Green Tea Benefits – Antioxidants
EGCG, or epigallocatechin gallate, is what makes green tea so healthy. EGCG is just one of many, many different antioxidants. For example, you’ve probably heard of lycopene before; if nowhere else, advertised on a bottle of Heinz ketchup. This is one type of antioxidant that has many benefits. Watermelon also has high concentrations of lycopene. So, green tea has antioxidants. What sorts of benefits can EGCG give you?
Green Tea Benefits – Cancer
One of the major benefits that recent studies have revealed is that EGCG reduces carcinogenesis, one great green tea benefit. In other words, it can help prevent cancer. This is because the antioxidants neutralize free-radicals, which cause cancer. Many different types of cancer can be helped. For example, cancers of the esophagus, lungs, prostate, stomach, and others. For more on the specifics of how antioxidants prevent cancer, take a look at the article below on antioxidants and more specific details on how the mechanics of green tea benefits happen.
Green Tea Benefits – Oral Health
Green tea is also said to benefit oral health. This is because of its high fluoride content. Fluoride is a major ingredient in many oral health products, such as toothpaste. It can greatly benefit your teeth and help the remineralization of teeth by attracting calcium and other essential minerals to places where enamel has broken down. This all to say another green tea benefit is helping to prevent tooth decay. Some people are concerned that if one consumes too much tea, it will result in toxic levels of fluoride. This is unlikely, because the amount of fluoride contained in green tea is small enough where one would have to drink gross amounts to sustain any serious health problems. Something interesting to note is that among green tea benefits, reduction of bad breath is said to be one. Personally I find if I drink a cup of green tea before I go to bed, I really don’t have bad morning breath. I wish I could say I drink tea every morning to reap this green tea benefit… but, alas. haha. Then again, I don’t suppose it’s a substitute for brushing your teen regularly. Just an added measure.
Green Tea Benefits – Immnune System
It is also said green tea benefits help build impaired immune systems up. A compound called Theanine is present in green tea. This compound can boost the ability of ‘gamma delta T cells’ to fight infections. A ‘gamma delta T cell’ is a type of white blood cell. White blood cells are the bodies first line of defense. By strengthening the white blood cells, Theanine is basically better equipping the infantry of the body to fight against hostile forces. Thus, another green tea benefit is thought to be that of strengthening the immune system.
Green Tea Benefits – Metabolism
Another thing green tea benefits are said to do is speed up metabolism. Some say it is good to drink green tea after a meal to help break down food more effectively. Metabolism divided into two parts; catabolism and anabolism. Catabolism is the process that creates energy, and anabolism uses energy to complete tasks such as building cells. When your body breaks down food, certain damaging chemicals are produced; things such as hydrogen peroxide. To fight this, your body has a complicated set of enzymes to detoxify these chemicals. As you may have guessed, antioxidants found in green tea can help to boost this process greatly. When the antioxidants mop up these chemicals, more of the enzymes can concentrate on breaking down food for energy, thus speeding catabolism (and thus metabolism). This is why you’ll hear weight loss and concentrated pills to be heralded among green tea benefits.
Green Tea Benefits – Relaxation
It is also said that a benefit of green tea is the relaxation and calming of the nerves. This might sound a bit odd at first (“But doesn’t green tea have caffeine?”), but it really isn’t when you look closer. Green tea contains a compound called ‘Theanine’. Like Alcohol, this compound can cross the blood-brain barrier, but unlike alcohol, it does not have an adverse affect. It can relieve both mental and physical stress, and even in repeated extremely high doses has little or no adverse affects–physical or psychological. So, we add to the list of green tea benefits that of relaxation.
Green Tea Benefits – Other Types of Tea
So, is green tea special in its benefits? Is it much better than say, black tea? Or white tea? Well, originally, green tea was considered to be much better, which is understandable. Anything ‘green’ or ‘natural’ now-a-days immediately gains for itself a healthy connotation. Black tea is oxidized completely, while green tea is for the most part not. In the tea-making community, the oxidation process is called ‘fermentation’, although technically no fermentation is taking place. This has also contributed somewhat to the negative connotation of black tea. But recent studies suggest that black and other varieties of tea are just as good as green. So, whether you drink black, white, oolong or whatever else suits your tastes, you are still reaping many of the green tea benefits that have recently gained popular notice.
