The Healing Brew - Black and Green Tea Antioxidants
Nowadays it seems like so many factors can cause cancer. We are relentlessly being told of new cancer inducing foods that we should reject and remove from our everyday diets. So what can we do besides existing on a dull and boring diet? The answer might lie in antioxidants especially in black and green tea.
Antioxidants and Free Radicals
Antioxidants may sound like a strange chemical to others but they are actually vital to ensuring that our bodies stay healthy. The logic behind antioxidants is that within our bodies there are unstable molecules.
These molecules are commonly called cell-damaging free radicals that scientists believe can hasten the aging process as well as contribute to the development of a number of health problems including heart disease and cancer.
Antioxidants such as polyphenols in tea have the ability to neutralize the free radicals and may slow down or even help prevent some of the cell-altering damage they cause.
The 'Wonder Drug
Tea has been known for generations as nature’s 'wonder drug'. In China, tea drinking has long been linked with good health. Studies have shown that drinking tea regularly can keep free radicals in check. There is also some evidence suggesting that green tea antioxidants especially, are thought to be extremely helpful in preventing certain types of cancer and reducing the chance of developing heart disease. The buzz of green tea antioxidants and its health benefits is getting widespread media attention and is getting difficult to ignore, and contemporary medicine is catching up with this belief.
How Much Tea You Should Drink
Photo courtesy of Microsoft Clipart
It is recommended to drink 4-10 cups of regular or decaffeinated, black or green tea throughout the day to get the benefits of green tea antioxidants.
Types of Tea
Although all types of tea that originated from Camellia sinensis tea plant are rich in polyphenols - a type of antioxidants, the level of antioxidants that are found in different types of tea varies. The different growing, harvesting and processing methods of teas resulted in different levels of antioxidants in white tea, green tea, oolong and black tea.
- Green tea is the least processed tea. They are simply steamed quickly and are
reported to contain the highest concentration of polyphenols.
- White tea is derived from the unopened white silvery buds of the tea plant
and harvested in early spring. These young buds contain no chlorophyll, so they
are silvery white.
- Black or green tea is found to have more polyphenols than the other teas and have more polyphenols than fruits and vegetables.
In fact, tea ranks as high as or higher than many fruits and vegetables in the ORAC (Oxygen Absorbance Radical Capacity) score, a score that measures antioxidant levels of food and other chemical substances.
Herbal Tea
Other than the leaves of the tea bush, herbal teas can be made from almost any plant and from any part of the plant including flowers, roots, bark, seeds or berries and they are good for minor ailments like upset stomach, insomnia, runny nose and coughs.
Just keep in mind that not all teas are good for you. Instant iced teas hardly have any antioxidants in it. This means that if you drink iced tea made from packets you are not getting many antioxidants.
Most instant iced teas also have high sugar content and are probably not good for your overall health. Substitute packet iced teas with real tea and try to introduce green tea into your daily diet.
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All the Information within this site is for reference only with no guarantee of accuracy; it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any diseases. Statements about the products efficacy have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
It is important to emphasize that you should not reject mainstream medical attention and guidance and the use of recommended products, treatments, and remedies for individual disorder should be approved and monitored by your health care provider. See disclaimer for more!
