Green Tea Blues

Green Tea, Enjoyed by millions for its numerous health benefits, may have adverse effects if taken in high doses, researches at the University of California said

• Excessive consumption of green tea adversely affected development and reproduction in fruit fly populations.
• Investigation was done on the effects of green tea toxicity on Drosophila melanogaster development and reproduction.
• Embryos and larvae were subjected to various doses of green tea polyphenols.
• The researches found that larvae exposed to 10 milligrams of green tea were slower to develop, were born smaller and exhibited dramatic decline in the number of emerged offspring.
• Ten milligrams of green tea made the files more susceptible to starvation and heat stress but protected them against dehydration.  

Researchers also found that in other tests with mice and dogs, green tea compounds in large amounts dramatically reduced body weight.

Female offspring showed decreased reproductive output and a 17 per cent reduction in lifespan while males were unaffected.