Super Food-Green Tea

Tea is the cheapest beverage next to water people consume. Tea coming from the camellia sinensis plant, is consumed in different part of the world as white, green, black and oolong tea. However the most significant to human health is green tea. It is prepared by steaming and pan-frying the leaves of camellia plant and then drying them. This steaming destroys the enzymes responsible for breaking down the colour pigment in the leaves.

Green tea contains polyphenols, which include flavanols, flavandiols, flavonoids and phenolic acids; these compounds may account for up to 30% of dry weight. Most of the green tea polyphenols are flavonols, commonly known as catechins.

Green tea’s biggest benefit are related to its catechin content, particularly (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) content. These green tea catechins help to treat metabolic syndromes such as obesity, type II DM and cardiovascular risk factors. Long term consumption of these catechins could be beneficial against high-fat diet-induced obesity and type II DM and could reduce the risk of coronary disease.

Ofcourse, no one food can protect you from disease. Your overall diet helps promoting good health , so even if you drink green tea all day long, you also need to take other nutrients too and also have to avoid smoking & too much of alcohol. Also being active is the most important thing for a healthy lifestyle.

Benefits of green tea:

• Helps to improve blood flow, mental alertness and greater activity in working -memory area.
• Green tea is considered to have an effect on losing weight “but” is this actually true? Sorry, but no drink or food can alone melt the fat cells. The catechin, especially EGCG in green tea appears to have anti-obesity effect (may help in dropping few pounds).And in case you replace your sugary drinks with green tea (no added sugar or honey), definitely in over a year you can easily shed 10-15 pounds just with a single change.
• It has an anti-diabetic effect too and is good for depression, non- alcoholic fatty liver disease, IBD (ulcerative colitis or crohn’s disease).
• Green tea is stomach friendly, is good to treat stomach disorders such as vomiting, diarrhoea,
• Also good in typhoid and headaches and bone loss (osteoporosis), arthritis patients, as it has been associated with increased bone mineral density.
• Also the tea has been shown to have anti-carcinogenic effect against various cancers.
• Used to fight genital warts causing virus HPV (Human Papilloma Virus).
• Green tea bags are used to apply on skin to soothe sunburn and prevent dark circles around the eyes and puffiness.
• To stop gums from bleeding and also helps in teeth whitening.
• The polyphenols in green tea are able to prevent inflammation, swelling and joint degeneration.
• Green tea contains 2 % to 4 % of caffeine which increases alertness and also increases urine output.
• Helps in lowering the cholesterol levels, LDL and TG.
• Studies suggest that drinking green tea is linked to reduced the risk of clogged arteries.

Although green tea have several benefits on health, but the effect of green tea may be beneficial up to a certain dose, as higher dose may cause toxicity in the liver cells.