Why am I drinking Green Tea??

Hello my lovelies J

I have recently discovered a new magical substance. GREEN TEA!! I’ve never actually tried tea properly until now.  I never thought I would enjoy the taste as it’s not the best flavour in the world! I actually look forward to my morning and night cup!

I have been reading about all the benefits of Green tea as I keep getting told that it’s good for me and can help lose weight.  I wanted to find out if any of this was actual true or just an urban myth. So I used good old Google search and here are my findings so far.

So apparently Green tea has been used as a medicine for thousands of years, originating in China but widely used throughout Asia this beverage has a multitude of uses from lowering blood pressure to preventing cancer.

Also Green tea’s processing avoids the fermentation process (unlike black tea). As a result, green tea retains full amount of antioxidants and poly-phenols the ingredients that give green tea its many benefits.

Here’s a list of some of its amazing benefits I have found out.  Some of these you may be unaware of. Some of these benefits are still being probed, so they may not be entirely accurate according to most websites I looked at.

1.      It’s great to encourage weight loss! Great! Now this is my sort of drink! Green tea increases the metabolism. The polyphenol found in green tea works to increase levels of fat oxidation and the speed at which your body turns food into calories.

   2.      It also helps people suffering with diabetes. Green tea helps normalise glucose levels reducing the rise of blood sugar after consumption. This can avert high insulin spikes, resulting fat storage.

    

   3.      Heart Disease. Scientists ‘think’ green tea works on the lining of blood vessels, helping keep them stay relaxed and better able to withstand changes in blood pressure. It may also protect against the development of clots, which are the primary cause of heart attacks.

  

   4.      Esophageal Cancer is also a reason to start drinking this magical drink! It can decrease the risk of esophageal cancer, but it is also widely thought to kill cancer cells in general without harming the healthy tissue around them.

   5.      If you have high cholesterol get drinking! Green tea decreases bad cholesterol in the blood and improves the percentage of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol.

  6.      It helps with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s (Which we know is a dreadful disease) It is supposed to delay the deterioration caused by Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Studies carried out on mice (not sure if I like the sound of that) showed that green tea protected brain cells from dying and restored impaired brain cells.

    7.      If your teeth are starting to show signs of tooth decay this may be the drink for you. Studies suggests that the chemical antioxidant “catechin” in tea can abolish bacteria and viruses that cause throat infections, dental caries and other dental conditions

   8.      It helps your blood pressure. May start getting my boyfriend to have a few cups because his blood pressure is through the roof! Consistent consumption of green tea is supposed to decrease the risk of high blood pressure.

   

#  9.      Depression. Theanine is an amino acid naturally found in tea leaves. It is this substance that is thought to deliver a calming and tranquilizing effect and be a great benefit to tea drinkers.

10.  Its anti-viral and anti-bacterial. Great, I work in a hospital so you can imagine what sorts of things I could pick up. Tea catechins are strong antibacterial and antiviral agents which make them effective for treating everything from influenza to cancer. In some studies green tea has been shown to hinder the spread of many diseases.

   11.  And lastly skincare. I have noticed in the past week that I have been drinking the tea that my skin seems a lot better. Green tea can apparently also help with wrinkles and the signs of aging (This sounds good to me!) because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Both animal and human studies have confirmed that green tea applied topically can decrease sun damage.

So in conclusion, there’s no harm in having more than a few cups of this tea a day if the benefits are this great.  I will continue to drink the tea for now and see if I can notice any of the benefits. Then I will come back to this in the foreseeable future.  

Thanks for reading

Katie x