Expecting moms would be sensible to restrict the amount of green tea they drink during pregnancy, and will be careful about taking any green tea products. Green tea is loaded in anti-oxidating agents, and has a bunch of health benefits in relation to dental health, blood sugar analysis readings, cholesterol, and weight loss. But researchers have found, whilst examining the active constituent of green tea, the epigallocatechins, or EGCG for short, that it may affect the way in which the body uses folate. Folate is critical for expectant mothers as it forestalls neural tube birth imperfections in babies.
The difficulty of green tea while carrying a child is that the EGCG molecules are structured similar to a compound called methotrexate. Methotrexate can kill cancer cells by chemically bonding with an enzyme in the body called enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). Healthy folks have this enzyme also - it is part of what is called the folate pathway, which is the route, or steps, the body takes to transform nutriments like folate into something that can be used to support its normal functions.
But this chemical similarity means that the EGCG in green tea also binds with the enzyme DHFR, and when it does this, it inactivates this enzyme. When this enzyme is inactivated, the capability of the body to use folate is going to be affected. How much green tea can be consumed, or exactly how much folate assimilation is influenced, is misleading. Though the analysis article did say that drinking 2 cups of green tea a day can stop cancer-infected cells (which is what methotrexate is targeting) from growing.
The better news on caffeine consumption during pregnancy, from tea and coffee, is that a respectable amount is fine. Two studies, one by Danish scientists who interviewed more than 88,000 expectant women, and the other by the Yale University School of Medicine, had similar discoveries on caffeine while carrying a child. What not to eat while pregnant is a worry for many mothers and research like this can help a great deal.
The worries over caffeine were that it might lead directly to low birth weight or miscarriage. And this is still true of a really high daily intake of coffee. The Yale team found that drinking about 600mg of caffeine a day, which is about 6 cups of coffee, would reduce birth weight to levels that were clinically serious. The rate that birth weight was reduced was established at being 28 grams per 100 mg, or 1 cup, of coffee every day. But they emphasised that this would not be significant for moderate caffeine consumption.
The Danish report found that drinking 8 cups or more of coffee per day (this would be about 16 cups or more of tea), would increase the chances of miscarriage, or stillbirth, by 60% compared with women that did not drink caffeine. They also found that moderate coffee or tea drinking didn't pose significant risks. For those drinking half a cup to 3 cups of coffee a day, the danger of fetal death was 3% higher compared against non-caffeine drinkers. And for those drinking 4 to 7 cups of coffee a day, the chance increases to 33%. One mug of coffee equals about 2 mugs of tea when comparing caffeine levels. The suggested quantity of coffee drunk is up to 3 cups daily, or 6 cups of tea, by the UK food agency.
The difficulty of green tea while carrying a child is that the EGCG molecules are structured similar to a compound called methotrexate. Methotrexate can kill cancer cells by chemically bonding with an enzyme in the body called enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). Healthy folks have this enzyme also - it is part of what is called the folate pathway, which is the route, or steps, the body takes to transform nutriments like folate into something that can be used to support its normal functions.
But this chemical similarity means that the EGCG in green tea also binds with the enzyme DHFR, and when it does this, it inactivates this enzyme. When this enzyme is inactivated, the capability of the body to use folate is going to be affected. How much green tea can be consumed, or exactly how much folate assimilation is influenced, is misleading. Though the analysis article did say that drinking 2 cups of green tea a day can stop cancer-infected cells (which is what methotrexate is targeting) from growing.
The better news on caffeine consumption during pregnancy, from tea and coffee, is that a respectable amount is fine. Two studies, one by Danish scientists who interviewed more than 88,000 expectant women, and the other by the Yale University School of Medicine, had similar discoveries on caffeine while carrying a child. What not to eat while pregnant is a worry for many mothers and research like this can help a great deal.
The worries over caffeine were that it might lead directly to low birth weight or miscarriage. And this is still true of a really high daily intake of coffee. The Yale team found that drinking about 600mg of caffeine a day, which is about 6 cups of coffee, would reduce birth weight to levels that were clinically serious. The rate that birth weight was reduced was established at being 28 grams per 100 mg, or 1 cup, of coffee every day. But they emphasised that this would not be significant for moderate caffeine consumption.
The Danish report found that drinking 8 cups or more of coffee per day (this would be about 16 cups or more of tea), would increase the chances of miscarriage, or stillbirth, by 60% compared with women that did not drink caffeine. They also found that moderate coffee or tea drinking didn't pose significant risks. For those drinking half a cup to 3 cups of coffee a day, the danger of fetal death was 3% higher compared against non-caffeine drinkers. And for those drinking 4 to 7 cups of coffee a day, the chance increases to 33%. One mug of coffee equals about 2 mugs of tea when comparing caffeine levels. The suggested quantity of coffee drunk is up to 3 cups daily, or 6 cups of tea, by the UK food agency.
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