You’ve probably heard about organic green tea as well as its incredible benefits for your health. Loaded with antioxidants and nutrients, it is considered one of the healthiest beverages you can consume.
[toc]
Original from China and Africa, green tea is currently one of the most popular daily drinks along with coffee and milk because of its pretty impacts on our body, of course, and its characteristic taste.
In this article, we’re writing about the benefits of green tea supported by studies and things to avoid to have maximum benefits. If you want to know more about how this drink becomes so powerful, keep scrolling!
What’s green tea?
Green tea comes from the plant called Camellia sinensis, like black and oolong teas. In fact, they are the same tea but proceed differently. Green tea is made from unfermented leaves – that makes it green when being brewed. Meanwhile, oolong tea is made from partially fermented leaves and black tea is fully fermented.
Nowadays, the amount of green tea, black tea and oolong tea produced of this plant is 76-78%, 20-22% and less that 2% respectively. And, the majority of green tea is grown in China, covering 20 provinces.
Why green tea?
Back to thousands years ago, green tea was originally used as a medicine in China. But it later spread throughout Asia and used for more medical purposes, including lowering blood pressure and preventing cancer. Till these days, this popular worldwide drink has a long list of benefits and is used in cooking and as a herb for flavoring foods.
Green tea facts
Caffeine, a main stimulant found in green tea is in charge of characterizing its taste – bitterness. Green tea is also rich in a group of chemicals, called catechin polyphenols (commonly known as tannins, which contribute to bitter taste and astringency).
Furthermore, green tea contains amino acids, xanthine alkaloids, pectin, saccharides and several Vitamins, like Vitamins B1, B2, B3, C, and E.
Benefits of organic green tea
The antoxidant properties foud in green tea – caffeine, catechin polyphenols, and theanine are primarily in charge of its various benefits to our health. Not just that, its vitamins also do a lot to our body. Here are its 10 great impacts:
Improve brain function
Aside from keeping you awake, caffeine found in green tea does a more important thing: improve brain function. Its amount is enough to produce a response without causing “jitters”- associated with too much caffeine, like in coffee. It eventually helps improve your mood, reaction to time and memory. Another key active ingredient that keeps your brain staying productive is the amino acid L-theanine that has a relaxing effect while simultaneously increasing alertness.
Not only does green tea improve brain function in the short term, it also helps lower the risks of the most common neurodegenerative diseases in human: Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. So, why don’t you drink green tea every day
Support immune system
According to research, those who drink green tea on a daily routine have less chance to approach to common bacterial and viral infections than those who do not. The reason is that the catechins found in green tea have ant-viral and anti-bacterial properties that can help prevent bacteria and viruses from attaching themselves to cell walls in order to infect them.
Not just that, these enables you to absorb vitamins and minerals better and faster, eventually improve your immunity against a wide range of inflammatory diseases and disorders, such as cold and flu.
Delay aging
Drinking a cup of green tea regularly can delay and even prevent the signs and symptoms followed by aging process. Once again, catechin polyphenols, especially gallate epigallocatechin that are rich in green tea are responsible for this great impact. They help neutralize the oxidants or free radicals present in the body, which causes aging and related problems.
Help with dental health
The catechins found in green tea have natural anti-bacterial properties, thereby improve popular dental problems like cavities, bad breath, tooth decay, etc. They can inhibit the growth of bacteria like Streptococcus mutans, the primarily harmful bacteria in the mouth. They may also help fight off viruses like the influenza virus, potentially lowering your risk of infections.
A research published in the Journal of Periodontology indicates that drinking green tea regularly may make teeth and gums healthier. By interfering with the body’s inflammatory response to periodontal bacteria, the catechins help prevent further disease.
Control diabetes
According to studies, green tea can improve insulin sensitivity and reduce blood sugar levels if it is not taken with sugar. Here is how it works: the antioxidant and astringent qualities of green tea boost the function of the pancreas.
