by other scientists. However, their own test tube experiments show that milk has no effect.
This result was somewhat unexpected and other scientists performed other experiments. In the same magazine published in May 1998, Dutch scientists published a similar experiment. They are directly measuring the content of catechins, the most important tea polyphenols, in the blood. As a result, milk is added to tea and it has no effect on the absorption of catechins.
There is considerable conflict between these two results. However, in the health field, such situations are not uncommon. If we selectively accept our "expectations" conclusions, then positive and negative conclusions can find support. "The question of whether milk will affect the absorption of tea polyphenols in the end" still needs more and other scientists' experiments to verify. During the following 10 years, scientists in the Netherlands, India, and the United Kingdom published other experiments. The result was that milk did not affect the absorption of polyphenols in the tea.
In this way, the problem seems to have settled. However, this actually proves that we can all obtain the same amount of tea polyphenols no matter we add milk to the tea. It is unclear whether these tea polyphenols have come into the body and they really have played a "healthy role." Although epidemiological surveys have shown that the incidence of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease is lower in people who drink more tea, it is entirely possible that these people’s other lifestyles have caused them—for example, they tend to eat healthier foods, etc. . To illustrate the "health-care effects" of drinking tea, more scientific data is needed.
Because green tea is much higher in polyphenolic compounds than black tea, green tea is generally considered to have better "health effects." The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had conducted a careful analysis of 223 papers on “Green Tea Anticancer†and considered that only a few studies could explain the problem, but the results were not consistent—some showed no effect and some showed Weak effect; but also showed useful research, and later did not get repeated by other researchers. Thus, the FDA concluded that green tea is "highly unlikely" to have an anti-cancer effect.
In fact, whether tea polyphenols can be absorbed and whether they can play a health-care role after absorption are not so important. In any case, tea is also a good drink. It contains no sugar, no salt, and almost no calories. It allows us to drink thirst happily, which is the best effect. Its "health care effect" may be used as a talking point for tea chat. If it is too serious, it is unnecessary.