Extracts From Green Tea and Grape Seed Offer Plant-Based Glycemic Control

'Extracts from grape seed or green tea inhibit the action of certain starch-digesting enzymes and offer a plant-based alternative for glycemic control, suggests new data from the Linus Pauling Institute.


Grape seed extracts were associated with significant inhibition of the enzymes alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase, whereas green tea was less effective at inhibiting alpha-amylase, according to findings published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry .


Grape seed extracts are industrial derivatives from whole grape seeds that have a great concentration of vitamin E, flavonoids, linoleic acid and polyphenols'


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Green tea reduces lung cancer risk

Experts believe it is the polyphenols in green tea that may make it beneficial

"Lung cancer is the leading cause of all cancer deaths in Taiwan," said I-Hsin Lin, a student at Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan, who conducted the study.

"Tea, particularly green tea, has received a great deal of attention because tea polyphenols are strong antioxidants, and tea preparations have shown inhibitory activity against tumorigenesis (production of new tumour)," added Lin.

Lin and colleagues enrolled 170 patients with lung cancer and 340 healthy patients as controls.

They administered questionnaires to obtain demographic characteristics, cigarette smoking habits, green tea consumption, dietary intake of fruits and vegetables, cooking practices and family history of lung cancer.

Among smokers and non-smokers, those who did not drink green tea had a 5.16-fold increased risk of lung cancer compared with those who drank at least one cup of green tea per day.

Among smokers, those who did not drink green tea at all had a 12.71-fold increased risk of lung cancer compared with those who drank at least one cup of green tea per day.

Lin and colleagues suspect genetics may play a role in this risk differential, says a release of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"Our study may represent a clue that in the case of lung cancer, smoking-induced carcinogenesis could be modulated by green tea consumption and the growth factor environment," said Lin.

The study was presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer, being held Jan 11-14.

Original Article HERE

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