It is not necessary to consume green tea with foods rich in iron.
The doctors said that the benefits of green tea may decrease if the drink is to be consumed with foods rich in iron.
“The benefits of green tea depends on the bioavailability of its active constituents – says one of the study’s authors Bang San Yeo (Yeoh Beng San). – It is important not only what we eat but when you eat and what products can it combine”.
Scientists have studied the relationship between tea and iron in foods by the example of experiments with laboratory mice suffering from inflammatory bowel disease.
This disease is associated with chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract and usually leads to diarrhea, pain, fatigue, weight loss and other symptoms, including iron deficiency. For this reason, patients with inflammatory bowel disease prescribe supplements with iron.
Experiments on mice showed that when green tea is consumed along with iron supplements or foods rich in this element (red meat, olives, Kale), a major antioxidant tea – epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is associated with iron.
Green tea is good for patients with bowel disease due to the fact that EGCG inhibits the activity of myeloperoxidase is a proinflammatory enzyme that is secreted by white blood cells in response to stimuli. However, almost simultaneous consumption of EGCG and iron leads to the fact that associated with an iron molecule EGCG lose the ability to suppress myeloperoxidase, and hence the efficiency of green tea is reduced.
“Patients with inflammatory bowel disease taking supplements with iron and drinking green tea, you should be aware of one nutrient affects the other,” – says a leading researcher Matam Vijay-Kumar (between Matam Vijay-Kumar).
Although the study was conducted in rodents, however, believes the scientist, the results are quite applicable and to people.
