Does decaf green tea have the same benefits as green tea with caffeine?

Question: Does decaf green tea have the same benefits as green tea with caffeine?

Answer: Drinking green tea is a great way to get flavanols and antioxidants. Decaffeinating green does have an effect on the healthy components. According to one green tea study, flavanol content varied from 21.2 to 103.2 mg/g for regular teas and from 4.6 to 39.0 mg/g for decaffeinated teas. The antioxidant values varied from 728 to 1686 trolox equivalents/g tea for regular teas and from 507 to 845 trolox equivalents/g for decaffeinated teas.

Decaffeination doesn't destroy all of the healthy components of green tea, however, so if you drink the decaffeinated green tea you will just need to drink more green tea to get the same amount of flavanols and antioxidants as regular tea.

_Sources:

Henning SM, Fajardo-Lira C, Lee HW, Youssefian AA, Go VL, Heber D. "Catechin Content of 18 Teas and a Green Tea Extract Supplement Correlates With the Antioxidant Capacity." Nutr Cancer. 2003;45(2):226-35.

Morre DM, Morre DJ. "Anticancer activity of grape and grape skin extracts alone and combined with green tea infusions." Cancer Lett. 2006 Jul 18;238(2):202-9.