Green Tea Is Why Chinese Are Healthier Than Americans
Filed Under (Green Tea) by Laura Heins on 10-10-2009
by Lisa Williams
If you suffer from high cholesterol, new research suggests green tea can help. But green tea can help with more than just cholesterol.
If you are approaching middle age and found out that you have high cholesterol, your answer might be green tea. The Internet has a wealth of information about cholesterol and green tea.
As modern science discovered cholesterol, apoB protein, LDLs, and triglycerides, green tea emerged as a surprising solution. As crazy as it sounds that a drink thousands of years old can help lower cholesterol, new scientific research suggests exactly that. The next 10 years will continue to reveal more facts about the world’s oldest beverage: green tea.
More good news is it is not just green tea and cholesterol; it is also green tea and cancer. Several studies have shown that the antioxidants are present in green tea. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute published the results of an epidemiological study indicating that drinking green tea reduced the risk of esophageal cancer in Chinese men and women by nearly sixty percent. Another research done by the University of Purdue researchers recently concluded that a compound in green tea inhibits the growth of cancer cells. In another study by the University of Kansas determined that EGCG may explain why the rate of heart disease among Japanese men is quite low, even though approximately seventy-five percent are smokers.
The benefits of green tea go on with new research that suggests green tea may also lower high blood pressure. The problem with this research though is that they say you need to drink 5 to 10 cups of green tea a day to lower your blood pressure. That is too much tea drinking for most people.
The Chinese, who discovered green tea thousands of years ago, use green tea to treat hundreds of different kinds of ailments from headaches to depression.
There is ongoing research into whether green tea is helpful with cardiovascular disease, infection, arthritis, and more.
Green tea is rich in catechin polyphenols, especially epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a good anti-cancer element. Polyphenol limits the negative effects of smoking and a fatty diet.
But the benefits of green tea go on. In a recent study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition it was discovered that men who were given a mixture of caffeine and green tea extract burned more calories than those given only caffeine.
There are also studies being done on green tea and tooth decay. Green tea has bacteria killing compounds that help prevent tooth decay.
So why is green tea the focus of all this research and not other teas? The reason is that green tea is healthier because of how it is made. Remember, almost all tea is made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant but how those leaves are processed is what makes all the difference. Green tea leaves are steamed which preserves higher concentrations of EGCG. In the production of oolong and black tea, the leaves are dried or fermented which causes a loss of EGCG.
Researchers and scientists in the West are only now discovering what the Chinese have known for thousands of years, that drinking green tea is good for you.
There is new research coming out all the time about the health benefits of drinking green tea.
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