Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water,

and red wine. High polyphenol contents are reported in tea and
there is strong evidence that daily intake of foods rich in
polyphenols reduces the incidence frequency of diseases due to
their antioxidant, antiinflammatory, and vascular
health benefits ffects1. Since
tea is consumed in a variety
of ways, we will explore in
this 3-part article how
addition of food components
(milk, sweetener, and citrus) can affect antioxidant capacity (ability
to scavenge free radicals) and bioavailability (levels absorbed by the
body) of polyphenols.

Part I- Should you drink tea with milk?

Tea is commonly consumed with the addition of protein-rich milk
which is believed to reduce its levels of polyphenol content. The
effects of adding milk to antioxidant capacity of tea were discussed
in a paper by Ryan and Petit2. Their experiment involves comparison
of antioxidant capacity in:
1. Teas infused using a teabag and no teabag (infused in
leaves).
2. Teas brewed after 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10 minutes

3. Teas added with cows milk in varying amounts (10, 15, and
20 mL) and

varying fat content (whole, semiskimmed, and

skimmed).
Total antioxidant capacities were measured using a laboratory
procedure called modified Ferric iron reducing antioxidant power
(FRAP) assay. The teas used in the 3 experiments come in 2.7-3.3 g
of tea per tea bag and infused in 200 ml boiling water. All
experiments were carried out on a minimum of 3 separate occasions
and analyzed in triplicate for each experiment.
Findings:

In their first experiment, the antioxidant potential improved

gradually according to the infusion time, with the maximum
antioxidant capacity observed in the longest infusion and lowest
when brewed for 1 minute.

The second part of the experiment compared the antioxidant

capacity of teas infused in tea bags from teas infused using tea
leaves.

Teas infused in tea leaves results in significantly higher antioxidant

capacity. Surprisingly, the maximum antioxidant activity in tea
leaves infusion was observed at shorter time (2 minutes ),
compared to the tea bag infusion that reached its peak antioxidant
capacity 10 minutes.

In the last
part of their
experiment,
water (acting
as control),
whole milk,
semiskimmed
milk, or skimmed milk in equal amounts of 10, 15, or 20 mL were
added to the tea infusion. The extent at which types of milk affects
antioxidant capacity is determined by comparing its values against
tea with added water.

For all
brands of
tea,
dilution
with any
liquid
reduces
the

antioxidant capacity of teas with greatest reduction observed in

skimmed milk. The addition of whole milk to each of the teas also
decreased the total antioxidant capacity but to a lesser extent.
Should we believe this study? A recent review of literature by Ozdal
and colleagues examined similar papers that tested the total
antioxidant capacity and bioavailability of polyphenols after addition
of dairy.
However, some studies do not agree due to different methodologies
used to measure the antioxidant capacity or total phenolic
contents3. Factors such as temperature, pH, types of proteins,
protein concentration, types and structures of phenolic compounds
may also affect proteinphenolic interactions 3.

Korir et al's paper shows a dose-dependent reduction of antioxidants

with addition of milk. However, this can be attributed to increased
dilution rather than milk components.
Why does milk, particularly skimmed milk appear to reduce
antioxidants in tea?
This molecular
model by Hasni et
al4 visually
describes how the
protein casein,
(particularly beta
casein) in milk
forms a strong complex with tea polyphenols thereby affecting its
anti-oxidant capacity. Since skimmed milk has low fat content, much
of its component is protein, in a form of casein that has a strong
affinity to polyphenols in tea. How about soymilk? Soymilk, derived
from soybeans does not contain even a trace of casein. But a study
done by Lorenz et al found that adding soymilk to tea appears to
reduce its vascular (blood vessel) benefits. They used arterial
contraction as measure for vascular benefit and found out that plain
tea resulted in more relaxed blood flow. The addition of soymilk is
comparable to the hindering effect of cows milk, with more
hindering effect observed in milk with added sugar.

Comparing all
formulations
with plain water
(with no
benefit), it can
be suggested
that in terms of
health benefits, there might be no sense in drinking tea when
combined with interfering foods.
They explained that structurally similar soy proteins in soy milk
might mimic the effects of caseins in bovine milk in terms of
blunting beneficial vascular effects of tea.

Take home message:

1)

Part 2- Is sweet tea better?

