Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Reality Fails To Match Woo Claims. Again.

One of the leading mantras of the woo movement is the urgent, constant, and never-ending need to "detox" your liver. It sometimes seems that this alone will heal all your ills (as the woos say: on all levels - physical, spiritual and mental, though for the life of him, EoR can't see how spiritual toxins are handled by the liver). Regular detoxes will also prevent you dying, at the very least, if not actually "anti-ageing" you.

It then seems a little ironic that green tea (one of the super-foods these people are so enamoured of and part of the spiritual path to total woo adherence) can cause liver damage.

Green tea is good for you, but only if drunk in moderation. While the polyphenols in green tea are credited with preventing heart disease and cancer, it seems they can cause liver and kidney damage if consumed in very large quantities, a review of studies into the toxicity of polyphenols has shown. "People shouldn't be too alarmed by this, but those taking supplements may experience problems," says lead author Chung Yang of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He stresses that up to 10 small cups of green tea a day is fine. Problems are likely in people who take supplements, which can contain up to 50 times as much polyphenol as a single cup of tea.

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