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How Easily You Can Get The Benefits of Green Tea
Antioxidants
For a good 5,000 years and more, people have
enjoyed the benefits of drinking green tea. In fact, green
tea has enjoyed longer use than black tea, oolong and
white tea. This type of beverage retains its green
coloration simply because it is “processed” immediately,
and that the tea leaves have undergone very little
oxidation. As with the olden times, many people prefer the
time-tested methods of preparing green tea, where tea
leaves are often picked right off the shrub, washed and
seeped in boiling water to achieve the authentic taste and
aroma. As such, there have been many healthful claims
associated with drinking green tea or ingesting products
that are green-tea based.
During earlier times, some purported claims include: aiding
digestion; curing blotchiness and beriberi disease; easing the
hangover effects of alcohol; helping control bleeding or
speeding up the healing process for flesh wounds; improving
brain and urinary functions; regulating blood sugar; and
preventing fatigue. These days, with modern technology at hand,
some of the proven claims of green tea consumption include:
improving insulin sensitivity and tolerance to glucose (a great
aid for diabetics); lowering the chances of suffering from one
or more forms of heart diseases; preventing the onset of
certain types of cancer producing cells; and promoting weight
loss by increasing fat oxidation.
Also, it has been proven that green tea contains high levels
of bioflavonoids, or simply flavonoids, which promote
antioxidant activities in the body. As a rule, oxidation in the
body is quite normal, and often times necessary as well.
Oxidation causes cell decay, which is really not as bad as it
sounds. Cell decay promotes new cells to develop, and as a
person matures, this is but common. Certainly, height growth
and changes in the human physique are caused by earlier cells
decaying and being replaced by new ones. As an additional
benefit of oxidation, green tea antioxidants cause faster fat
oxidation, or the rapid burning of fat cells in the body, so
that it can be converted into energy.
However, as the person matures, the body’s production
process of new cells also slows down and this is where
oxidation because somewhat of a problem. Oxidation causes the
wrinkles to appear on our skin, the dryness to settle on our
hair and even the little aches and pains we usually associate
with aging. This basically means that the cells we have are not
replenished as quickly as before.
The green tea antioxidants discovered in most researches
have healthy supplies of polyphenols: a type of flavonoid which
is proven to be potent enough to reduce the speed of cell aging
to a considerable degree. In fact, a flavonoid compound in
green tea called EGCg is now touted to have 20 times the
potency of Vitamin C and Vitamin E, especially when it comes to
reducing the occurrences of cell damage and subsequent aging.
On it own, the polypenols found in green tea help boost white
blood cells or leukocytes. These are the cells that help ward
of the onset of diseases and possible reasons for further cell
decay.
Gaining the antioxidant benefits of green tea is actually as
simple as increasing the amount of green tea taken per day.
Drinking one or two cups of tea a day is already good; but most
doctors would recommend at least four or more cups to fully
enjoy all its healthful benefits.
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