If you are looking for a healthy beverage to drink, look no further than Green Tea. Especially, my favorites, a good cup of Japanese Sencha or Dragon Well Lung Ching.
Green tea contains almost no calories, and as mentioned before, Green Tea has the least amount of caffeine compared to Black Tea (see Caffeine in Tea Compared With Coffee - Green Tea Least Caffeine ).
Tea contains the Vitamins A, C, and E, as well as healthy compounds called Flavonoids. The flavonoid in tea, called polyphenols, are antioxidants that give tea, especially china green tea or japan green tea, all its healthy benefits.
One subgroup of polyphenols, called catechins, is abundant in green tea - especially in tea made from the top of the bush ( first two leaves and bud ). Catechins were discoved in the '70s, when scientists were trying to figure out why people in Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture - a major tea growing area - had substantially lower rates of cancer than other Japanese, even when they were heavy smokers. One specific catechin, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg), is found in no other plant other than tea, and it's one of the most potent antioxidants yet discovered - up to 20 times stronger than Vitamin E. Numerous studies have found EGCg to be effective in preventing and inhibiting cancer growth (see Green Tea and Cancer - Health Benefits of Green Tea to Curtail Cancer ).
Catechins make up as much as 30 percent of the dry weight of green tea leaves, but only 3 - 10 percent of black tea. If you are looking for a good place to purchase affordable green tea, please try our online green tea store.