Posts Tagged ‘Antioxidants’
Green Tea Health Benefits
Green tea health benefits can be gained by simply drinking 3 to 4 cups of high quality tea daily. You can protect yourself against a variety of health issues because green tea contains antioxidants known as flavonoids and polyphenols. Antioxidants are what clean the oxygen your body takes in daily to use in running the millions of processes it takes to keep you going.
Green tea has been found to have a significantly higher antioxidant potential than, for example, red wine or grape juice. In addition to these antioxidants, it also contains Vitamin B6, Vitamins B1 and B2. These play an important part in boosting metabolism and energy. These are among the reasons that studies are conducted on green tea health benefits.
Key minerals as well as magnesium are found in green tea. These are essential for healthy bones as well as body development. Potassium is also found in high quantities, which is needed to maintain the body’s fluid levels and keep your heart pumping.
There are plenty of other health benefits found in green tea. They include:
- Inhibiting the growth of cancer: This has been found through studies of the antioxidants that green tea provide.
- Preventing diabetes: Laboratory rats were studied to see the effects that green tea may have on diabetes. The results show that simply drinking green tea may actually prevent people from developing diabetes.
- Keeping away bad breath: This may be one of the most important green tea health benefits to many people. Drinking a cup of green tea has been found to keep your breath fresh.
- Fighting acne: For those of you with an ongoing acne problem, you may want to consider trying green tea. It’s safe and affordable, and the antioxidants have proved effective in preventing acne. It also reduces the inflammation that comes along with it.
- Warding off Alzheimer’s: The same antioxidants that provide other health benefits may also keep your memory intact and protect your brain from the plaque deposits that cause Alzheimer’s disease.
- Reducing cholesterol: There have been studies that show green tea health benefits include reducing blood cholesterol and blood clotting while lowering blood pressure. Green tea combats heart disease and reduces stroke risk.
- Fighting HIV: The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology published a study that showed the epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG, contained in green tea can boost the immune system, thus, helping prevent HIV.
It’s easy to see that there are many benefits to including green tea in your daily diet.
Sencha Green Tea
Sencha green tea originates from Kyoto, Japan. It’s made from tiny leaves and offers more of a refined taste than other types of green tea. In addition, this tea is actually a green color rather than the yellow of many Chinese teas. Many feel that Sencha has more of a bittersweet taste that complements both seafood and chocolate. Sencha also has the same health benefits that are found in other types of green tea.
One of these benefits aids oral health. Green tea offers fluoride in a natural form. When you drink it, your tooth enamel is strengthened and you’ll get fewer cavities. You’ll find these same qualities in Sencha green tea.
It also reduces plaque buildup as well as bacterial infections that can invade the mouth. Green tea works great when you find yourself in a situation of having no way to brush your teeth. It will also help to refresh your breath.
It’s been proven that green tea is a natural way to increase your immunity. Green tea has very high antioxidant properties as well as being an anti-inflammatory and anti-viral agent. Antioxidants fix the damage that can be caused by excess free radicals created during oxidation. While Vitamins C and E are well-known antioxidants, the levels present in Sencha green tea are hundreds of times more powerful than Vitamin C and twenty five times more powerful than Vitamin E when it comes to protecting the immune system. The most powerful of these in green tea are Catechins.
Among the other abilities that green tea possesses are lowering high blood pressure and reducing overall cholesterol. These make green tea highly effective in preventing heart disease and strokes. Green tea can regulate blood sugar levels in people with diabetes and can actually prevent the onset of the disease. It can also prevent and treat cancer as well as acne.
Ancient traditions involving Sencha green tea can easily become a part of any personal meditational practices used to clear and calm the mind. It also functions as a mild stimulant to aid you in focusing, sleeping or handling anxiety.
You can have a refreshing hot cup of green tea to relax with and you can also pour the Sencha leaves into a sachet. Hang this sachet under hot running water from your shower or tub. You’ll have a very peaceful bath.
There are even ways to use green tea in the household. You can use it in both cleaning and cooking. You can even add it to your plants and freshen up your cat’s litter box.
Green Tea Supplements
There’s currently a debate going on among supporters of green tea and the health benefits it offers as to whether it’s just as effective to use green tea supplements such as green tea capsule instead of green tea. Many people feel that it’s important to consume the tea in liquid form in order to get all of the antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that it supplies. Others feel that taking the supplements in capsule form is just as effective, if not more so. While there may be good points and bad points in the arguments presented, it seems that drinking green tea may be a better option over taking pills or capsules.
To begin with, when you drink green tea, you’re almost forced to sit down and just relax. This makes sure that you take in all of the goodness that green tea has to offer. Green tea supplements like green tea capsules can be swallowed while on the go. There’s no denying the convenience involved in using capsule form green tea.
