Green tea catechins and cardiovascular disease risk factors: Should a health claim be made by the United States Food and Drug Administration?
Authors: Morgan Murray and Chelsey Walchuk and Miyoung Suh and Peter J. Jones
"Green tea (Camellia sinensis) is an ancient beverage stemming from China more recently gaining interest in Western societies due to its antioxidant capacity. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) a disease of the heart and blood vessels is a result of increased lipid concentrations and blood pressure responsible for numerous deaths worldwide. Green tea is highly enriched in catechins which may be responsible for its proposed \{CVD\} prevention mechanism. The objective of this paper was to examine the scientific evidence pertaining to green tea and \{CVD\} risk and evaluate whether enough credible scientific evidence exists to support a health claim by the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA). Sixteen clinical studies have examined the effects of green tea on \{CVD\} risk factors however following a critical evaluation of these studies a health claim cannot be recommended due to the safety and metabolites of green tea as well due to lack of high quality and properly designed studies."
