Green Tea and Your Health

Green tea has been used as for medical remedies in China since ancient times. It was said to have many health benefits and be a remedy for many ailments. It is also said that the Japanese owe their slim figures to green tea.
Today, scientist in Asia and the west are providing scientific evidence that green tea is the main cause of this.
Green tea has been shown to do many things including:
- Inhibit the growth of new cancer cells and kill existing cancer cells
- Promote weight loss helping the body burn up to 10 percent more body fat.
- Increase energy expenditure up to 4 percent.
- Prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol.
- Reduce the risk of colon, breast, and lung cancer.
- Boost the immune system.
- Have an anti-inflammatory effect making it a good supplement for those with arthritis.
- Help in the prevention of tooth decay.
Green Tea Differs from Other Types of Tea
By doing this the leaves remain green and active substances that are contained in the leaves keep their healthful qualities. Made from the plant so that oxidation of the leaves is prevented. What makes green tea different from other tea is the process in which it is made.
Side Effects of Green Tea
Thus making green tea one of the best supplements available. There are no reported harmful side effects in drinking green tea or taking green tea extract capsules.
Use of Green Tea
There are 2 ways of supplementing your diet with green tea:
- Drinking green tea: 2 to 3 cups daily.
- Green tea capsules or tablets: 2 capsules or tablets of green tea extract daily.

Green Tea And Weight Loss

There's recently been a LOT in the weight loss news concerning green tea.
Green tea's weight loss effects have been causing more and more people to start sipping the ancient Japanese brew.
This article gives you the real facts about drinking green tea to lose weight. And does it really work or is it all just hype? But just how does green tea help you lose weight?
Advantages of Drinking Green Tea for Weight Loss:
1) Green tea revs up your metabolism
A study reported on in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that green tea extract resulted in a significant increase in energy expenditure (a metabolism 'boost').
The researchers also concluded that that over a 24-hour period, green tea extract increases the metabolic rate by 4%. These effects are probably due to the high concentrations of catechin polyphenols found in green tea. These work to help intensify levels of fat oxidation and thermogenesis (the rate at which your body burns calories).
2) Green tea inhibits fat absorption and helps glucose regulation
Experts tell us that the catechins in green tea help to inhibit the movement of glucose into fat cells. Green tea may also act as al glucose regulator. It helps to slow the rise in blood sugar after a meal. This prevents high insulin spikes (lots of insulin promotes fat storage) and the subsequent fat storage.
3) Green tea may help reduce appetite
This may have something to do with the blood sugar regulating effects of green tea. Rats injected with a green tea extract lost their appetites and consumed up to 60 percent less food after seven days of daily injections. Scientists at the University of Chicago found that green tea caused rats to lose up to 21 percent of their body weight.
4) Green tea can help you save calories on your morning brew.
Be it the regular double-cream, double-sugar standard or that mocha, dappa, frappucinno, the calories we ingest just to get our morning caffeine is wreaking havoc on our waistlines. We are a nation hooked on our java.
You'll definitely notice the difference in your waistline after a few weeks. Or have a green tea in the afternoon instead of that 700 calorie mocha-chillate dream. If you want to save mega-calories in the morning but still get your caffeine fix, try substituting green tea for coffee.
So there are 4 ways that green tea can help you with weight loss. But how much do you actually have to drink to get these amazing metabolism boosting effects?
Pretty good for not exercising or cutting calories, right? Doing this can help you burn an extra 70 calories per day which amounts to 7 pounds per year. Experts vary but the general consensus seems to be that 3 - 5 cups of green tea per day is optimal.
However, 3 - 5 cups can be a lot for some people, so you might also want to consider green tea extract, green tea pills or a green tea patch.
Disadvantages of Drinking Green Tea For Weight Loss:
#1) Green tea is not a magic bullet
A healthy diet and increased exercise will go a long way in helping you lose weight and keep it off. You're not going to eat 5000 calories a day, drink a cup of green tea and make it all go away - it just isn't going to happen. While some people will tell you that green tea is the be-all-end-all for weight loss success, I think the keyword here is balance.
#2) Be cautious of the caffeine if you have health problems
Most green tea extract is made from decaffeinated green tea so you can still get the weight loss benefits without the caffeine. If you're worried about the caffeine from green tea, try taking green tea extract. For some people that have heart troubles, high blood pressure or stimulant sensitivities, the caffeine in green tea may not be the best idea.
Also make sure to consult your doctor before starting green tea if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Also make sure to consult your doctor before starting green tea for weight loss. Also make sure to consult your doctor before starting green tea for weight loss.

