This Is What Nutritionists Say Drinking Green Tea Daily Can Do To Your Health

It doesn’t end there, either. You can find simple recipes online for tea-infused puddings, brownies and even ice cream. Cooks can also use the tea leaves for hot recipes such as stew and fried chicken. Perhaps this is one of the reasons tea sales have been rising for the past eight years.

For the most part tea sales in the U.S. have grown considerably since 2012 according to website statista.com. The industry saw figures of $9,165 million that year and those numbers have increased in increments ever since. For example, revenue reached $10,921 million in 2016 and $12,963 million in 2019. So far 2020 is the exception, but rising sales are expected to resume again in the next few years.

It’s no secret that traditionally green tea has a reputation as being healthy. And maybe it’s this rising trend that inspired nutritionists to take a closer look at the beverage. Whatever the reason, that’s exactly what they did. The results of these experiments were certainly enlightening, and they may just surprise you.

No doubt you’ve heard that green tea originates from the Orient, and in that you’d be correct. To be more specific, as far as anyone can tell tea was first grown as a crop in China roughly 5,000 years ago. However, the precise details are somewhat unclear.

That is to say, historians are unsure which one of the several stories regarding green tea’s discovery is true. One tale tells the story of Chinese emperor ShenNung who drank hot water into which a Camellia sinensis tea blossom accidentally fell. The flavor was unlike anything he’d tasted before and led to the mass production of the beverage.

Other tales similarly recount how someone tastes the leaves accidentally and discovers green tea. But the real story may well be lost to the past. What isn’t, on the other hand, is how the drink came to American shores. That’s because it happened as recently as the 16th century, which isn’t all that long ago historically speaking.

Traders visiting China from Europe couldn’t get enough of tea and imported it for themselves. From there it grew in popularity after its arrival on U.S. shores with colonists, who were apparently avid drinkers of the beverage even back then. Britain was America’s provider until they hiked up their taxes, after which America turned to India for its tea fix.

There doesn’t seem to be any historical record of India acquiring green tea, but they did. What’s more, the East India Trading Company was happy to provide. And from then on, tea has been a staple of America. George Washington even enjoyed his tea, although admittedly he could afford the good stuff – something not all citizens could.

And did you know that both “regular” or black tea and green tea both come from the same plant? Tea-growers harvest and dry leaves from the aforementioned Camellia sinensis bush. If the leaves are oxidized before brewing they produce the sweeter-tasting black tea. Otherwise the brew is green; either way, the drink is naturally caffeinated.

Since green tea is so popular news has likewise spread about the good things it does for your health. But is there any truth to the rumors? There are certainly a lot of stories regarding the drink’s wonderful properties. However, not all of them are accurate, as researchers have discovered.

Good Housekeeping magazine had its nutrition editor, Jaclyn London, look into several of these supposed beneficial effects. It discovered that a few of the rumors are just that and unlikely to produce the intended effect. What’s more, depending on the amount imbibed and how it’s taken, green tea-infused drinks may actually make health issues worse, not better.

For example, the idea that green tea increases your basic metabolic rate (BMR) is a common misconception. The theory is that the beverage somehow bolsters your BMR, which in turn makes several body functions more efficient. Your immune system is among them, as well as your muscle and bone structure.

So where did the idea that tea can boost our metabolism come from? Well it’s hard to say, but according to Good Housekeeping, researchers have performed some experiments on the subject. Indeed, its website stated that a few different small studies had posited a causal link between green tea and a higher BMR.

These studies’ findings did indeed indicate that there was an increase in the subjects’ BMR, but with a caveat. The test groups drank several cups of green tea a day, giving each subject an enhanced level of caffeine. As a result, London explained that those figures were misleading – and of course, caffeine has its own drawbacks.

Because it’s commonly found in many beverages, it’s easy to forget that caffeine is technically a drug. It interacts with your central nervous system to create all sorts of side effects. It can make you irritable, jittery and cause withdrawal effects to name just a few. Admittedly, not all of the effects of caffeine stimulation are bad, though.

Being more alert and potentially even reducing the risk of suicide by making drinkers feel better are among caffeine’s benefits. But obviously, it needs to be taken in moderation, whether via green tea or any other beverage. So what about the concept that green tea can act as an anti-aging tonic?

That’s right, many people believe that drinking green tea can help keep you looking young. Good Housekeeping’s London, on the other hand, debunked this myth and stated that it’s simply not the case. In fact, the website’s team spoke to the staff of GH Health, Beauty and Environmental Labs on the subject.

They asserted that green tea doesn’t contain ingredients that “behave like Botox in a bottle,” as some might think. It’s also not a good idea to overindulge in green tea since it’s stronger than the black variant. Because it’s so widely considered as a healthy beverage, though, there’s always the temptation to consume large amounts.

According to an article published on website The Science Times in January 2020, some green tea enthusiasts have up to six cups a day. That’s actually the maximum daily consumption the website recommends. Having two or three (non-sugared) cups a day – or ideally, one after every meal – is apparently far healthier. You should avoid milk too, which reacts badly with green tea.

