5 min reading
Tea: the best drink for your health?
If tea is the second most drunk drink of our time and in the world right after water, we no longer choose it only for its taste or for the warmth it gives us, but also for its virtues and benefits on our body and spirit. Tea is becoming an increasingly popular drink and we can see it: the world production is constantly increasing and many varieties of tea and herbal tea are appearing in specialized shops and supermarkets.
While drinking a cup of tea, you are in harmony with the world around and the space-time : the tea leaf, discovered in China thousand years ago, has been cultivated for its delicacy and its medicinal properties. Infused, it has become a drink valued by the upper class and artists from all times.
The difference between green tea, black tea, white tea and many other forms comes from the different treatments that the leaf undergoes upon its production. All the tea comes from the same tree, the Camellia sinensis.
Through time, tea has been one of the most studied plant in the world. Here are below some of the many benefits of the tea leaf.
As an antioxydant, tea helps reduce risks of hearth diseases, boost your energy, reduces fat and sometimes reduce stress
Tea is antioxydant
An antioxydant is a substance capable of neutralizing, or reducing the damage caused by unstable atoms or molecules seeking to bond to other atoms and causing chain reactions in the body. Those unstable atoms are at the origin of various age-related disorder or diseases: cancer, skin wrinkles, cataracts, … You can’t avoid them in your body, but you can reduce them by eating or drinking food with antioxydant properties.
Tea is one of the most used and strongest antioxydant drink in the world. Tea contains significant amounts of polyphenols, organic compounds helping the body to fight against the oxidation of cells. The main ones are the catechins, theaflavins and thearubigins.
Some studies found that one cup of tea provides antioxydant at the equivalent of 3.5cups of an orange juice.
Did you know ? Our Organic Detox Green Tea focuses on reducing the toxins in your body by using draining elements.
Tea reduces fat
Studies shown that people who drank tea everyday where having less fat in their bodies than people who didn’t drink tea. The data available to date indicate that it would be the combination of caffeine and catechins from green tea that would increase energy expenditure.
Among the various catechins tea contains, it is epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) which is believed to be the cause. It’s believed to decreases the absorption of triglycerides and cholesterol resulting a decrease of fat.
Some long-term observational research noted that consuming about 2 cups (14.7 ounces or 434 ml) of green tea per day was associated with lower body fat and weight.
Tea has been forever associated with health properties and is now commonly known as a must have for every healthy lifestyle.
Tea prevents heart diseases
Consumption of tea is increasingly being shown to be associated with enhanced cardiovascular and metabolic health.
Linked with the fat reduction process, tea catechins are also helping blood circulation and decreasing the risk of ischemic (stopping blood circulation) and coronary heart problems.
Study shown that individuals consuming more than or equal to 3 cups of tea/day had a 21% lower risk of stroke than those consuming less than 1 cup/day.
Study shown that individuals consuming more than or equal to 3 cups of tea/day had a 21% lower risk of stroke than those consuming less than 1 cup/day.
Tea reduces stress
It’s often said that tea could reduce the stress. We believe that it is the fact of doing the process of tea which reduces the stress more than the tea itself. We think the fact that you take time to make your tea, and then take time to enjoy it helps you step back of what stresses you, be able to look at the global picture, and then find solutions about your issues.
A study made to test if tea reduces stress shown that compared with placebo, 6 weeks of tea consumption leads to lower post-stress cortisol and greater subjective relaxation, together with reduced platelet activation. Resulting that tea may have been beneficial in the stress recovery.
If you feel stressed, you can definitely try the Organic Jasmine Green Tea.
Tea prevents cancer
Several studies have suggested that catechins and theaflavins found in tea has a positive impact of reducing the risk of various types of cancers in humans (skin cancers, prostate cancers and lung cancers, breast cancer).
Other virtues tea is associated with
Health benefits mentionned above are the most know and studied virtues of the tea. Tea is also used is some traditional medecines as helping for:
- Reducing kidney disease risk
- Reducing osteoporosis
- Improving mental
- Reduce atherosclerosis
- Reduce oral leukoplakia
- Facilitating digestion
Be healthy is only few simple steps to repeat, the difficulty is to repeat it everytime.
be careful to the tea you buy
While tea, in is purest form, has many health benefits, it is important to know that those studies were made using pure components from tea, in ideal conditions and are not reflecting all the quality differences we can find on the market.
Today tea is also very poluted with pesticides and insecticides. Not selecting a qualitative tea could definitely neutralize all the beneficial health effects and worse, could warm your health if drunk in big quantities.
This is why, at Ugami, we decided to propose only qualitative organic tea (bio), respecting the european organic farming rules and restricting the amount of pesticides and insecticides used in the products. We make sure our tea stays good for your health.
But at the end, is green tea or black tea better for the health ?
Either both are good for the health.
It is important to understand how are made the two types to understand which one is better for your needs.
- Green tea is not fermented: Right after the harvest, the tea is either pan-fired, oven-dried or steamed to prevent oxidation from taking place. Since the leaves don’t undergo fermentation, they retain their green color and produce a lighter, more grassy taste.
- Black tea is fermented: By contrary to the green tea, the leaves are stimulated to accelerate the oxidation process. The chemical composition of the tea leaves changes through fermentation: the longer the leaves are allowed to oxidize, the darker the leaves will be.
As a non-fermented product, green tea will conserve most of the antioxydants from the leave, like the catechines. It would be then more recommended for reducing fat, detoxing your body and reducing stress.
Conversely, the leaves of black tea, with fermentation, contain more theaflavins, another class of antioxidants in the polyphenol family. Black tea will be also less rich in caffeine. It would be then more recommended for improving the hearth system and digestion.
In either way, even if the concentration of polyphenols differs from the two types, both keep all the antioxydants good for your health mentioned above.
Ugami’s recommendation would be to simply try both types, pick the one you prefer and try regularly new blends!
All Ugami’s blends are carrefully selected to be good for the health.
Studies’ sources:
Tea and Health: Studies in Humans
Mechanisms of Body Weight Reduction by Black Tea Polyphenols
The effects of green tea consumption on metabolic and anthropometric indices in patients with Type 2 diabetes
Green Tea Catechins and Sport Performance
The effects of tea on psychophysiological stress responsivity and post-stress recovery: a randomised double-blind trial.
