Drinking Tea For Health

There are many reasons to choose to drink tea for its health benefits. Many scientific studies have been published in the last decade showing that there are numerous benefits to choosing to drink this popular beverage.

While science is still exploring the many benefits of tea, there are a few highlights of research studies that have been published recently. Researchers continue to try to find more benefits to drinking tea, but there are some that are known right now.

A 1999 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that people who drink Wu Yi tea were able to lose more weight and metabolize fat faster than those that did not. Increased ability to metabolize fat should help people to lose weight more quickly and more easily.

A 2002 study from the Chinese Journal of Integrated Medicine showed that test subjects that drank oolong tea daily were also able to better metabolize fat, which should help them with weight loss.

A study published in Phytotherapy Research in 2006 showed that people can drink chamomile tea to reduce anxiety and to help them sleep. Chamomile has been used for centuries as a sleep remedy, but its use as an anxiolytic is new.

A study done in 2009 by the School of Life Sciences at Kingston University found that white tea used in beauty products can help prevent damage to the skin. Researchers think this is due to the polyphenols contained in the tea, which helps prevent damage to DNA.

A 2003 study in Diabetes Care showed that type II diabetics that drank at least fifty ounces of oolong tea each day were better able to control their blood sugar without drugs. The research was only studied with non-insulin dependent diabetics, and not on those that required insulin to maintain their blood glucose levels at a safe range.

A 2005 study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found chamomile tea helped to prevent illness. The same study also found chamomile helped with menstrual cramps. The researchers believe these benefits are due to glycine, an amino acid found in chamomile.

A number of studies have found that tea can help to reduce the risk of certain kinds of cancers. A 2001 study done at Oregon State University found white tea may help reduce the risk of colon, stomach and prostate cancers. A study published by Case Western University in 2007 found similar benefits in chamomile tea. Other studies are currently being done on different types of tea to see if only certain types of tea help with cancer prevention or if this is a benefit of all types of teas.

Research continues to be done on teas to find more health benefits. You can find out about the benefits of white tea and chamomile tea benefits at GiftofTea.com

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Dandelion Root Tea Benefits

Just as the name implies, dandelion root tea is made from the roots of dandelions. Dandelions have been used over the years to treat a host of ailments such as bloating, breast illnesses, fever, gastrointestinal system disorders, joint aches and skin conditions among many other afflictions. Dandelion leaves contain a number of minerals including boron, calcium, choline, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, silicon and zinc potassium along with vitamins such as A, B-complexes, C and D.

There are other dandelion root benefits, particularly for elderly, menopausal and pregnant women, since the plant is so nutrient rich. It has also been used as a gentle diuretic and has been shown to decrease serum cholesterol in some. Others have used it to ease digestive disorders and as an appetite stimulant. In fact, dandelion root tea is seen as a substance that can help improve one's overall general health and a healthier alternative to coffee when one needs a boost.

Although there are many benefits to using a dandelion supplement, there are also possible side effects such as stomach pain due to hyperacidity. In rare cases, some may experience allergic reactions when they first begin drinking the tea. Those who have allergies to chamomile, echinacea or ragweed, as well as any other member of the aster family, must consult a health care specialist before using the tea or supplement.

Dandelion supplements are also available as capsules instead of tea. However, those who decide to drink dandelion root tea need to know how to prepare it and take the proper dosage. For loose tea, use about one to two teaspoons per cup of hot water and let it steep from five to ten minutes in a tea ball or other filter. Otherwise, it is often available already bagged. One should only start off with one cup per day until he or she observes how it reacts to the body. Then he or she can gradually increase the dosage to three cups a day if it is found to be beneficial.

Lilly Verden is a natural health writer for Herbal Supplements Today. Lilly enjoys writing about a variety of health topics and supplements including dandelion root tea.

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Tea Tasting For Health - A Fresh Perspective on How to Taste Tea

Tea tasting is often viewed as a specialized art. People pay steeply for tea tasting workshops. Large tea companies such as Lipton employ professional tea tasters in order to maintain the consistency of their blends, which combine different teas whose characteristics vary seasonally. Connoisseurs of rare and specialty teas may taste dozens of teas in one day. Michael Harney of Harney and Sons boasts tasting an average of 80 teas a day.

But there is also a different way to approach tea tasting--one that is accessible to anyone, requires no training, and has health benefits that are often missed by other approaches to tea tasting. To understand this approach we must understand the purpose of our senses of taste and smell.

Humans have a sense of taste and smell to ensure that we eat foods that are healthy and avoid substances that are poisonous or harmful to our health. On a basic level, things that are edible and nutritious taste good and things that are toxic or harmful taste bad. However, anyone living in our modern society knows that there is more to taste than this oversimplification. Some foods initially taste good but are not good for us, and on the other hand, a great deal of healthful foods and drinks, including many teas, are described as having an acquired taste. Something with an acquired taste often tastes unappealing when you first try it, but begins to taste better over time as you consume more of it.

