|
|
|
Better Health and Happiness for Your Baby:
The design of your home has an amazing affect on the health and well being of your baby. If it is in harmony with nature, it will have a positive influence on young children. If not, problems will become apparent in subtle and ways.
According...
Health Matters, Are we headed for a protein crisis?
Health Matters Are we headed for a protein crisis? North America is suffering with many serious issues related to meat. This includes the mad cow disease that is occurring in Canada, also the salmonella and bacteria problems occurring across the...
Home Healthcare Careers
One of the fastest growing sectors of the medical industry is that of home health. There are many reasons for this growth, but most important are:
The number of aging and infirm citizens in the country.
The lower cost of care in relation...
Journaling for Health: Five Techniques for Wellness
1. Write about how you feel about everyday events; writing about the events is fine, but be sure to include the feelings. The goal is to get the intense emotions on paper and out of your body/mind.
2. Write about the issues that are most...
Stop Relationship Stress and Create Your Own Health Remedies
Human beings need relationships. Your relationships, past, present, personal or professional, represent a major source of stress in your life. Chronic stress causes breakdown of your immune system. This leads to many emotional and physical disorders...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Health Benefits of Tea
Tea: It Does the Body Good
Studies that support the health benefits of tea drinking keep filling the headlines. There’s simply no denying that a daily spot of tea does the body good.
Even though researchers can’t quite agree on every aspect, I’m sold on the fact that a few cups a day will do its best to protect me from heart disease, a stroke, cancer, and more.
What Makes Tea Good for the Body?
Tea contains high levels of antioxidants, some of which are called polyphenols, flavonoids, and catechins, and all of which take on the “free radicals” in the body and prevent them from harming the healthy cells on board.
In other words, sending in antioxidants is disease prevention in its finest form. Antioxidants are ready and waiting not only in teas but also in several fruits, vegetables, nuts, meats, and even wines (see my health benefits of wine article).
If that were not enough, tea also contains flouride which benefits your teeth and has bacteria killing properties which helps control bad breath and the formation of plaque.
Are All Teas Equally Good for the Body?
This is a question researchers are still squabbling over. Does green tea have more antioxidants than black tea? Should I drink instant tea or loose leaf tea for better health benefits? Is hot tea better than iced tea? And here’s what it comes down to:
• Higher quality teas may have more catechin antioxidants than lower quality teas.
• White tea has more antioxidants than any other tea.
• Green tea has more catechin antioxidants than black tea since black tea goes through more processing.
• Unfermented rooibos tea has more polyphenol antioxidants than fermented rooibos.
• Freshly brewed teas have more polyphenol antioxidants than instant or bottled teas.
• More researchers seem to agree that brewed (cold or hot) or caffeinated tea has more antioxidants than instant teas.
Here’s a short preview of the hundreds of recent studies that boast the health benefits of tea and its antioxidants:
Heart Benefits:
• Study finds tea drinkers have lower blood pressure (Archives of Internal Medicine, 2004).
• Tea may lower cholesterol and protect against heart disease (Journal of Nutrition, 2003).
• Black tea may lower “bad” cholesterol (United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, 2003).
• Tea consumption may help heart disease patients (Circulation: The Journal of the American Heart Association, 2001).
Cancer Prevention:
• Green tea could help stem esophageal cancer. (Harvard Medical School, 2004).
• Green and black tea can slow down the spread of prostate cancer (Center for Human Nutrition at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, 2004).
• Tea may protect against cancer caused by smoking. (Journal of Nutrition, 2003).
• Green tea and white tea fight colon cancer (Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University study, Carcinogenesis, 2003).
• Hot tea may lower risk of some skin cancers (University of Arizona study, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention (Vol. 9, No. 7), 2001).
• Green tea consumption may lower stomach cancer risk (University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Public Health study, International Journal of Cancer (Vol. 92: 600-604), 2001).
Hypertension-Reducing Benefits:
• Green and oolong teas reduce risk of hypertension (National Cheng Kung University study, Archives of Internal Medicine, 2004).
Immunity-Boosting Benefits
• Tea believed to boost the body’s defenses (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2003)
Leukemia-Fighting Benefits:
• A green tea component helps kill leukemia cells (Mayo Clinic, 2004).
Alzheimer’s-Fighting Benefits:
• Drinking tea might delay Alzheimer's Disease (Newcastle University's Medicinal Plant Research Centre study, Phytotherapy Research, 2004).
AIDS-Fighting Benefits:
• Tea may play a role as an AIDS fighter (University of Tokyo, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2003).
In Conclusion:
So how do you get started in doing your body some good with tea?
To get the most health benefits out of your teas, choose high-quality loose leaf teas from your local or online tea shop. Brew it up and enjoy. And of course, don’t throw out the idea of enjoying instant or bottled teas when you’re on the go. You just might have to drink a little more.
Don’t wait any longer. Sip, savor, and fight disease today. It's never too late to enjoy the many health benefits of tea!
About the Author
Author of the 2BASNOB.com website about the enjoyment of coffee, tea, wine and beer.
|
|
|
|
|
|