Washington, Sep 10 - Adding ascorbic acid and sugar to green tea can help the body absorb antioxidants better, says a study.

Mario Ferruzzi, associate professor of food science at Purdue University, adapted a digestion model with human intestinal cells to show that adding ascorbic acid to green tea would increase the absorbability of catechins found in the tea.

Catechins, a class of polyphenols common in tea, cocoa and grape, are antioxidants thought to fight heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and other health problems.

Ferruzzi, associate professor Elsa Janle and Catrina Peters, a graduate in nutrition at Purdue, were able to show that adding ascorbic acid, sucrose or both together increases by as much as three times the amount of catechins that can be absorbed into the bloodstream.

'This model may be used as a pre-emptive screening tool at very little cost before you do expensive tests on animals or humans,' said Ferruzzi.