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Tea is the second most widely consumed beverage in the world, exceeded only by the most necessary of all liquids - water. Tea is an integral part of everyday societal life in many of the world’s most populous countries. This has made tea the most popular beverage for a huge swath of the world’s people. Tea is prepared from linder leaves, leaf buds and tender stalks of different varieties of the warm-weather evergreen known as camellia sinensis. The degree of processing the leaves of camellia sinensis determines whether a tea will be green, black or red (oolong). Green tea is the least processed. These are simply steamed quickly before packaging. Black and red tea are partially dried, crushed and fermented. The length of fermentation, which causes the leaves to blacken, determines whether the tea will be red or black. Tea comes in many different varieties and shopping for the healthiest brand is quite a bewildering experience, but rest assured that whatever tea you put into your trolley, regardless of what type it is, will have the following health benefits: Antioxidants – Tea leaves contain even more natural antioxidants than most fruit, vegetables and red wine. Antioxidants neutralise free radicals – incomplete cells that attack healthy cells and cause oxidative damage that can lead to heart disease and cancer. In so doing, antioxidants have significant disease-fighting properties. Tea is rich in a powerful type of antioxidant compound known as flavonoids. Flavonoids are more effective antioxidants than vitamin C and E and beta-carotene. They have been found to improve the blood vessels' ability to relax and therefore stop the arterial blockage that leads to heart attacks and strokes. Flavonoids also stop "bad" cholesterol from oxidizing and hardening the arteries. Because flavonoids have a short life, you need to continuously ingest flavonoid-rich foods, such as fruit, vegetables and tea to experience their full health benefits. As long as you don't overload your tea with sugar or high-fat milk, it's a low-calorie way to increase your antioxidant level with almost no downsides. Tea cannot replace but can supplement the recommended flavinoid-rich five fruits and vegetables a day. Both black and green teas contain cancer-fighting polyphenols. Also known as tea tannins or catechins, polyphenols seem to be the most potent therapeutic plant-derived chemicals because of their triple function – they are antiseptic, antioxidant and detoxifying. Polyphenols that have antioxidant properties seem to help inhibit the growth of cancerous tumours. Tea and vitamin C Ethylamine, found in black and green teas, also targets pathogens including parasites, viruses and perhaps, tumours. A recent experiment by the National Academy of Sciences in the US found that the immune system blood cells from tea drinkers responded five times faster to germs than the blood cells of coffee drinkers. Tea has antioxidant, antibacterial, antiseptic and detoxifying properties. What more can you ask for in a drink?
There are three base types of tea that are classified according to the way that they are processed, namely black, green and oolong tea. All three come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. However, black tea comes from African, Indian and Sri Lankan plantations, whereas green tea comes from the Far East. These three teas are often classified by their region of origin, for example, Ceylon, China and Darjeeling. Further sub categories of tea include scented tea, decaffeinated tea, organic tea (like Rooibos or Honeybush), herbal infusions (made from flowering plants) and Earl Grey ( a black tea and bergamot mix). Manufacturers may flavour their teas with flowers or herbs, but, if the tea does not contain one of the three main bases, then it isnot really a tea in the true sense of the word. Black tea is the product of the cutting, withering, rolling, fermenting and drying processes that result in brownish black tea leaves. Most of the tea on our shelves today is black tea, in fact 94% of all tea that is consumed is black. A study conducted by the American Heart Foundation in New Orleans found that tea drinkers have a lower risk of heart attack and stroke. This is because black tea relaxes and expands the arteries thereby increasing blood flow to the heart. Green tea is steamed to preserve the green colour of the tea leaves and in doing so prevents fermentation as the veins of the leaves are not broken. The green leaves are then crushed and dried. Did you know that the antioxidant content of green tea is 100 times more effective than that of vitamin C? And that green tea has twice the disease combating power as red wine? It is no wonder so many westerners are now "going green". A product of the Far East, green tea is seen by many to be the healthiest tea on the market. This is because the antioxidant, epigalloctechin-3 gallate (or EGCG) that is lost during the fermentation process of black and oolong teas, is preserved in green tea. EGCG has been proven to kill cultured cancer cells. The incidence of prostate cancer in China, whose population consumes green tea regularly, is the lowest in the world. Despite all its benefits, only four percent of all tea that is consumed worldwide is green tea. Oolong teas are semi-green teas that are partially fermented. Oolong tea combines the health benefits of both green and black tea. However, Chinese doctors recommend oolong tea especially for its weight-loss properties. Semi-fermented oolong tea contains more polyphenols than black and green tea. Some polyphenols, like flavonoids, have antioxidant properties. Comparing the three:
All three types of tea come from the same plant and therefore share many of the same health benefits, such as antibacterial and antioxidising properties. But the efficacy decreases slightly the darker the tea leaf becomes. Over all, black and green tea have comparable amounts of antioxidants and therefore are both beneficial to your health, so choosing which tea to drink is simply a matter of taste. Additional uses of tea Do your feet smell? Are they tired and aching from being squashed into your shoes all day? If so, fill a tub with diluted lukewarm tea, the juice of one lemon and a pinch of salt for a relaxing foot soak. Mossie bite? Place a wet tea bag on the bite to relive pain and swelling. Tired, sore eyes? Give them a rest by placing wet teabags on them for a few minutes.
Drinking tea has many health benefits, so much so that tea has even been called the "magic elixir." To get all these benefits, though, you have to know what tea to shop for, how much to drink and how to brew the ideal cuppa. Decaffeinated tea is not completely caffeine-free, most decaffeinated teas contain about four milligrams of caffeine per cup compared to the average cup of black tea that contains 40 milligrams of caffeine. For comparison's sake: a cup of filter coffee has 865 milligrams of caffeine. Many "herbal teas" on the market today do not actually contain the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant and are therefore not real teas and also will not provide all the health benefits of real tea leaves. It is recommended that you should drink at least 5 cups of tea a day. This amount of tea, scientists say, boosts the immune system and gives the body a better chance of fighting off infections. Remember though that instant, bottled, decaffeinated, highly processed or herbal teas do not count because they do not have the same antioxidant properties of green, black, and oolong teas. Researchers at the Food Safety and Toxicology Center of Michigan state University found that the perfect brewing temperature of tea is 80 degrees Celsius, anything less won't extract the same levels of polyphenols, and anything more will damage the polyphenols with too much heat. Related Links: Super Foods: The Top 10 Healthiest Foods |
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