Tea is officially
awesome for your health. Make sure that your “tea” is actually tea! Real tea is
derived from a particular plant (camellia sinensis) and includes only four varieties:
green, black, white and oolong. Anything else (like ‘herbal’ tea) is an
infusion of a different plant and isn’t technically tea.
What real tea lacks
in variety, it makes up for with some serious health benefits. Researchers attribute
tea’s health properties to polyphenols (a type of type of anti-oxidant) and
phyto-chemicals. Though, most studies have focused on the better known green
and black teas, white and oolong also bring benefits to the table. Read on to
find out why tea rocks your health.
Tea can boost
exercise endurance- scientists have found that
catechins (anti-oxidants) in green tea extract increase the body’s ability to
burn fat a fuel, which accounts for improved muscle endurance.
Drinking tea could
help reduce the risk of heart attack- Tea might also help
protect against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases.
The antioxidants in
tea might protect against a boatload of cancers including breast, colon,
colorectal, skin, lung, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver,
ovarian, prostate and oral cancer. But don’t rely solely on tea to keep a
healthy body. Tea is not a miracle cure after all. While more studies suggest
that tea have cancer-fighting benefits, current research is mixed.
Tea helps to fight
radicals- Tea is high in oxygen radical
absorbance capacity (“ORAC” to its friends), which is a fancy way of saying
that it helps to destroy free radicals (which can damage DNA) in the body. While
our bodies are designed to fight free radicals on their own, they’re not 100
percent effective.
Since damage from
these radicals’ oxygen ninjas has been linked to cancer, heart disease and
neurological degeneration, we’ll take all the help we can get.
Tea hydrates the body-
(even despite the caffeine).
Drinking tea is
linked with lower risk of Parkinson’s disease-
when considered with other factors like smoking, physical activity, age and
body mass index. Regular tea drinking was associated with lowered risk of
Parkinson’s disease in both men and women.
Tea might provide
protection from ultraviolet rays- we know it’s
important to limit exposure to UV rays and we all know what it’s like to feel
the burn. The good news is that green tea may act as a back-up sunscreen.
Tea could keep waist circumference
in a check- in one study; participant who
regularly consumed hot tea had lower waist circumference and lower BMI than
non-consuming participants. Scientists speculate that regular tea drinking
lower risk of metabolic syndrome (which increase the risk of diabetes, artery
disease and stroke); although it’s important to remember that correlation does
not equal causation.
Regular tea drinking
might also counteract some of the negative effects of smoking
and might even lessen risk of lung cancer. (Good news, obviously, but not a
justification for cigs).
Tea could be
beneficial to people with Type 2 diabetes- studies suggest
that compounds in green tea could help diabetes to process sugars better.
Tea can help be
beneficial to people from radiation- one study found
that tea helped protect against cellular degeneration upon exposure to
radiation while another found that can help skin bounce back post exposure.
Green tea has been
found to improve bone mineral density and strength.
Tea might be an
effective agent in prevention and treatment of neurological diseases, especially
degenerative disease (think Alzheimer’s). While many
factors influence brain health, polyphenols in green tea may help maintain the
parts of the brain that regulate learning and memory.
For weight loss
benefits, take organic oolong tea.
-Kathy Emiko
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