Benefits to Drinking Green Tea
Tea has been around for many centuries, and has been admired for its medicinal qualities as well as being a tasty beverage. The good thing is that not only is it delightful to consume, it comes with a lot of benefits which Western researches recently looked into.
Some of the many benefits of green tea are as follows:
Losing Weight
Green tea does a few things to help you lose weight. It burns fat, speeds up metabolism, and helps you to feel fuller. All of these things combine to make tea a powerful ally whenever you are trying to lose weight. Green tea has virtually no calories (less than 5 calories per cup). However, you would be adding the extra calories by adding cream or sugar, and that won’t help you to lose weight. Hence, you can enjoy several cups of green tea a day without worrying about how it will influence your weight.
The liquid not only takes up room in your stomach, but there also appears to be chemicals in green tea that tell your brain that your stomach is full. With this feeling of being full, you will be much less likely to eat more food than you should when you feel satisfied.
It is also revealed that green tea will boost your metabolism hence your body will be more efficient at burning calories. Even the smallest boost to your body’s metabolism will have a positive impact on weight loss. The best part is that this boosting effect may last for a few hours after drinking the green tea.
While researchers couldnt find any evidence, some people have also claimed that green tea also alters the absorption of fat. If this can be proven it would be heaven sent. Imagine being able to eat the various food you love, and then sipping green tea to minimise how much fat you absorb. More research needs to be done on this, but if there are evidence to show to be true, then that’s another good reason to drink tea.
A green tea weight loss diet is very flexible, because honestly, its just about adding a few cups of green tea to your routine. Now, that doesn’t mean you can eat anything you want without worry. You still got to have a healthy diet because green tea isn’t magic. It can’t work alone. However, yes, green tea is an ideal beverage if you are trying to shed a few extra pounds.
Blood Sugar Regulation
It seems that green tea changes the way the body absorbs sugar. There is also some evidence to suggest that it helps with insulin production as well, and that’s most beneficial for people suffering from Type I diabetes.
Although the link is inconclusive, researchers were intrigued in the studies relating to blood pressure and tea intake. So they analyzed 25 randomized controlled trials which is the gold standard of scientific research, to further explore on the association. Their research found that in the short term, green tea didn’t seem to make a difference for blood pressure. However in the long-term, constant green tea intake did have a significant impact. After 12 weeks of drinking green tea, blood pressure was lower by 2.6 mmHg systolic and 2.2 mmHg diastolic. Green tea had the most significant results, while black tea performed the next best.
Although it may not seem like a big number, small changes in blood pressure can have a significant impact on health, the study explained that by reducing systolic blood pressure by 2.6 mmHg “the would be expected to reduce stroke risk by 8%, coronary artery disease mortality by 5% and all-cause mortality by 4% at a population level.”
Tea in general is thought to offer endothelial protection by helping blood vessels relax, allowing blood to flow more freely. Special brewed tea like green or matcha tea contains high source of antioxidants that have been linked to better cardiovascular health.
Bad Cholesterol
Green tea works in the intestinal tract to lower the amount of cholesterol the body absorbs. Did you know that having too much cholesterol is a risk factor for developing heart disease? Studies shows that drinking up to 10 cups of green tea a day can have a significant impact on your blood cholesterol levels. Green tea lowers your bad cholesterol (LDL cholesterol) while leaving your good cholesterol (HDL) untouched.
Rich in Antioxidants
Green tea is loaded with antioxidants. Antioxidants attack free radicals in the body, which causes all sorts of health problems. In simple terms, your overall health can be improved by green tea especially matcha green tea.
Reduce Risk of Cancer
The polyphenols contained in green tea help to reduce the risk of cancer. In addition, when population data is compared, those areas with the highest consumption of green tea seem to also have lower rates of some types of cancer. Matcha green tea leaves are known to contain high pigments concentration and given their preparation where nothing is lost, it helps in reducing the risk in cancer significantly.
Enhances Liver Function
Liver functions by filtering toxins from the body. Thus, anything that could promote this function would allow the body to remove even more toxins, and that would lead to better health. Some studies believed that green tea helps to absorb heavy metals from the bloodstream, giving the liver a chance to filter more toxins.
Stress Reliever
Most tea drinkers feel that this is the best benefit of drinking green tea. While it may not be scientifically proven, psychologically sipping a cup of tea is a great way to relieve the stress of the day.
With all it has going for it, green tea is an excellent beverage for any number of reasons. Perhaps that’s why more and more people are drinking it.