Benefits of Green Tea

Green Tea Benefits

Green tea superfood isn’t commonly recognised as a superfood by many. But green tea has many antioxidant properties that support our body’s immune system, and we can directly and immediately benefit from it.

The History of Tea

Thought to have been discovered reasonably by chance around 2500 B.C. While Chinese Emperor Shen Nung. As a servant boiled some water for him to drink, wild tea leaves fell into the pot. Impatient and thirsty, the emperor refused to wait while the servant reboiled a fresh pot. So he proceeded to drink from the pot, which had the wild tea leaves in it and the rest, as they say, is history.

Not all teas are created equal. Green tea is an out-and-out superfood. It’s familiar every day, brother; black oolong tea lacks the antioxidant catechin polyphenols which give green tea its healing properties.

Difference between Green tea & Black Tea

Green tea is made by brewing unfermented camellia Sinensis leaves in boiling water. This releases the antioxidants and healing goodness they hold. Black tea and oolong teas are made from already fermented leaves. These tend to be richer in flavour but haven’t retained the same antioxidants and phytochemicals as green tea. However, black and oolong tea is still quite beneficial to drink.

Green Teas Antioxidant Powers

Green tea contains several recognised and acknowledged antioxidants. These and phytochemical are what gives green tea its potent healing powers. However, a flavonoid in significant quantities in the tea is epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG. EGCG is a flavonoid that has been shown to reduce the growth of irregular cells, which could potentially turn cancerous.

Green tea has many health benefits, most of which can be directly related to its antioxidants and support to our immune systems. Antioxidants lower the number of free radicals our immune system has to fight. It allows the immune system to do its job rebuilding cells.

Health Benefits of Green Tea

The phytochemicals and flavonoids in green tea have been credited with reducing heart disease, cancer, risk of a stroke. Caffeine also stimulates the brain and can have positive long-term effects in preventing Alzheimer’s disease.

Green Tea Weight Loss

Green tea for weight loss rehydrates the body and provides abundant antioxidants, so it can more efficiently burn fat and calories. In addition, the phytochemicals and flavonoids released somehow trigger the body to burn calories and stimulate weight loss. Although drinking 5 cups of green tea daily maintains hydration, the abundance of liquids can also act as an appetite suppressant, further aiding weight loss.

The abundance of catechin polyphenols, flavonoids and antioxidants that green tea is made up of helps fight cancer in many ways. For example, it can be by protecting DNA strands from becoming broken and mutating, attacking and reducing a specific molecule that is integral to the start of cancer growth, and restricting the growth of blood vessels around potentially cancerous sites in the body.

Green tea is also known to help repair the liver when it has sustained damage by alcohol, help reduce cholesterol build-up, improve skin condition, and slow ageing.

It prevents DNA damage to skin cells as it does to other cells. This stops them from degrading and even becoming cancerous. It’s increasingly used in cosmetic products and anti-ageing remedies for these reasons.

The Convenience of Green Tea

If you’re too busy to eat a healthy meal, this happens to most of us more often than we would like. Due to the stresses and demands of the modem world, green tea is your perfect go-to superfood supplement. Convenient to make, use and store. Drinking 2 or 3 cups or consuming about 240 to 320 mg of phytochemicals daily is the perfect amount.

Studies in China have shown that drinking tea at scolding hot temperatures can increase the risk of cancer of the oesophagus. So, especially for those who drink and smoke, if you haven’t got enough reasons to stop smoking, here’s another to put on the list.