Drinking Tea has been an important part of life for thousands of years and has been a huge part of culture in countries around the world, forming major parts of ceremonies, trade routes and even starting revolutions. But tea isn’t just appreciated for its good taste and worldwide appeal, it also offers numerous health benefits. Here are a few health conscious reasons you should add a cup of tea to your daily routine.
Tea can be beneficial to your whole body as you can see from these great effects.
- Tea contains antioxidants. Antioxidants help slow down aging and help your cells to regenerate and repair. Teas of all varieties contain high levels of antioxidant polyphenols that can help keep your body healthier and some studies suggest even ward of some cancers.
- Tea has less caffeine than coffee.While there are some potential health benefits to consuming moderate amounts of caffeine, drinking loads of it is hard on your heart and other organs. Tea can provide the pick me up of coffee but without the high levels of caffeine making you less jittery and helping you get to sleep when you want.
- Tea helps keep you hydrated. Conventional wisdom held that caffeinated beverages actually dehydrated you more than they hydrated you. Recent research has shown, however, that caffeine doesn’t make a difference unless you consume more than 5 to 6 cups at a time. Tea has been shown to actually be more healthy for you than water alone in some cases because it hydrates while providing antioxidants.
- Tea can create a calmer but more alert state of mind. Studies have shown that the amino acid L-theanine found in the tea plant alters the attention networks in the brain and can have demonstrable effects on the brain waves. More simply, tea can help you relax and concentrate more fully on tasks.
- Tea lowers the chance of having cognitive impairment. Research on Japanese adults who consumed at least 2 cups of green tea daily found that those individuals had cut their risk of cognitive impairment by half.
- Tea lowers stress hormone levels. Black tea has been shown to reduce the effects of a stressful event. Participants in a study experienced a 20% drop in cortisol, a stress hormone, after drinking 4 cups of tea daily for one month.
- Tea can cause a temporary increase in short term memory. Not feeling on your game today? Try drinking tea. The caffeine it contains may give you the boost you need to improve your memory, at least for a few hours.
- Tea eases irritability, headaches, nervous tension and insomnia. Red tea, also known as Rooibos, is an herbal tea that originated in Africa. It has been show to have many relaxing effects that help reduce a wide range of irritations and inflammations on the body.
- Tea may reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke. Tea helps to prevent the formation of dangerous blood clots which are very often the cause of heart attacks and strokes. Some studies have even found that black tea drinkers were at a 70 percent lower risk of having a fatal heart attack.
- Tea protects your bones. You don’t have to put milk when drinking tea for it to help out your bones. Studies have shown that regular tea drinkers have stronger bones than those of non tea drinkers, even when other variables were adjusted for. Scientists have theorized it may be a benefit of the phytochemicals in tea.