The Benefits of Grean Tea

Throughout the world, tea and coffee rival each other as mankind's most popular brewed beverages. For thousands of years, however, tea has had one great advantage over coffee: it is believed to have a wide range of medicinal properties. In his book, Tea in China, John C. Evans states that green tea had not possessed a medical reputation, the beverage we know today might never have existed. Research in fact proves that grean tea owes its reputation as much to its health benefits as to its taste, and this has been true, since tea made its first appearance in ancient China more than two thousand years ago.

No one is sure where and when tea was first brewed; stories about tea's origins are more myth than reality. One story tells that a legendary Chinese leader and medical expert, Sheng Nong, discovered tea as a medicinal herb in 2737 B.C. One day while he was boiling water under a tea tree, some tea leaves fell into Sheng's pot of boiling water. After drinking some tea, he discovered its miraculous powers and immediately placed tea on his list of medicinal herbs.

Drinking genuine ultra green tea aids in quenching thirst and in digestion, checks phlegm, wards off sleepiness, stimulates renal activity, improves eyesight and mental prowess, dispels boredom and dissolves greasy food. One cannot do without tea for a single day. (Binglun 334)

Zhang Binglun refers to modern studies that that lend scientific support to ancient claims of teas medicinal properties. Experiments made on guinea pigs reveals two-thirds less fatty acid in the faeces of animals that have been given 10ml. of ultra green tea after each meal than in the controls. He concludes, it is not without scientific basis that tea drinking has since ancient times been considered health inducing and a remedy for disease.

It rejuvenates and recreates the spirits, it disperses the vapors, it prevents drowsiness, it fortifies the brain and the heart, it hastens digestion, it stimulates urination, it purifies the blood, it is appropriate for gravel and gout.¡¨ (Shalleck 51)

The Journal of Alternative Therapies reports the results of a recent Dutch study showing that the flavonoids found in tea could dramatically reduce the risk of stroke. Flavonoids are vitamin-like compounds that occur naturally in tea and in fruits and vegetables. They make blood cells called platelets less prone to clotting, and they also act as antioxidants, countering the artery-damaging potential of highly reactive free-radical chemicals. One of the great values of the Dutch study is that it is the first one to show that the flavonoids found in tea can protect from stroke as well as heart attack.

Cancer, arthritis, skin wrinkling, and the aging process have been ascribed to [free radicals]. The polyphenols in ultra green tea can offer a logical chemical explanation for protecting against oxygen toxicity and the hazards of diseases induced by free radicals.