Can green tea help prevent food poisoning?

There was an interesting episode in a Japanese book ‘all about Japanese green tea’ that I read, about green tea and food poisoning and I thought it would be great to share.

Recently I have received a kind email below from one of my customers. I spend a lot of time writing these kinds of posts and sometimes I wonder how many people are actually reading it. So this email was quite an encouragement and I thank her for taking time to send me the email.

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Tea plants were used as medicine in the past

5000 years ago, there was a myth in China. Shennong; mythical king of ancient China used to go around in the mountains and eat plants to see which plants are edible and not harmful for his people. He even encountered some poisonous plants and whenever he ate and had problems with the plants, he was eating tea plants to detoxify. It is said that he sometimes ate 72 poisonous plants A DAY!!

This is the first anecdote that human and tea plants met in the world.

Even if this is an anecdote, the author of the Japanese book says that it makes sense because polyphenol called catechins in the tea combine with alkaloid which are in the poisons of plants, and remove the poison from the body. We can also understand that the tea plants were eaten as medicine at that time.

The photo below is Shennong. Source

Recent studies in green tea and food poisoning

Some Japanese studies (Tadakatsu Shimamura, 1996 & 1998) have also found that catechins EGCg and catechins ECg kill cholera germs and they also have a strong bactericidal effect on other bacteria that cause food poisoning than cholera.

In Japan, we eat a lot of raw fish. There is a custom in Japan that Sushi restaurants offer free green tea with sushi. This is because green tea prevents from food poisoning, which is the same reason as wasabi is eaten with Sushi and Sashimi.

Source: ‘All about Japanese green tea’

http://www.catechin-society.com/effect_01.html

Source

Why choose Japanese green tea?

Tea plants are called camellia sinensis. There are two types in general – Chinese small types and Indian Assam types. Green tea is suitable from Chinese small types and black tea is generally made from Indian Assam types. Indian Assam types are much larger and the leaves are harder.

Japanese green tea is Chinese small type and renowned for the quality. I have also learned from the same book that there is right time to harvest it (not too early, not too late) because tea plants will not always have the same nutrients throughout the year. Another good point of Japanese green tea is that it is processed by steaming right after the harvest to stop oxidation. Therefore the nutrients are more reserved when compared to those in other origins. There are also tea masters who examine the finished tea before being sold to the market.

Matcha and Sencha green tea powder are rich in catechins mentioned above. If you prefer loose leaf, Sencha loose leaf green tea is also good. This Sencha loose leaf is quite soft and does not have stems. It’s easy to eat it after making your tea. You can also add it to salads and rice with some seasoning like soy sauce and tahini.

For more information about used tea leaves:

1 Don’t throw away brewed green tea leaves

2 How to utilise loose tea leaves

I hope you enjoyed this article and stay tuned for more health benefits because there is a long list of health benefit in green tea!