Green tea is touted for its many health benefits as a powerful antioxidant, but experiments in a laboratory mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease suggest that consuming green tea along with dietary iron may actually lessen green tea’s benefits.
“If you drink green tea after an iron-rich meal, the main compound in the tea will bind to the iron,” says Matam Vijay-Kumar, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State. “When that occurs, the green tea loses its potential as an antioxidant.
“In order to get the benefits of green tea, it may be best to not consume it with iron-rich foods.”
"The benefit of green tea depends on the bioavailability of its active components," says Beng San Yeoh. "It is not only a matter of what we eat, but also when we eat and what else we eat with it." tvirbickis/iStock