However, part of the whole tea experience is to sit down, relax, maybe meditate a bit, and enjoy sipping your delicious tea. You have to admit that there’s nothing tasty or relaxing about swallowing pills as you’re rushing out the door or washing them down with your morning coffee as you drive to work.
You must consider the extra added ingredients that sometimes come along with supplements in pill or capsule form. There can be artificial coloring and/or flavoring in green tea supplements. These are empty ingredients that do nothing for you from any viewpoint. In fact, they may actually be harmful to you if you have any allergies to these artificial ingredients.
While green tea capsules may contain most of the good ingredients that drinking the tea provides, they aren’t going to get the full benefit that drinking them in the form of a hot cup of tea. You also have to understand that everything you’ll get in drinking green tea cannot be packed into a little capsule.
Green tea supplements do have their place such as when you simply do not have time to drink your regularly scheduled cup of tea. In situations such as those, it’s better than missing your tea altogether. However, when it’s possible, it’s better to sit down and drink your green tea. You’re sure to get all of the good things that green tea wants to give you.
Health Benefits of Green Tea
Presently, there are many health benefits of green tea and more are added to the list every day. The reason green tea is so healthy for your body is because of the antioxidants that are present in it. When you drink 3 to 4 cups of high quality green tea daily, you’re taking in all these antioxidants that your body needs to stay in good running order.
That’s not all that green tea provides your body. It also contains a significant amount of Vitamins B6, B1 and B2. These are necessary to boost metabolism and energy. Of course, it’s a well-known fact that a high metabolism works miracles in helping people shed unwanted and unneeded excess pounds.
Another of the health benefits of green tea is the prevention of such diseases as cancer, diabetes and HIV. Since green tea has been found to regulate glucose rates in the body, you can prevent yourself from developing diabetes by drinking a few cups of green tea every day. The vitamins and antioxidants contained in this tea will go a long way in boosting your immune system. As it’s a breakdown of this very system that leaves people open to catching HIV, green tea can actually help lower the risk of contracting it.
With people living longer now, Alzheimer’s disease is becoming more and more prevalent among the elderly. Serve them a few cups of green tea every day and they will enjoy relaxation while preventing this horrible disease. That’s right; preventing the plaque deposits that build up in the brain causing Alzheimer’s is one of the health benefits of green tea.
Consider the millions of people that suffer the effects of high cholesterol. If they only stopped long enough a few times each day to relax and enjoy a cup of green tea, their cholesterol will be reduced. Not only is this a fun way of taking care of this potential health time bomb, but your risk of heart disease and stroke lowers significantly.
If those things aren’t enough to convince you to add green tea to your diet, take a walk on the vain side of the street. Green tea has been shown to help keep your breath fresh and fight off embarrassing acne. These are definite health benefits of green tea that just about everyone will be interested in. Add in all of the rest of them, and you should become convinced of the value of green tea to your overall good health.
Is Green Tea Good For You?
Many people wonder the answer to the question: “Is green tea good for you?” The more that this subject has been scrutinized the easier it becomes to say “Yes, green tea IS good for you.”
Not only is it good for you, but the many health benefits it provides is astounding. Very few types of foods can boast as many positive effects on the body as green tea can. Once you start to research all of the benefits of ingesting a few cups of green tea on a daily basis, you’ll want to be sure that your pantry is stocked with it.
When people ask “Is green tea good for you?” it’s rare for the people providing the answer to this question to have to stop and think before delivering a resounding YES. How can something that can actually prevent the onset of such diseases as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and even HIV NOT be good for you? That should be the question.
Studies have been conducted on green tea and what health benefits can be derived from it. The results of these studies have surprised even the scientists that have been performing them.
If you’re one of the people wondering “Is green tea good for you?” take a look at the studies that show how many antioxidants are present in green tea. These antioxidants provide the many positive things that the human body needs to stay in perfect operating condition. Antioxidants fight the bad things that our bodies take in on a daily basis and keep it free from the many things that can be harmful.
Several animal studies have resulted in suggesting that polyphenols of green tea protect the body from different types of cancers such as colon, pancreas, stomach, breast, small intestine and lung. Even more exciting is that many population studies have also suggested that drinking green tea offer significantly lower instances of cancer.
When you think of those things alone, the answer to “Is green tea good for you?” should be a no-brainer. Now, add to the cancer fighting factor some other promising studies. These include immune boosters that offer some protection in contracting HIV. It also has the ability to keep your breath fresh and prevent acne. Its’ ability to regulate glucose can be a block to developing diabetes. Last, but not least, green tea lowers bad cholesterol, which protects against heart disease and strokes.
You should now have the answer to your question about green tea being good for you.

