Recently, some of the benefits of green tea have been brought to the attention of the public by the media, but something that most of us still ignore is that, you don’t have to limit yourself to green tea to reap all those great benefits. Indeed, it does no matter whether white tea, green tea, Odong tea or black tea is your favorite, for whatever flavors you prefer, all contain powerful nutrients including different kinds of polyphenols and catechin molecules in different combination and quantity. In fact, the best way get the most of it would be to drink all of them, or even to get creative and make your own mix! Here are 3 amazing benefits of tea that will hopefully -and finally- convince you to switch to it:
It’s a real brain tonic
Contrary to coffee or popular energy drinks, tea doesn’t only help you wake up in the morning; it is in fact a complete brain tonic. Tea will stimulate, calm, feed and protect your brain, and it does that all at once! Tea contains a much lower caffeine dose than coffee, which allows you to drink more of it providing a more stable spread stimulation throughout the day. Not only that, it also contain an amino acid called L-Theanine which has a anti-anxiolytic effect that will chop the caffeine edge and keep you cool all day long. Even better, scientist have discovered that tea increases the acetylcholine level in the brain by inhibiting enzymes that break it down. This is a major plus because acetylcholine is the main neurotransmitter involved in cognitive function and memory retention. In short, this means that tea actually contributes to making you smarter. But that is not all, for scientist have also observed with magnetic resonance imaging that tea increase blood flow in areas of the brain involved in cognitive task, such as memory, reasoning and comprehension allowing more oxygen and nutrient to be used. Isn’t that the icing on the cake? Not yet, many studies have also demonstrated that the powerful antioxidant properties of tea protect your brain against Alzheimer’s, Parkinson and other type of brain injuries, which is great if you think long term.
It prevent and fight cancer
Many scientific studies have demonstrated that tea protects against cancer. Studies based on bladder, breast, ovarian, colorectal, esophageal, lung, pancreatic, prostate, skin and stomach cancer believe that tea helps prevent cancerous cells from growing while it also has the capacity to kill them. The polyphenol nutrients contained in large quantities in tea are powerful antioxidants that neutralize free radicals, which are compounds that can damage your DNA. Science has proven that those free radicals are a big contributing factor in cancer, aging and many other life-threatening diseases. One of those antioxidants, the EGCG, stop angiogenesis, a process of blood-vessel growth required to feed the tumor, thus inhibiting the development of those cancerous cells. No wonder why countries like Japan with a greater than average consumption of tea have the lowest amount of recorded cancer patients.
It keeps you lean
Tea is a very low calorie drink; we are talking about only 3 calories for a 12oz drink. One of the major factors contributing to fat gain and obesity is the consumption of sweet drinks. Whether you’re consuming a 12oz Coca-Cola at 140 calories, a 12oz orange juice at 160 calories or maybe 12oz Red-Bull at 150 calories, keep in mind that only 2 of those items a day can lead you to gain up to 1 pound of fat per week; and YES, you have to count your morning mocha latte as one of them. Unfortunately, their low carb counterpart with aspartame or sucralose seems to have negative side effects on the brain function, which points out the fact that they might not be such a great alternative. On the other side, tea increases your basal metabolic rate – your body’s energy consumption at rest – by about 4%, and even more importantly, tea increases insulin sensitivity that is major plus when it comes to your body composition. Your body is much more likely to store your nutrients as fat when you have low insulin sensitivity, and shuttle them to feed your muscles when it’s high. Without even knowing, insulin resistance is in fact one of the major roadblocks most people find in their weight lost journey, which makes tea the perfect drink for those who want to stay fit and healthy.