Although it’s starting to sound like green tea has little to offer in the way of health benefits, actually the opposite is the case. A lot of stories about what the beverage can do for you are actually true, as London explained. During her myth-debunking, the nutrition editor also revealed how the drink can help you. You might be surprised by just how wondrous it is.

Let’s begin with a big one: evidence suggests that green tea-drinkers have a reduced risk of cancer. Back in 2002 in Georgia, Augusta University’s Department of Oral Biology and Maxillofacial Pathology investigated the effects of green tea on cancerous cells. They discovered that one specific component of the beverage actually kills tumors.

To be more specific green tea contains polyphenols, which is a type of micronutrient we ingest from plants. Among other things, polyphenols contain another component you may know:. They’re commonly associated with superfoods such as blueberries and renowned for the benefits they provide when added to our diets.

Some body processes cause our cells to produce a waste product called free radicals. They can slowly damage us over time, but antioxidants fight this process to an extent. And since polyphenols also contain antioxidants, they already provide health benefits. But the 2002 study found they also cause something called apoptosis in tumors.

In layman’s terms, apoptosis is another word for the death of cells. But in the case of green tea polyphenols the effect is focused purely on cancer cells such as oral cancer. It’s currently a mystery why healthy cells are overlooked and left unharmed even to the scientists performing the research. But that’s not all they found.

A particularly powerful polyphenol called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) also seems to limit the spread of certain mouth cancers. The study concluded, “Therefore, regular consumption of green tea could be beneficial in the prevention of oral cancer.” This was further confirmed by a study review in 2018. It apparently found the beverage’s chemopreventive effects also extended to breast cancer.

Flavonoids are another plant-based antioxidant in green tea that have been tied to various health benefits. In 2013 The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study from a team investigating flavonoids. They came to the conclusion that regular consumption of green tea can reduce the risk of heart disease.

The question of whether consumption of tea and coffee increases the chances of heart disease is a recurring concern. With this in mind, Lenore Arab, Faraz Khan and Helen Lam set out to provide a definitive answer. To do so they reviewed past experiments across three sources of collected data, which individually have provided inconsistent results.

After poring over the evidence, the team’s findings convinced them that tea does indeed help prevent some heart health issues. While various studies indicated this was true for both black and green tea, the latter provided the strongest correlation. However, their research did encounter some complications regarding where the studies were performed.

Green tea is more commonly consumed in Eastern countries than Western ones. As a result, the majority of research into its properties is performed there. Thus, cultures who regularly drink green tea may have a higher baseline resistance to heart disease as a result. However, the team believe that there’s enough evidence in the reviewed databases to support their conclusions.

Green tea is also beneficial if your blood sugar levels are higher than desired, and the drink might even assist people living with diabetes. Ordinarily our bodies absorb carbohydrates and sugars from food we eat and blood sugar levels are controlled by naturally-occurring insulin. Diabetes essentially throws a monkey wrench into this process by altering insulin levels and performance.

And that’s where green tea’s EGCG polyphenols come in again, because they act as a form of insulin. In fact, Dr. Minowada of Japan’s Kyoto University had discovered the benefits of green tea for hospitalized diabetes sufferers back in the 1930s. Sadly, soon after World War II started, and the medic’s findings were overlooked, but they have since been reviewed.

Minowada reported that black and green teas seemed to produce health benefits for his patients. What’s more, New York’s Pacific College of Health and Science has since stated that other studies appeared to confirm the conclusion, and it’s all down to flavonoids. If experts are correct they lower the amount of glucose our bodies absorb from food, making green tea an ideal meal accompaniment.

Of course, this is all assuming you take green tea unsweetened. Since the drink’s renowned for its health-elevating properties, cooks are using it more as an ingredient. This is evident by how many recipes you can find online that include green tea. However, some recipes are heavy in sugar, which negates the benefits that the substance’s polyphenols would otherwise provide.

But if you think that green tea is purely a physically beneficial drink, you need to think again. It’s actually considered quite a soothing drink. That is, providing you don’t have an intolerance to its natural caffeine content and you don’t drink too much. A study in 2012 in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology found it can both reduce stress and boost your mood.

The study incorporated a group of volunteers who had a higher blood pressure response than the baseline after mental tasks. The researchers then took note of what effects green tea had on those same people. The results indicated that those who imbibed tea were less stressed after the event than those who didn’t.

The scientists attributed the results to an amino acid chemical present in tea leaves called L-theanine. Alongside caffeine, experts have linked this substance to mood enhancement and in the case of green tea, it’s no exception. “The findings… denote that L-theanine not only reduces anxiety, but also attenuates the blood-pressure increase in high-stress-response adults,” the authors concluded.

So there you have it. Although some stories about green tea’s wonderful properties are exaggerated, it provides many incredible benefits. What’s more, it’s a wonderful way to start your day or finish a meal. So If you’re not sensitive to caffeine give it a try – it might be just your cup of tea.