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What Is White Tea?

Like green tea and black tea, white tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. In addition to boasting greater antioxidant activity than its green and black counterparts, white tea offers the least amount of caffeine. Since there's no heating or oxidizing involved in its preparation, white tea is also recognized as the least processed tea variety.

The Health Benefits of White Tea

Although white tea isn't as well-studied as green and black teas, there's increasing evidence that the brew can enrich your health.

1) Obesity Control

For a 2009 study, researchers tested white tea's anti-obesity effects in a series of experiments on human fat cells. Results showed that white-tea extract prompted fat to break down in existing fat cells. What's more, white tea seemed to reduce the expression of genes crucial to the growth of new fat cells.

While the study's authors suggest that white tea may be "an ideal natural source of slimming substances," scientists have yet to explore whether the tea could fight obesity when sipped (rather than administered directly to cells in a lab).

2) Cancer Prevention

White tea may hinder DNA mutations (potentially cancer-causing changes in genetic material) even more efficiently than green tea, according to a 2000 study that tested four white tea varieties (Silver Needle, Flowery Pekoe, Mutan White, and Exotica China White).

In an animal-based study published the following year, researchers found that white tea may be a powerful inhibitor of aberrant crypts (a precursor to colon cancer).

3) Skin Treatment

Topically applied white tea may improve the immune function of skin cells and protect against harmful ultraviolet rays, a 2003 study suggests. It should be noted that the study was funded by the skin-care company Origins Natural Resources, which manufactures white-tea-based products.

sorce: altmedicine.about.com