Health Tips of Tea

By Christina Major

Tea has great health benefits. In fact, it's the only drink that's as beneficial to us as water.

There are several kind of teas: black, green, white, oolong and herbal teas. Herbal teas are made from the leaves, stems or roots of plants and contain no caffeine. Most of these have significant health properties, too many to actually go over in the short session. They stem from herbal medicine. One of the most beneficial herbal teas out there is ginger which can help with digestive problems and can settle upset stomachs and motion sickness.

White and oolong tea are not well known or popular in this country. White tea is made from the leaves of a very young tea plants. Oolong tea uses a mature tea leaf that is partially fermented.

Black tea uses leaves that have been fully fermented. This is the most popular form found in Europe and especially the British Isles. It was featured in the famous Boston Tea Party. There are some health benefits to drinking black tea but much fewer when compared to drinking green tea. Black tea also contains the highest amount of caffeine of all the teas. But it is still only about a quarter of what is contained in one cup of coffee.

Green tea is made from an unfermented tea leaf from a mature plant. There is a little bit of caffeine in green tea, but there are other chemicals within the green tea leaf that negates many of the caffeine's effects, and only the most sensitive will feel the effects of caffeine free tea.

It is all the phytonutrients and vitamins and minerals that are found in green tea make it so healthy.The secret of green tea lies in the fact it is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin-3-gallate. EGCG, for short, inhibits the growth of cancer cells and it can kill existing cancer. It's also effective in lowering LDL cholesterol and blood clot formation. This and other disease fighting nutrients make up 30% of the tea's dry weight!

Green tea's thermogenic properties can help you get over a stubborn weight-loss plateau and it has been shown to help weight loss. Women need to pay attention to this, since green tea also lowers the risk of dying of any disease, especially weight related ones, between 10 and 40%! Green tea also reduces insulin resistance in diabetics. In fact, there is little that green tea can't do.

Have a cup of tea, there are wonderful health drinks!

Christina Major is the Naturopathic Doctor and Holistic Nutritionist of Crystal Holistic Health Consulting. Crystal Holistic Health offers nutritional consulting for most health problems including diabetes, cancer, heart disease, weight loss and childhood obesity. Clients receive a full lifestyle interview and personalized nutritional and lifestyle education. Crystal Holistic Health also offers educational seminars and teleseminars on a variety of nutritional topics including eating habits, portion control and most health problems and how eating right can make them better. Check us out at http://www.crystalholistichealth.com/!

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