The phenomenon of acquired tastes serves to reduce the risk of poisoning by ensuring that when we encounter something unfamiliar, we only try it in small quantities. The human body and mind employ complex feedback mechanisms linking our digestive tract and other biological systems to our memories of taste and smell. If something gives us a feeling of well-being and nourishment after eating or drinking it, we gradually become more comfortable with its flavor and aroma and develop a liking for it. If it makes us sick or unwell, we become averse to its flavor and aroma.

These issues are relevant to tea tasting both because many teas have an acquired taste, and also because tea has both positive and negative health effects. Tea, especially green tea, is often touted for its health benefits, including antioxidant activity, cancer prevention, stress reduction, antimicrobial activity, and promotion of a healthy immune system and healthy intestinal flora, among a myriad of other benefits. But these benefits vary greatly from one variety of tea to the next, and tea can also have negative effects on health.

Darker teas contain tannins, which can interfere with the absorption of iron and other nutrients. Tea contains caffeine, which in excess can cause or contribute to sleep disruption, addiction, anxiety, and other negative effects. Some teas are acidic, which can be rough on the stomach, especially for those suffering from acid reflux. Flavored and herbal teas are even more diverse in terms of both their positive and negative health impacts. Furthermore, different people vary widely in their susceptibility to these health effects.

Tea tasting, and in particular, developing acquired tastes for teas over time, gives us a tool to solve this problem. By tasting teas over time, we allow our taste to adapt based on how the tea makes us feel. Teas that make us feel balanced and healthy will come to taste better to us, and we will come to dislike (and thus avoid) those that make us feel unwell.

Here are some recommendations on how to taste teas so as to develop your tastes to reflect the health effects of the tea:

* Taste only one tea at a time and leave some time between the tasting of different teas.
* Focus on how you feel after drinking the tea.
* Taste each new tea several times, and on several different days.
* Pay attention to how your impression of the tea changes over time.
* Reflect on the time of day at which you enjoy the tea most, and what foods or moods the tea complements.
* Experiment with brewing the tea in different ways, varying the temperature of the water, quantity of leaf used, and steeping time, to find which way of brewing leads to the most enjoyable cup.

The recommendation to taste only one tea at a time runs contrary to most approaches to tea tasting, which emphasize comparing many teas at once. Yet this approach is critical if you are to allow your taste to adapt to reflect the health effects of each tea. If you drink two cups of tea at once, and one makes you feel unwell some time later, your mind and body will not be able to determine which one was the culprit, and you may come away with an aversion to a healthful tea.

Tasting each tea several times is crucial if you are to allow yourself to develop an acquired taste for new teas, especially those with unfamiliar aromas. Many of my favorite teas are ones that I did not love upon the first sip but only came to appreciate over time. If you buy samples of loose teas, make sure to order enough to make several cups. If you reject every tea that you dislike upon the first sip, you may cut yourself off from some of the teas that you would most appreciate in the long-run.

If you follow these recommendations, you may never become a connoisseur of tea, and indeed, your approach may be frowned upon by some "experts". But you will find your taste develops in such a way that it helps guide you towards teas that enhance your well-being and overall health. Since each person has a unique diet, lifestyle, and genetic makeup, we all have different needs that cannot be summed up in broad generalizations about one type of tea being universally healthier than another. While science can guide us to understand which teas are healthy for most people, only taste can guide each person to understand which teas are best for them. Tea tasting can thus be an integral part of promoting good health through the drinking of teas that are best suited for you an an individual. Enjoy!

Alex Zorach has an M.A. in statistics from Yale University, and is an avid tea drinker and the creator of http://RateTea.net/, a website for rating and reviewing teas and learning about tea. Rate and review tea.

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Superior Green Tea EGCG Health Benefit in Heart Disease Prevention

As our community is becoming richer, people are more health conscious today. In term of beverage, green tea is considered as the healthiest drink as it is not only has the rehydrate function, but it is also flavonoid rich that able to defend our body from cardiovascular disease.

Research on tea drinkers show that they are significantly less vulnerable to a lot of disease, from virus infection to chronic degenerative condition like stroke, cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis.

Research shows that green tea has substantially high level of flavonoids (antioxidant) which consist of catechins and their derivatives. Antioxidant is the biological event that prevents the oxidation which will yield highly reactive free radicals. Flavonoids substance comprises of larger than 30% of the tea dry weight. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is the largest prolific catechin in all tea. It has the greatest antioxidant activity of all tea's catechins and therefore is thought to play the most important role in the tea's anticancer and antioxidant effect. Green tea EGCG is so abundant that a cup of tea might have 20-35mg of it.