If you think the caffeine may be a problem, make sure to consult your doctor before starting green tea for weight loss.
While it's not the magic bullet, it can definitely give you a boost in weight loss and in your overall health! Bottom Line: Green tea helps you with weight loss by boosting your metabolic rate, regulating your blood sugar, suppressing your appetite and giving you something else besides that high calorie, high sugar coffee beverage to drink in the morning.
Kathryn O'Neill is a contributing writer to
Diet and Weight Loss Reviews
.
For more free weight loss tips and diet reviews, visit
http://www.FreeToBeThin.com
.

Green Tea vs Black Tea - Which Is Better?

Which tea is better - green tea or black tea? As we all know, green tea is a very powerful weapon against several illnesses. But how about black tea? Do we also get health benefits from it?
Black tea does have several health benefits but they are not nearly as wide-ranging and powerful as those of green tea.
But what makes green tea more beneficial than black tea?
Catechins are, by the way, the one responsible for green tea's amazing health benefits. Catechins are green tea's main ingredient containing eight times more than black tea. The answer is "catechins"!
Bottom line is that the more catechins a tea has, the better it is for your general health.
Unfortunately, these catechins are mostly oxidized into theaflavins and thearubigens during the manufacture of black tea.
Theaflavins and thearubigens do have some of their own health benefits, but they can't compare with the wide-ranging effects of green tea's catechins, particularly the powerful EGCG.
While a cup of black tea contains about 5- 10 mg of the powerful catechin EGCG, a cup of green tea contains more than eight times than amount, or 40-90 mg.
Although green and black teas came from the same plant - Camellia Sinensis, what makes them different from each other in terms of taste and health benefits is the processing method.
This processing is so minimal that green tea can be consumed the same leaves are picked. When making green tea, processors lightly steam or gently heat the leaves to stop the oxidation process.
On the other hand, tea leaves designed to become black tea are allowed to oxidize and undergo considerably more processing, including a fermentation process that produces the dark-brown and even reddish color of black tea.
But the process used to make a black tea destroys compounds called polyphenols. It is the polyphenols that are responsible for the long list of health benefits of green tea.
Despite its stronger color and flavor, black tea cannot come close to green tea as far as health benefits are concerned.
Because green tea's processing is as little as possible, green tea retains its original polyphenols.
Rose Antonio has been a green tea drinker for many, many years. She has a special interest in alternative healing and natural remedies.
Though she has tried different types of tea from different countries, she always go back to Japanese Green Tea not only because of its taste but more so because of its amazing health benefits gathered from years and years of research and from talking to many health enthusiasts.

Can Green Tea Help With Gastrointestinal Illnesses?

