Drinking Green Tea Is Healthy

I bet this is not the first article you are reading about the health benefits of green tea. There are literally thousands of articles on this subject, and they generally say about the same thing. I have been trying to avoid writing an article about health benefits of green tea. After more than four years, I now succumb to this inevitable temptation to add another article in this already saturated subject in the internet. So I shall approach this article in a different angle so as not to bore you down. So I fine-tuned the title into “Drinking Green Tea Is Healthy”. I shall write about why I ended up writing something that I tried to avoid for so long, and share my personal experience and opinion on this subject about why drinking green tea is healthy. Then at the end of this article I shall just list down in point form, the various health benefits of drinking green tea.

I hope I am able to turn a seemingly boring article into something “refreshing and rejuvenating” just like drinking a cup of green tea! So cheers and let’s get started.

My favorite drink is hot black coffee. Not your usual type of coffee, but our very unique local black coffee. Nowadays every conceivable thing is done easy. In years gone by, we need to brew coffee from coffee powder. Now we can get them in sachets. Some with sugar, some without. Put a sachet in your mug, add hot water, and presto, it’s done. So is with tea. Since this article is about drinking green tea, let’s forget about coffee here. Maybe I shall write another article about coffee next time. Right now let me share my thoughts about drinking green tea and its health benefits. There are hundreds of varieties of tea in the market. Here we concentrate on green tea.

What comes to mind if you are talking about wine? Of course, France. Let’s face it, the best wines come from France. Now what about tea? You’re right, China comes to mind. China is the nation that produces the best teas, and they have been doing this and drinking tea for thousands of years. The authentic way to drink tea is to steep the tea leaves in hot water, and drink the tea hot, without adding anything to it. It must be a great joke to the Chinese when they first discovered that the Europeans (most probably started by the British) naively added milk and sugar to their teas! There was no record, but I won’t be surprised some Chinese might have fainted or even died of heart attacks after finding out that their precious teas had been poisoned with sugar and milk! Just imagine if the Chinese added soy sauce and tofu to the French wines!! LOL!!

By the way, do you know, the Chinese during those days never drink milk? Only little children drank milk during those days. It was only recently that milk appeared in the Chinese diet lifestyle. I, too, never drink milk. Milk is not good for me.

Lately my wife has been drinking the green tea and told me that drinking green tea is healthy. Please remember, tea is best drunk hot or at least at room temperature. Never drink ice-cold tea. I too joined in the green tea drinking, and found that drinking green tea is indeed very invigorating. That led me to search for more information in the internet. No doubt, drinking green tea is indeed very healthy. My interest is writing articles that are beneficial for our health and general well-being. If you scan through my profile page, you will find many such articles on health and general well-being. Many articles are from my personal experiences. As I wrote above that I was quite reluctant to write about drinking green tea and its health benefits because I think it would be very boring to read it, as there were already thousands of such articles in the internet rehashing the same information. Since drinking green tea is such a healthy activity, I decided to take the plunge to add this article in my portfolio. I hope you will find this article less boring than the others because of my different approach.

Now let’s get it straight. Tea originated in China; let’s say a very very long time ago. Historians put it at during the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC – 1046 BC). For my Western readers, tea was most probably introduced to Portuguese priests and merchants in China during the 16^th century. Then the British came to know about tea in the 17^th century. Following this, the British began planting tea in India on a commercial basis. Later, the British introduced tea planting in my country, Malaysia (then known as Malaya). Today Malaysia has large tracts of tea plantation up on the hills of Cameron Highlands, started by a British named J A Russell in 1929, under the name BOH Tea Plantation. By the way, these are black teas, far inferior than the real stuff, the green tea.

Green tea comes from the leaves of tea plant called Camellia sinensis. Green tea comes from this species whose leaves have undergone minimal oxidation during processing. There are many varieties of green tea. Green tea extracts have been used for various commercial products such as beverages, health foods, confectionaries, dietary supplements and even in cosmetic applications. The most important content in green tea is the high level of flavonoids. Flavonoids are the compound present in most plants that are good for our health because of their antioxidant and anticarcinogen properties.

Since China is the oldest, biggest and most experienced tea cultivator and producer in the world, it is natural that we should buy green tea from this country. However, in recent times, we have seen the tarnished image of things coming from China. I am of the same opinion. Until circumstances change for the better for China, my decision is always buy things from China last! That is why the green tea that my wife and I drink comes from South Korea. Be forewarned, buy things from China at your own risk!

In order to make this fast and short, I shall put them in point form. Here we go. These are the health benefits of drinking green tea.

• Has anti cancer properties
• Maintains healthy cells
• Helps weight loss
• Lowers bad cholesterol
• Prevents heart disease
• Prevents high blood pressure
• Has anti-aging properties
• Reduces stress
• Prevents diabetes
• Improves lipid and glucose metabolism
• Catechin in green tea reduces risk of food poisoning by killing bacteria
• Prevents bad breath
• Lowers iron level in liver reducing risk of hepatitis
• Prevents rheumatoid arthritis
• Has anti-inflammation properties
• Improves body immune system
• Prevents cold and flu
• Reduces wrinkles
• Prevents Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson's disease
• Fights allergies
• Fluoride content in green tea helps maintain strong bones
• Theophylline relaxes the muscles which support the bronchial tubes, reducing severity of asthma
• Prevents tooth decay
• EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate) in green tea can stop HIV from binding to healthy immune cells

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