Tea's astringent taste attributed from inherent tannin's interaction
with proteins is typically masked by the addition of flavorings and
sweeteners. A paper by Sharma5 investigated the effects of milk
and sugar in polyphenol content and free-radical scavenging activity
of black teas. Their methods however did not mimic the way we
normally consume tea that is using tea bags and steeping it in hot

water before adding milk and sugar. Rather, tea powder was used
combined with milk or tea before brewing.

Plain black tea seems to be highest in antioxidants. Those who want

to get fancy with their tea by adding milk or sugar reducing their
benefits from drinking tea. Though it wasnt mentioned whether this
experiment used whole or skimmed milk, it agrees with the paper
discussed above that milk indeed reduces antioxidant activity in
teas. Sugar appears to have a reducing effect but at a lower extent.
Take note that the addition of both milk and sugar produced a lesser
evil than tea with milk alone. This suggests a dose-relationship in
reduction of antioxidant with every addition of milk.

A more recent similar study in Africa using tea powders, this time in
animals compared the antioxidants in green tea vs. black tea, and
the effects of adding stevia, sugar and honey in antioxidant activity
of tea6.

First, lets look at green vs. black tea.

There isnt much difference in the antioxidant activity of green

(sample1-5) and black teas (sample6-10), so nothing to worry about
choosing your tea color. What we should be mindful though is
choosing the right sweetener. As shown here, drinking plain tea
maximizes its antioxidant benefits. Talking about the right
sweetener, Stevia seems to be the perfect choice. Sugar and honey
on the other hand can significantly reduce the antioxidants we get
from tea in a dose-dependent manner. In fact, adding 10 grams of

honey can reduce antioxidants by almost a third and is expected to

be further reduced with additional teaspoons.

Though the antioxidant activity of honey was, in this study,

expected to positively affect the antioxidant activity of tea, it was
found to be the most inhibiting sweetener in both plain and black
teas with milk. The mechanism
by which sucrose inhibits the antioxidant activity in tea is still not
fully understood though, as postulated, this may involve the
formation of glucosegallic complexes.

Part III.

Another important finding is the time when antioxidant activity

reaches its peak. For this mice experiment, blood was drawn after 0,
0.5, 2, 4 and 8 hours in mice fed with green, purple, and black tea
(plain and with milk). Glutathione (GSH) levels were measured from
blood samples to investigate the effects of the tea bioactive
molecules on antioxidant activity. Blood GSH provides evidence on
absorption of polyphenols from digestion to blood. Their findings
report that antioxidant activity in blood reaches its peak at 2 hours
after consumption.
antioxidant activity (GSH). Thus, to maximize health effects in the
body system, it might be a good idea to replace your liquid intake
throughout the day with tea.

Acid and Tea

A recent paper by Moser et al suggests that calcium and magnesium

can interact with
polyphenols to
form a metallopolyphenol
complex. So there
you have it: a
partially complete
list of antioxidantactivity reducing
components are:
milk, sugar, honey,
and some minerals.
On the other hand,
lets look at food
component that
can help attenuate this interaction.

Using the typical tea preparation in black and green tea, total
antioxidant capacity (TAC) was measured by photometric method.
They found out that in black tea, anti- oxidant activity increased in a
linear manner for the samples containing between 5 and 20 mg
ascorbic acid/ 100 ml tea solution (r 14 0:984; p < 0:01). A higher
dose of between 25 and 40 mg ascorbic acid/100 ml tea solution of
commercially available black and green teas (mmol TE)

did not improve the antioxidant capacity of tea. The TAC value
decreased at 25 mg ascorbic acid/100 ml to 13.6 mM TE and
remained nearly constant to the end of the experiment For green
tea (Inter Spar Green Tea in bags), addi- tion of up to 30 mg ascorbic
acid/100 ml extract resulted in a linear increase of antioxidant
capacity up to 20.8 mmol TE (r 14 0:959; p < 0:01), and it remained
un- changed in spite of further vitamin C addition.
Black teas contain greater proportions of other polyphenols, such as
the theaflavins and thearubigins generated by the oxidative
processes used in tea production. These differences in the
compositions of teas could be an expla- nation for our results in the
experiment with ascorbic acid, in which antioxidant activity of black
tea extracts increased up to 20 mg ascorbic acid/100 ml tea solution
and of green tea up to 30 mg ascorbic acid/100 ml extract.
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