For the last several years, there has been an abundance of research on the effects of green tea and the many health benefits that it can offer. For centuries, Asians have used green tea for health, both to prevent disease and treat illnesses.
Green tea is not fermented during processing, but black tea does go through a fermentation process. The differences occur from the differences in how the tea is processed. There are many different types of tea, but they all come from this plant. Tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant.
For this reason, green tea has more healthy anti-oxidants and therefore more health benefits than black tea. These new compounds are not as healthy as the unaltered catechins in a tea leaf in its original state. Fermenting the tea leaves, converts the catechins to other compounds. Tea leaves naturally contain anti-oxidants.
Anti-oxidants are critical to our health because they combat free radicals. Each day, as we convert food to energy, we create these free radicals in our body, which damage our cells and our DNA. Over time, these unchecked free radicals cause disease and aging.
Fruits and vegetables are also great anti-oxidant sources. For this reason, large doses of anti-oxidants, particularly those like the ones found in green tea, have been found to prevent many types of disease, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease and potentially other diseases, as well.
For this reason, green tea seems to calm the inflammation that accompanies inflammatory bowel disease and other gastrointestinal problems. One study reported by the UK Tea Council found that green tea's anti-oxidants spend a lot of time in the intestinal tract, and have an anti-inflammatory effect on this part of the body. But, recently there has been powerful news about the possible effects of green tea on gastrointestinal problems, like inflammatory bowel disease.
This theory stands to reason, since green tea is known to have an anti-inflammatory effect all over the body. These powerful anti-inflammatory effects are also thought to be one of the reasons that green tea is effective at preventing and treating heart disease.
Inflammatory bowel disease refers to a group of disorders that cause the intestines to become inflamed (red and swollen). The inflammation often lasts a long time and comes back repeatedly. Over 600,000 Americans suffer from some sort of inflammatory bowel disease every year.
Inflammatory bowel diseases can cause cramping, pain, diarrhea, weight loss and bleeding in your intestines. Two of the most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease are Chron's disease and ulcerative colitis.
Crohn's disease causes ulcers along the small and large intestines. However, it can sometimes also cause inflammation around the rectum, too. Ulcerative colitis causes ulcers in the lower part of the large intestine, sometimes starting at the rectum.
We don't fully understand what causes inflammatory bowel diseases, though we do know that it runs in families. It may be caused by a germ or problem with your immune system. It is usually diagnosed through x-rays and other tests that look directly into your intestines to find evidence of damage.
Inflammatory bowel diseases are not life threatening, but they can be very painful and disruptive to your life. In most cases, they are treated with anti-inflammatory medications, and sometimes anti-biotics, if the particular problem seems to be caused by an infection. In extreme cases of ulcerative colitis, surgery is sometimes performed to remove part of the colon. Surgery doesn't seem to have any effect on Crohn's disease.
Because the typical treatment is designed to reduce the inflammation in the intestines, it stands to reason that green tea would hold much promise in treatment. It is likely that many inflammatory bowel disease patients could find some relief very quickly by incorporating green tea into their diets.
Because sufferers of inflammatory bowel diseases are often placed on diets that call for reduced amounts of fiber, they often don't eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. The fiber in fruits and vegetables can further irritate the bowels. This means that they may not be getting all the anti-oxidants they need, particularly since they may need more than the average person to reduce the inflammation in their systems. This makes green tea the perfect alternative; it provides powerful anti-oxidants with zero fiber.
If you suffer from any form of irritable bowel disease, it's a good idea to give green tea a try. It has no side effects and is well tolerated by most people, regardless of their health issues. While it does contain caffeine, it is usually well tolerated even by the caffeine sensitive, because its caffeine level is very low. Adding some green tea to your diet may be a simple way to get some relief from the painful symptoms of irritable bowel diseases.
Jon M. Stout is the Chairman of the Golden Moon Tea Company. Golden Moon Tea carefully selects the finest rare and orthodox teas, which are processed slowly and handcrafted with extreme care. At their website, you can learn more about their current
tea
offerings, including their exceptional
green tea
, white tea, black tea, oolong tea (also known as wu-long and
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) and chai. Visit goldenmoontea.com for all details concerning the Golden Moon Tea Company's fine line of teas.

The Many Benefits of Green Tea Extract

The Benefits of Green Tea Extract: Anti-Aging, Anti-Cancer, Weight Control
Green tea: Here are just a few. One of the great advancements in nutrition in the twenty-first century is the scientific confirmation of the many benefits of green tea extract.
Lowers cholesterol
Slows arthritis
Prevents the growth of cancer cells
Assists weight loss
What accounts for the health benefits of green tea extract? Over 1,800 scientific studies have found that the active constituents in green tea are powerful antioxidants. These are called polyphenols (catechins) and flavonols. Epigallocatechin gallate (you can just call it EGCG) is the most powerful of these antioxidants.
Milligram for milligram, EGCG has 25 to 100 times the antioxidant power of vitamins C and E. A cup of green tea has more antioxidants than a serving of broccoli, spinach, carrots or strawberries.


These abundant antioxidants power the benefits of green tea extract. They keep DNA intact and they stabilize the membranes of cells. These effects of green tea make it a powerful support in many health conditions. Let's look at the benefits of green tea supplements in more detail.


Green tea has been shown to lower "bad" LDL cholesterol and serum triglyceride levels.


Who would have imagined that simple green tea could be as potent as Lipitor or Zocor or Crestin with none of their side effects? Scientific studies show that middle-aged men and women in Japan who drink 2 or more cups of green tea a day almost always have normal cholesterol. Scientists have also recently reported that if you drink green tea after you eat a fatty food, less cholesterol will go into you bloodstream.


And if you have high cholesterol when you begin taking green tea supplements, your body will convert less of it into a form that clogs your arteries.


Green tea protects your joints against osteoarthritis.


This is one of the least known but most beneficial effects of green tea extract. Green tea prevents inflammation. When there is less inflammation, there is less wear and tear on your joints.


Green tea prevents the growth of cancer cells.


The EGCG in green tea prevents cancer cells from growing by binding to a specific enzyme. This health benefit of green tea is especially important in cancers of the prostate, breast, and lung.


