Be it green tea, milky tea, or a cup of strong tea, this humble drink has loads of benefits…

Tea is the second most widely consumed beverage in the world, exceeded only by the most necessary of all liquids – water. Tea is an integral part of everyday societal life in many of the world’s most populous countries. This has made tea the most popular beverage for a huge swath of the world’s people.

• Flavonoids in tea improve vascular dilation, which leads to the better functioning of the heart.
• Consuming three to four cups of tea each day lowers the risk of getting an Ischaemic stroke by 21%.

Tea is prepared from linder leaves, leaf buds and tender stalks of different varieties of the warm-weather evergreen known as camellia sinensis. The most popular types of tea are:

• Green Tea
• Black Tea

Other teas are:

• Ginseng Tea
• Herbal Tea
• Oolong Tea
• Rooibos Tea
• White Tea

The degree of processing the leaves of camellia sinensis determines whether a tea will be green, black or red (oolong). Green tea is the least processed. These are simply steamed quickly before packaging. Black and red tea are partially dried, crushed and fermented. The length of fermentation, which causes the leaves to blacken, determines whether the tea will be red or black.

Polyphenols in tea have been known to:

• Help protect cells from the normal, but damaging, physiological process known as “oxidative stress.” Although oxygen is vital to life, it’s also incorporated into reactive substances called free radicals. These can damage the cells in our body and have been implicated in the slow chain reaction of damage leading to heart disease and cancer.
• Help prevent blood clotting
• Help lower cholesterol levels
• Help neutralize enzymes that aid in the growth of tumors
• Help deactivate cancer promoters
• Help stimulate the immune system 
• Polyphenol which is abundant in green tea reactivates dying skin cells and protects the body from the ravages of aging and the effects of pollution.
• Antioxidant polyphenols found in tea have anticancer properties.

 

• L-theanine, found in green and black tea helps in relaxing the mind and helps you to focus on tasks.
• Tea also has fluoride which means stronger teeth. Drinking tea regularly means stronger bones.
• Boost your fight against the flu with black tea.
• Tea, if had without milk, has no calories and thus helps in reducing weight. Tea is also an allergy fighter.

So grab that cup of Tea!!