In our arteries, there is a one cell thick lining that acts as the interface between the bloodstream and the wall of the artery where blood plaques could form, this is known as arterial endothelium. When heart disease happens, a type of enzyme will speed up the production of free radicals in the artery endothelium, thus increases the level of free radicals in arteries quickly. Green tea EGCG will inhibit the enzymes needed in the production of the free radicals and thus shields the endothelium from damaged by free radical. Therefore green tea is playing a vital role in preventing cardiovascular disease.

EGCG also acts in curbing the death of heart muscle cells following ischemia/reperfusion injury, by preventing the stimulation of inflammation compounds (STAT-1) that will cause oxidative injury which kills heart cell in reperfusion injury.

Beside that, cancer cells require enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) to fabricate DNA and grow. EGCG will inhibit the DHFR and is effectively obstructing the spread of cancer cells.

Furthermore, EGCG can also facilitate the recovery of injured heart cells, and as a result allowing fast recovery of tissues and alleviating organs damage.

In conclusion, green tea EGCG has excellent benefit in helping heart disease prevention as well as in heart disease damage recovery. So for those who are suffering from heart disease and those who are health sensitive, tea is the best choice of beverage for them. Having few cups of tea, specifically decaf green tea a day rather than decaffeinated coffee will definitely ensure our long term health.

Visit e-HealthCare Center for more reading on Decaf Green Tea And Heart Disease and other health information.

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Sun Tea is Hazardous to Our Health

For the life of me I can not understand how I survived life as a child and managed to grow up into an adult and eventually into my senior years. It appears that everything that was accomplished during my youth was simply unhealthy for us. Now they claim that sun tea is a hazard to our health.

Several sources including the CDC is stating that the usual way that we made sun tea isn't even considered safe now days. If you are like me you are now sitting in from of your monitor in a semi-state of shock and disbelief. The claim is that our familiar sun tea which is usually brewed by simply being left in the bright sun to steep can possibly harbor deadly bacteria. This is in fact the same sun tea that we usually brew outside as the summer temperatures start to sour higher and higher.

Years ago we could not wait until the arrival of summer to take out our gallon container and start the brewing process. The sun tea rally beat the usual sodas that we had grown accustomed to during the winter months. In addition, the tasty tea always saved us money so we could purchase additional hot dogs and hamburgers to roast on the grill. I had always considered sun tea to be a healthy alternative while at the same time it could save valuable energy by using the power of the sun. However, the truth of the matter is that the tea made in this manner by merely placing bagged tea in a gallon glass jar of water can make us ill.

According to the CDC or the Centers for Disease Control the use of the suns rays tends to generate enough heat to activate bacteria within the tea water. The reasoning behind this is that the water being used to brew the tea will not get any hotter then a mere 130 degrees. These temperatures are the equivalent of a hot bath and not nearly hot enough to kill of any germs or bacteria that would be present in either the tea bags or the water itself. The CDC claims that the water would need to be boiled to at least 195 degrees for a period of five minutes in order to properly deal with any bacteria growth.

Alcaligenes viscolactis which is a bacterium that is found in water has appeared in the tea when it is made in this manner. It seems that the caffeine found in the tea itself may fend off the bacteria for a short period of time but it is not enough to ward it off completely. In addition the flavored or herbal teas that do not contain caffeine are considered to be even worse in this respect.

Positive recommendations are that you would be better off if you brew your tea the usual way with very hot and boiling water rather than risk getting a tea related illness. If you are insistent upon brewing sun tea the set of rules listed below are recommended.

* Cleanliness of the container is of first importance. It should be scrubbed with hot, soapy water or you could dip the container in a bleach solution (1.5 teaspoons to 1 gallon of water).
* Most sun tea containers have a small spigot attached and this should be carefully cleaned after each use.
* Do not leave your tea in the sun for longer then four hours maximum.
* Make only as much tea as you will be drinking.
* Place the completed tea in the refrigerator and keep it in there until it is used up.
* Throw the tea away if it looks the least bit syrupy or thick.

A much safer alternative would be to make refrigerator tea. To make this tea fill a clean pitcher with one quart of very cold water. Next add six tea bags to the water and refrigerate the pitcher for six hours. Squeeze out and remove the tea bags when done and serve your tea over ice.

Copyright @ 2009 Joseph Parish

For more information relating to survival visit us at http://www.survival-training.info

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You Can Take Green Tea Tablets and Still Get Health Benefits

Today you can actually take green tea tablets and get all those health benefits that have been appearing on television and on the internet. If you are worried about taking the tablet form, then worry no more.