By doing this, the secretion of insulin are more efficient and regulated that improves the decomposition and absorption of sugar. Eventually, the increase in effective functions can help lower the risk of diabetes.
Reduce the risks of cancer
Several research studies have indicated that green tea has anticancer properties, like black tea. It’s universally known that green tea is an excellent source of powerful antioxidants, so it’s understandable that it may reduce your risk of cancer.
According to National Cancer Institute, the catechin polyphenols that are high in green tea plays an important role in eliminating free radicals – primarily leading contributor of cancers, cancel cancerous cells and prevent them from growing.
Consuming green tea regularly may lower the risks of the most common cancer in women, breast cancer and several other cancers like prostate cancer, colorectal cancer and pancreatic cancer.
Make skin better
The powerful antioxidants found in green tea do amazing roles, including making your skin better. By protecting your skin from aging and skin-damage causes like external pollutants and free radicals, these help fight off wrinkles, skin sagging and a variety of other skin problems.
Aside from drinking green tea, you definitely double it benefits by wearing some skincare products made of green tea such as creams, lotions and facial masks. Doing so means that you give your skin an “inside-out” care, making your skin healthy and youthful-looking all the time.
See more: How green tea does wonder for your skin
Burn fat
Have you ever added a cup of green tea in your diet to lose weight? Currently, this powerful drink is considered one of the fastest and safest methods to lose weight and lower the risk of becoming overweight or obese.
The way it works is simple: the polyphenols and phytochemicals help speed up the metabolism, and then, promote the consumption of fat storage in the body. Just with a cup or two of green tea in the morning and do it over a week, you will certainly lose a few pounds of excess weight.
Aside from energy earned from burning fat, the caffeine content can give you some extra energy boost. Although the caffeine presents in green tea is different from that in coffee and is digested differently, it still helps maintain a steady energy needed when trying to lose weight or get into shape.
Has Stimulating Effect
Like coffee, all kinds of tea have popularly been consumed due to its stimulating effects. Bearing this responsibility, again is the caffeine and tannins present in the tea leaves. Despite of the fact that these stimulants have adverse effects on health in the long term, they’re powerful in keeping us awake, fresh and highly energized.
Because the amount of caffeine in green tea is lower than that in coffee, green tea must be an ideal solution to fight off fatigue, laziness, sleepiness, and lack of energy, and even improve blood circulation.
Potential Risks of Green Tea
Although green tea has great impacts on our health, it still has potential risks like any other natural drinks. It’s caused by its active components and the consumption of excessive amount in the long term.
Caffeine: Caffeine is a stimulant that gives green tea a popular worldwide consumption. While doing great in raising blood pressure, the caffeine found in tea also makes harm. If you drink green tea in a long run, it can have adverse effects on the liver and internal organs. That being said, however, it’s the component of tea that keeps people staying fresh and highly energized, and yes, which is why people are willing to risk it.
Tannins: Tannins also pose potential risks to your body, too. It does not only interfere with the breakdown of complexproteins into simpler proteins and but also decreases their subsequent absorption into the body. Along with that, Triterpene Saponins may cause fatigue of the body and Xanthine Alkaloids may trigger and aid the formation of stones in the gallbladder and kidneys.
In addition to potential risks from natural components, the consumption of green tea with improper dosage in the long term may suffer from side effects. In normal cases, you might get insomnia, restlessness, annoyance,irritability,headaches, hypertension, abnormal heartbeat, loss of appetite, spasms, constipation, and acute addiction to caffeine. In a more serious case, those who are addicted to caffeine will not feel normal without drinking the tea, then causing their acute constipation, irritation, and lack of concentration.
See more: Amazing benefits of ginger green tea that you need to know
Organic green tea is without dispute one of the healthiest daily drinks that we can intake to improve our health condition. From improving brain function to burning stored fat, green tea do a great job. However, before engaging in drinking it in a long term, you should ask for the advice of your doctor. Or, in case you are on the course of any medicine, or pregnant, doing this is a need.
By
