7 Reasons why Tea is healthy for you

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7 Reasons why Tea is healthy for you

When you have a choice of coffee or tea, what do you choose? Coffee? After reading this article, about all the health benefits tea has to offer, you might just skip the cup of joe next time and go for the tea.

cup of tea

According to recent scientific studies tea is officially good for your health. Before we start the article, lets define what we mean when we say tea. Real tea is derived from a specific plant (Camellia sinensis). There are only four varieties of tea: green, black, white, and oolong. Any other tea, like herbal tea, is a mixture of different plants and technically is not tea. Herbal teas do have their own set of health benefits, which we will cover in a separate article. In this article we will focus on “Real” tea only.

Variety of real tea is not that big, but what tea lucks in variety, it makes it up in significant health benefits. (1)(2) Researchers discovered that tea’s health benefits are thanks to polyphenols (a type of antioxidant) and phytochemicals. Continue reading to find 7 benefits of tea we have found published.

Green tea can boost exercise endurance. According to study published on National Institutes of Health page (3) Researchers have found that the catechin (antioxidant) increases body’s ability to burn fat as fuel, which explains improved muscle endurance . Highest concentration of Catechin can be found in green tea extract.

Study (4) has found that drinking tea might help reduce the risk of heart attack. Several similar studies (5) (6) (7) have found that tea might also help protect against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases.

Antioxidants found in tea might help protect against several different kinds of cancers. (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) Some cancers that it might help protect include: breast, colon, colorectal, skin, lung, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver, ovarian, prostate , oral and possibly several other cancers.

Tea can helps fight free radicals in your body (17). Studies have shown that tea is high in “Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity” “ORAC, which is a scientific way of saying that it fights free radicals. Free radicals are found to damage DNA in the cells. Damage from these Free Radicals has been linked to heart disease, cancer and neurological disorders.

Studies have found that tea is hydrating to your body. (18)(19) Unlike coffee, which is diuretic (dehydrates your body) because of caffeine, tea is actually hydratingto your body despite it containing caffeine.

Study has found that drinking tea is linked with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease (20). When taking other factors into consideration, like: smoking, physical activity, age and body mass index, regular tea consumption was associated with a lowered risk of Parkinson’s disease . The study found that the benefit can be seen in both men and women.

Study found that tea might be beneficial to people with Type 2 diabetes. (21) Research found that catechin compounds found in green tea could help diabetic’s better process sugars.

A word of caution,(22)(23)(24) Don’t rely solely on tea to keep your body healthy —after everything has been said about health benefits of tea, tea is not a miracle cure. Despite many studies showing that tea has cancer-fighting and many other health benefits, the current research is not conclusive and some studies have mixed results.