Just a cup of tea can keep the doctor away. Perhaps that phrase wasn't intended for tea, but it can be applied to it, nonetheless. Researchers attribute tea's health properties to polyphenols (a type of antioxidant( and phytochemicals). Studies have shown that teas can help protect your teeth and your heart.
Here are some of the health benefits tea has:
Digestion
Hot water per sé helps digestion of food at the time it helps to detoxify the body. Some herbal teas, as well, stimulate digestion; for instance, a few slices of ginger root in boiling water, or chamomile, peppermint and cinnamon will help you process your meal faster.
Water retention
Horsetail tea is a powerful diuretic, making you urinate more often and helping you reduce water retention. As a diuretic, horsetail affects the kidneys, increasing the amount of water and salt released into the urine. Apart from being used as a diuretic, horsetail has also been used for skin and nail care, wound healing, osteoporosis, and bone repair. Pu-erh and green tea are also powerful diuretics.
Speed up your metabolism
White tea is known for speeding up metabolism and increasing how many calories you burn a day. It also detoxifies your body. These properties can also be found in Pu-erh and green tea.
Scientists have found that the catechins (antioxidants) in green tea extract increase the body's ability to burn fat as fuel, which accounts for improved muscle endurance. Tea also has an energizing effect in some people.
Fight diseases
Drinking tea could help reduce the risk of heart attack, protect against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases. “There's a lot of literature out there on tea and heart health,” says Anna Ardine, clinical nutrition manager at Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “This is a health effect for which there is the strongest evidence.”
It can also help protect against a boatload of cancers, including breast, colon, colorectal, skin, lung, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver, ovarian, prostate and oral cancers.
According to Leslie Bonci, nutritionist and owner of Active Eating Advice, studies on how tea may help battle cancer are mixed. In the meantime, however, “ if you've go a strong family history of cancer and you want to do anything you can, you might increase your tea consumption,” she adds.
Drinking tea is also linked to a lower risk of Parkinson's disease and could be beneficial to people with Type 2 diabetes. According to research, compounds in green tea could help diabetics better process sugars.
Tea is packed with antioxidants
Antioxidants prevent the body's version of rust; therefore, it helps to keep us young.
Tea is good for your teeth
“Japanese researchers have found that tea can decrease tooth loss,” Ardine says. “It changes the pH in your mouth when you drink it and that may be what prevents cavities.” Beyond that, tea, unlike many other beverages does not appear to erode tooth enamel, Bonci says.
Here are some quotes about tea to inspire you:
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” - C.S. Lewis
“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground.
“I shouldn't think even millionaires could eat anything nicer than new bread and real butter and honey for tea.” - Dodie Smith, I capture the Castle.
“In Ireland, you go to someone's house, and she asks you if you want a cup of tea. You say no, thank you, you're really just fine. She asks if you're sure. You say of course you're sure, really, you don't need a thing. Except they pronounce it ting. You don't need a ting. Well, she says then, I was going to get myself some anyway, so it would be no trouble. Ah, you say, well, if you were going to get yourself some, I wouldn't mind a spot of tea, at that, so long as it's no trouble and I can give you a hand in the kitchen. Then you go through the whole thing all over again until you both end up in the kitchen drinking tea and chatting.
In America, someone asks you if you want a cup of tea, you say no, and then you don't get any damned tea.
I liked the Irish way better.” - C. E. Murphy, Urban Shaman.
