The list of foods and beverages that supposedly prevent cancer is a long one and is constantly being updated. Everything from apples and mushrooms to red wine and the seeds of mandarin oranges has been cited as preventing the disease.
Green tea was added to this list more than two decades ago. In the 1980s, scientists and physicians began to focus their research on green tea's high concentration of catechins, which are also known as tea tannins.
"The large amount of epigallocatechin gallete, a type of catechin in green tea, is said to have an antioxidant effect," says Hirohiko Matsumoto, a surgeon specializing in digestive illnesses and a pioneer of research on the relation between cancer prevention and green tea. "This means it can prevent DNA mutating or breaking down."