On the other hand, steeped green tea is still safe for consumption as long as the antioxidant level is fairly low.
It is known that green tea contains antioxidants, which are beneficial to health, but too high of a dosage of these antioxidants can cause more harm than good.
Green tea supplements typically contain 5–1000mg, whereas green tea infusions have around 90–300mg.
The researchers determined that consuming over 800mg raises the risk of health problems, but they couldn’t determine a safe dosage.
Where high levels of green tea extracts in supplements were found to be harmful, the same effects were not seen in tea infusions.
The research findings come after Canadian health officials raised warnings that green tea extract supplements should come with greater warnings of potential harm to the liver. Health Canada came to their conclusion after a review of a teenager who took supplements containing high levels of green tea extracts and was left with liver damage.
This prompted the EFSA to conduct their own research to determine if the antioxidants found in green tea could cause harm if overconsumed.
There are several studies that point to the benefits of the antioxidants in green tea, but the recent findings suggest that in order to obtain these benefits, you should stick to tea infusions rather than stocking up on supplements.
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