Green tea is good for you, but just like fruit and vegetables, you want to drink green tea of high quality and you want to drink it in moderation. And just like vitamins, exercise, etc., green tea provides maximum benefit if you drink it daily on a consistent basis. Drinking it once in awhile will probably provide little to no benefit, and consuming it in large amounts, especially in short periods, could have unexpected effects. In general, good health is something that you need to focus on daily. Green tea can be a good part of that healthy diet, just like proper nutrition and exercise. If you are interested in making green tea a part of your daily health regimen, please make sure you check with your doctor first.
There are a lot of claims about the health benefits of green tea. Here is just a short list of the green tea health benefits according to various studies:
- EGCG in green tea blocks the mutation of cells, reducing cell damage; blocks tumor growth; and blocks the liver enzymes that convert pro-carcinogens (i.e., harmless substances in the body that can turn into cancer agents) into carcinogens.
- EGCG is green tea blocks enzymes that cause cancer cells to grow and it can destroy cancer cells with damaging surrounding healthy cells. Scientists also revealed that this effect is 10 to 100 times more potent in green tea than in black tea.
- Tea increases the blood's antioxidant capacity.
- Based on animal studies, tea may reduce the risk of lung cancer.
- EGCG kills cancer cells and, in particular, inhibits prostate cancer cells.
- Green tea has been shown to reduce damage to blood vessels in smokers.
- Green tea's polyphenols can boost white blood cells, and might be an effective supplement to chemotherapy and radiation treatments that impact bone marrow and lower white blood cell count.
- Men who drank two to three cups of tea a day reduced their risk of prostate cancer.
- Women who had a history of drinking five or more cups of green tea a day had fewer occurances of breast cancer and slower spread of the disease.
Now the key, in my humble opinion, is to drink quality green tea regularly for these health benefits. In particular, you want to purchase green tea that is made of the first two leaves and a bud. This is where most of the catechins are located and where green tea gets is main health benefits.
Notice that most of the health benefits of tea mentioned above talk about green tea's benefits as opposed to oolong, pu-erh, or black tea. That is because green tea is far more healthier than black tea. Although all tea comes from the same plant, the oxidation process that oolong, pu-erh, and black tea go through destroys much of the health benefits. Green tea, which is not oxidized, is the healthiest of all teas with perhaps the exception of white tea in many ways.
If you are interested in purchasing high quality green tea, I recommend the following tea:
Other Reading: