June 8/Toronto, Ontario/The Toronto Star -- Green tea has pretty much won the "superhero of drinks" title. It is already credited with defending you from cancer, protecting your brain and blood pressure from abnormalities, and shielding your skin from wrinkles and arteries due to aging's destructive plaques. Now, guarding your eyes may be added to the list.
Tokyo researchers report that components of the brew stop a leading cause of blindness in babies: abnormal retinal blood vessels. This time, tea's hailed inflammation blockers (called catechins) were not the only action heroes. Theanine (an amino acid) appears to have played War Machine to catechins' Iron Man.