The Best Health Benefits of Drinking White Tea (Backed By Science)
In this post, you’ll learn about the health benefits of drinking white tea.
For many years, herbal teas have been used both their medicinal and soothing effects. White tea is no exception.
Let’s dive in right away.
What is white tea?
White tea is a common tea that comes from the plant Camellia sinensis.
It’s the same plant that produces green tea. That’s why white tea is perceived as a type of green tea.
While they hail from the same plant, the processing techniques vary. They are picked, steamed, and dried from leaves that haven’t matured yet.
How is white tea made?
In general, tea leaves go through certain changes right after getting picked.
These changes include drying and other chemical changes. All of these impact the flavor.
The longer the leaves dry out, the darker tea leaves. For example, whereas green tea dries for one or two days, black tea tends to dry for around 30 days.
The making of white tea involves less processing compared to green tea.
The result is a tea with a very delicate flavor. And also, one that lacks the grassy aftertaste associated with green tea and has none of the tannins detected in black tea.
What are the health benefits of drinking white tea?
Let’s go ahead and look at some of the benefits of drinking white tea in detail.
1. Contains powerful antioxidants
Studies (including this and that) show that white tea contains a good amount of catechins and other antioxidant profiles that can help improve health.
Research in the Journal of Food Science found that antioxidant activity for white tea was at its peak when steeped in hot or cold water for a prolonged period.
Another study in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition found supporting evidence.
They found that the steeping needs to last for 120 minutes in cold water or hot water at 90 °C for the antioxidant effect to be fully gotten.
As the body of research evolves, other studies have taken a critical approach to the effects of antioxidants in white tea.
Take, for example, flavan-3-ol.
White tea is rich in flavan-3-ol. So, German researchers assessed whether the flavan-3-ol has any significant impact on antioxidant activity.
Their findings were published in the journal, Molecular Nutrition and Food Research. The researchers enrolled 70 healthy non-smokers. And the participants either got white tea, green tea, or water.
The findings showed that while there was an increase in flavan-3-ol, the impact on antioxidant activity.
2. Can improve dental hygiene
One of the benefits of white tea is that it can help improve your dental health.
In one study, researchers looked into the antiplaque efficacy of a mouthwash containing white tea.
They enrolled 45 participants into three groups. Participants were asked to use a form of mouthwash for 4 days. No other forms of dental hygiene practices were allowed during that period.
One group used white tea, the other group used distilled water (placebo) and the third group used chlorhexidine.
The results were insightful. White tea inhibits plaque formation.
Specifically, it helps fight against bacteria that cause diseases such as Porphyromonas gingivalis, Porphyromonas intermedia, and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans.
While chlorhexidine mouth rinse was showed the most inhibition, white tea can be a great option for people who are looking for natural and herbal means to improve dental health.
Part of the reason white tea is powerful for dental hygiene is that it contains fluoride, tannins, and some other catechins that exhibit antibacterial properties.
3. May help improve male reproductive health
Research into the impact of white tea and male fertility has shown some promising results so far.
Take for example the study by researchers at the University of Beira Interior in Portugal.
They looked into how consuming white tea restores sperm quality and prevent testicular oxidative damage. The study was done on prediabetic rats.
Their findings showed white tea did increase sperm numbers.
The researcher concluded that drinking white tea may be a natural economical and effective strategy to counteract the deleterious effects of prediabetes on male reproductive health.
But that’s not all.
Another study in the European Journal of Nutrition found that white tea stimulates lactate production in the body.
This, in turn, enables the Sertoli cell, which is critical to spermatogenesis, to function.
In essence, white tea extract can help improve male reproductive health.
Another study reported the white can be an excellent medium additive to store sperm at room temperature
4. Promotes skin health
One of the health benefits of white tea is that it can help protect your skin against any damages. Let me explain.
The human skin has living cells. These living cells include what’s known as in vivo and ex vivo.
In one study, researchers looked into how the impact of white tea extracts can sun protection.
The finding shows that indeed white tea extracts provide sun protection.
Takeaway
White offers significant benefits to the body. As the body of research evolves, more research will uncover specific effects.
In the meantime, add some white tea to your morning routines. You can consider substituting a morning’s cup of coffee with a cup of white tea.
It’s these daily and yet simple habits that can go a long way to improve your health.
