Benefits of Green Tea

Green Tea Benefits

Green tea superfood isn't commonly recognised as a super food by many. But green tea has many antioxidant properties that support our bodies immune system and we can directly and immediately benefit from.

The History of Tea

Thought to have been discovered quite 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. 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 common everyday 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 hot 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 phytochemical that green tea has. 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 give green tea it potent healing powers. A flavonoid that is found in significant quantities in the tea is epigallocatechin gallate, know as EGCG. EGCG is a flavonoid that has been show to reduce the growth of irregular cells, which could potentially turn cancerous.

Green tea is accredited with having a wide range of health benefits, most of these can be directly related to the antioxidants that it delivers, and the support they provide to our immune systems. Antioxidants lower the number of free radicals that our immune system has to fight. Allowing the immune system to do it's job rebuilding cells.

Health Benefits of Green Tea

The phytochemical and flavonoids contained in green tea have been credited with reducing heart disease, Cancer, risk of a stroke. The caffeine contained also stimulates the brain and as such can have positive log-term effects in preventing alzheimer's disease.

Green Tea Weight Loss

Drinking green tea for weight loss, it rehydrates the body and provides it with an abundance of antioxidants, so it can more easily burn fat and calories. The phytochemicals and flavonoids released in someway trigger the body to burn calories and stimulates weight loss. Drinking 5 cups of green tea per day 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 help fight cancer in many different ways. It can be by protecting DNA strands from becoming broken and mutating, by attacking and reducing a specific molecule that is integral to the start of caner growths and also by restricting the growth of blood vessels around potentially cancerous sites in the body.

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

It prevents DNA damage to skin cells in the same way it does other cells, this stops them degrading and even becoming cancerous. It's being increasingly used in cosmetic products and anti ageing remedies for these exact 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 a day is the perfect amount.

Studies in China have showed the drinking tea at scolding hot temperatures can bring an an increased risk of cancer of the oesophagus. Especially in those who drink and smoke, so if you haven't got enough reasons already to stop smoking, heres another to put on the list.