Green tea extract reviews

NATURAL antioxidants vary quite wildly in their pricing. Pycnogenol and Enzogenol are at the high end, with red wine extract and green tea being at the lower end, with natural vitamin E and C (e.g. Madre C) somewhere nearby, and grape seed somewhere in the middle, along with the good quality carotenoids. If youre a wholefoods, superfoods etc. kind of person, as I am, youll understand the importance of consuming only NATURAL forms of antioxidant substances (no 1000mg lab-synthesized ascorbic acid pills for me, thankyou very much). You may also come to appreciate how natural antioxidant food substances taste in their fresh state, a perfect example of which is the white pith from citrus fruits and (especially) the white pith from pomegranate fruit. The latter is particularly astringent and bitter - many people do not understand that this is a clue to the level of tannins and/or flavonoids etc. in a substance. These compounds are generated by a plant to protect the contents of whatever lies within the skin, and they also serve a similar protective purpose when eaten by humans. I make a point of consuming the piths and skins of fruits and vegetables, where appropriate, rather than ignorantly consuming only the sweet flesh. If you open an expensive, high-end, pycnogenol capsule and taste the contents, youll see just how tart, astringent and bitter they are. Grapeseed is similar, though not to quite the same extent (you need to consume more grapeseed than you do pycnogenol, to get a similar level of effectiveness). Amla powder is another good example of a tannin-rich, astringent natural substance (though amla is very economical, and is rather acidic). I was very pleasantly surprised, when I opened these NOW Green Tea Extract capsules - they have an excellent kick of bitter astringency which bodes extremely well for their efficacy as an antioxidant. In terms of bang-per-buck, I HIGHLY recommend these NOW Green Tea Extract capsules. Theyre incredible value for their level of potency. On the same basis, I also recommend Indian Amla powder (also known as Hog Plum. Its rich in tannins and very closely related to vitamin C). You can get this as part of Madre Labs premium Madre C (a very nice, if a little pricey, product - MLI-00205), or you can get it on it's own at asian food markets. Also excellent bang-for-the-buck is NOWs 250mg Grape Seed Mega Potency. Do be sure to get the right one (NOW-03274), as NOW vary their formulation with similar grape seed products; some including synthetic ascorbic acid. In my view, any of the above offer greater potency than Doctors Bests popular French Red Wine Extract, which is a nice product at a reasonable price but lacks the same amount of clout for a single capsule dose. To broaden your spectrum of protective substances, also consider Twinlab's good value Citrus Bioflavanoid Caps (TWL-00715), and Doctors Bests excellent value astaxanthin product (DRB-00261). Remember that, with the exception of the astaxanthin, all the above substances are -water-soluble- antioxidants. Astaxanthin is BOTH lipid-soluble and water-soluble. Vitamin E and Ubiquinol are lipid-soluble, only. Thus, they all compliment each other, in getting to differing parts of cells and tissues, and in molecularly 'recycling' one another within the body. One does not need to consume ALL the water-soluble and ALL the lipid-soluble antioxidants each day - the point is to vary them each day, so as to get a broader spectrum of protection, and of course ones diet should be the primary source of protective compounds (check out the nutrients in kale, for example). I do also use Healthy Origins Pycnogenol 100mg (HOG-41372), and its excellent, but if youre on a budget, then a combination of NOWs Green Tea Extract and their Mega Potency Grape Seed 250mg would cover your needs, ideally complimented by a dual-soluble or lipid-soluble antioxidant. Its worthwhile learning how various antioxidants recycle each other within the body, because this helps one maximise the effectiveness of the antioxidants they purchase and consume. For example, vitamin E is recycled by carotenoids, and carotenoids are recycled by vitamin C - when C then becomes exhausted, it is excreted via the kidneys. This also explains why C needs replenishing more frequently than other antioxidants.