Researchers studied two groups of men who a pre-cancerous condition of the prostate. One consumed the equivalent of 12 to 15 cups of green tea a day. One did not. One year later, 30% of the men who did not consume green tea supplements developed prostate cancer. Only 3% of the men who took green tea supplements developed cancer.


Another of the benefits of green tea extract is support for women who have breast cancer. Green tea provides chemicals that bind estrogen. This hormone is not then free to stimulate breast cancer cells.


Women who consume the greatest amount of green tea before menopause have the least severe forms of breast cancer when the disease occurs. Women who drink green tea are less likely to have recurrences of breast cancer after treatment. And most important of all, women who consume green tea are 50% less likely to develop breast cancer at all.


Another of the benefits of green tea extract is protection against lung cancer.
The Japanese have both the highest rate of smoking and the lowest rate of lung cancer in the developed world. Japanese smokers who consume a lot of green tea seem to be protected against lung cancer.


And green tea can even help you lose weight. In a clinical trial, men eating a high-fat diet were given enough green tea provide the caffeine in a single cup of coffee. Although this amount of caffeine has no effect on weight loss, when the caffeine comes from green tea, it is highly significant.


The green tea supplement boosted the number of calories burned by 4.5%. While this is just 135 calories a day, the study showed that taking green supplements could help the average man on a high-fat diet lose 18 lbs (8 kg) in a year's time. It could help the average woman on a high-fat diet lose 11 pounds (5 kg). This is without eating less or exercising more.



How Can I Take Green Tea?



The benefits of green tea extract are greatest if you take green tea supplements rather than drink green tea. A study in the December 2004 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition confirmed that green supplements get more antioxidants into your bloodstream that drinking green tea. Two capsules of green tea extract a day can provide all the benefits of 20 cups of green tea-all you need to support even difficult health conditions.


Green tea is safe and effective. Take 1 to 3 capsules of green extract every day. It is better to take green tea supplements in the morning or afternoon rather than at night. In the unlikely event of stomach upset, take with food.
Oktay Özadam has an avid interest in health and well-being and is a senior editor of
Nutritional Supplements Health Guide
The site discusses about vitamins, minerals, medicinal herbs, and other health supplements. .

Tea’s Important Role in Reducing Disease

Recently it has been shown that high quality teas have many health benefits, especially Black and Green Tea. With all the news on Black and Green Tea lately, you may be considering adding it to your daily diet regime. If that is so, only use the best quality and freshest tea available for the maximum health benefits.
Millions of people all of the world have been drinking tea for centuries. In America it has been considered a cheap convenient drink for soothing the soul and stimulating the senses. Yet there is a far more important reason that people drink tea more than any other beverage: the tea leaf has potent health-enhancing powers. The Japanese have known this for thousands of years and the modern West is just catching up to the remarkable health benefits of drinking tea.
Some of the benefits derived from drinking tea are reducing cholesterol, preventing tooth decay, strengthening the immune system, helping to prevent heart disease and stroke and reduce the risk of cancer.
It has been found by researchers that more than in any other foods, tea has the most potent free-radical fighters of all. This helps in reducing cell damage that can lead to cancer, heart disease, high cholesterol and other serious illnesses. Polyphenols act as antioxidants in the body.

The active ingredients in black and green tea are flavonoids called polyphenols.
There was a study done with 800 hundred men. It showed that those that ate the most flavonoids had a 58 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease that those that did not. Those men that consumed four cups of black tea per day were the healthiest among the group.
This makes it a worthy consideration for adding tea to your diet. In addition to that it has been found that tea reduces tumor formation and is linked to lower levels of breast, lung, esophageal, pancreatic, colon, skin, stomach, liver and small intestine cancers.
Another startling study was done by a team of Italian researchers on the effects of green tea on men prone to prostate cancer. The study used 62 high risk men who had previously had precancerous lesions, (which often turn into prostate cancer within one year). All of the men were between the ages of 45 and 75 exuding vegetarians and men who already consumed green tea.
These results were amazing, and another reason, in my humble opinion, that green tea should be added to your diet. Thirty two men in the control group developed prostate cancer, while nine of the placebo group developed the disease.
So if you drink any tea purchase only the freshest, highest quality and if you take green tea supplements be sure that they do not have fillers or caffeine. In using the best quality teas available you increase your rate of success.
Also try adding some herbal teas, many of which can aide in digestion, cold relief, and sleeplessness. Yes, you can steep longer to get more compounds, but the tea will become bitter and therefore unpalatable. For best results with black or green teas steep for three minutes to get all of the beneficial compounds.
Tea for Health and Longevity!