This tea has been around for thousands of years and now you do not have to worry about or commit to drinking the recommended daily dosage. Scientists have been able to create an extract form with or without the caffeine that naturally is present in the tea.

This is really great for people who may have a caffeine allergy or for people who want to avoid caffeine in any form. And you are also still able to get the powerful antioxidants that occur in the green tea.

I am sure you have read about all the health benefits that come from green tea like weight loss, controlling blood sugar, various cancers, diabetes, lowering your overall cholesterol, and raising your good cholesterol HDL. But how many people know that it can also come in a tablet form?

I know when I first began researching this subject for my family, I thought drinking that many cups of tea a day can be a challenge. The tablet form was a great idea and then I found out that this is being added to multi vitamins.

I decided to check out the multi vitamin that I was taking at the time and it had no green tea extract in it. It was time for a change and I found a great product from an established company and decided to try them out.

I like the product that I am using and like the peace of mind that I have knowing that I am using a superior product than I was using before I learned about the extract. And in these economic times, the cost is not any more than what I was paying before I gained this knowledge.

Now that you have some knowledge of green tea tablets, I encourage you to take a look at my website to see the kind of tablets that my family is using each day.

Carolyn is a passionate researcher and long time user of skin and health care products to achieve a better quality of life. Visit her websites, http://www.absolutely-healthy-skin.info or http://www.abc-supplement-tips.info to learn more about the products she uses.

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Health Benefits of Green Tea

Historical evidence suggests that tea leaves boiled in water were consumed as far back as 5,000 years ago in India and China. These two countries were the earliest users of tea. Tea also plays a very important part in social rituals of Japan. In Asian countries tea has long played an important cultural role.

Tea is derived from leaves of a plant called Camellia sinensis. The plant is grown in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

There are three types of tea - Green, black and oolong. All of these are derived from Camellia sinensis, the difference lying in the way the leaves are processed. Green tea is prepared from leaves that are not fermented; oolong tea is prepared from partially fermented leaves, while black tea leaves are fully fermented. Green and oolong tea are mostly consumed in Asian countries like China, Japan, India and Thailand, while black tea is preferred in United States.

In recent periods green tea has attracted a lost of attention due to many health benefits attributed to it. Many studies have been conducted which explore the link between consumption of green tea and incidence of certain diseases in the population. It has been observed that green tea is helpful in:

- preventing cancer,

- improving the ratio of 'good' (HDL) cholesterol to 'bad' cholesterol,

- cognition,

- treating flatulence,

- regulating blood sugar,

- regulating body temperature,

- improving digestion.

In some studies it was suggested that the lower incidence of heart related diseases in the French population in spite of the consumption of a fat rich diet is related to the drinking of large quantities of green tea by them. This may be compared to the lower incidence of heart diseases in Japanese population, 75% of which are heavy smokers.

The medicinal properties of green tea are attributed to the presence of polyphenols, which act as antioxidants. Antioxidants help prevent the damage caused by free radicals present in body. Free radicals occur naturally, but they grow in numbers due to some environmental conditions like pollution, ultra-violet light, cigarette smoke etc. Green tea contains 30% to 40% polyphenols, while black tea contains up to 10% polyphenols.

3 to 4 cups of green tea is recommended for an adult.

Green tea has been found to be beneficial in following conditions :

(1) People who drink green tea are found to have lower LDL cholesterol levels and higher HDL cholesterol levels. One study conducted in animals suggests that polyphenols may help inhibit the absorption of cholesterol by intestines thus helping in the excretion of cholesterol from body.

(2) Though it has not yet been conclusively proved that drinking of green tea is related to the lower incidence of caner in Japan, yet some studies conducted in animals indicate that polyphenols that act as antioxidants may be responsible for killing the cancer cells.

(3) It was found in certain studies that polyphenols help control Type 1 diabetes. The body stops producing insulin in Type 1 diabetes. Green tea can be helpful in regulating levels of glucose in the blood in such cases.

(4) Green tea has also been found to be beneficial for the liver. It helps control the damaging effect of alcohol on it. People who drink green tea are found to have lower incidence of liver diseases.

(5) Green tea may also be helpful in reducing weight in obese people. Though not conclusively proved, weight reducing properties of polyphenols have been noted in some studies.

In some cases, however, certain precautions need to be taken while taking green tea.

People with stomach ulcers, heart problems, hyperthyroidism and psychological disorders should not take green tea. Pregnant women should also avoid it. Green tea should also be avoided if one is taking any of the following medications: anti-biotics, Benzodiazepines, Beta blockers, blood thinning medicines, chemotherapy, oral contraceptives and lithium.

Michael Russell Your Independent Herbal guide.

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