Consumption of black and green teas as a dietary source of polyphenols in Polish inhabitants of the Mazovian region.

BACKGROUND Tea is a very popular drink throughout many parts of the world, that includes Poland. The tea infusion (cup of tea) itself contains phenolic compounds with anti-oxidant properties that constitute 30% of the dry mass of tea leaves responsible for a health promoting effect on the human body. OBJECTIVES To estimate the determinants and amounts of black and green tea consumed by a selected population group, along with their polyphenols intake from tea. MATERIAL AND METHODS A survey was conducted of 281 subjects in 2012 from the Mazovian region of Poland, recruited from social-networking sites which had been sent a web application questionnaire (Mini-ankiety.pl). RESULTS Subjects were aged 18-56 years, of whom the majority (73%) were aged 21-30 years. City dwellers constituted 86%, whilst those remaining were from small towns (14%). Black tea was drunk by 80% of whom 39% did so daily, whilst green tea was drunk by 72% of whom 17% did so daily. Determinants affecting the amounts of tea drinking were principally gender, education, place of residence and number of household members. Women significantly drank more than one cup of green tea daily compared to men. Those with a higher education significantly drank more than one cup of black tea daily compared to those with lower education levels. Homeowning subjects with 2 household members significantly drank more than one cup of green tea daily than the others. The average daily intakes of polyphenols from black tea in those who drank so regularly was 503 mg and that for green tea was 361 mg. CONCLUSIONS The main source of tea polyphenols was found to be black tea as this was drunk more often than green tea. There is a need for promoting more green tea to be drunk as a source of polyphenols.