Week 2 of 52 Weeks to Wellness
Drink 2 to 3 cups of green tea every day. Drinking 2 to 3 cups of green tea per day may increase your metabolism up to 5%, which may help with weight loss. Studies have also linked diets that include green tea with lower risk of heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer – particularly skin, breast, lung, colon, esophageal and bladder cancer.
Green tea contains antioxidants properties, polyphenols, theanine, as well as a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. To understand green tea benefits for one’s health, all you have to do is take a closer look at the compounds…
Polyphenols Polyphenols are a class of phytochemicals found in high concentrations in green tea. These have been associated with heart disease and cancer prevention. The slight astringent, bitter taste of green tea is attributed to polyphenols.
Tannins Tannins are a group of simple and complex phenol, polyphenols, and flavonoid compounds. Produced by plants, all of the tannins are relatively resistant to digestion or fermentation.
Catechins Catechins are a category of polyphenols. In green tea, catechins are present in significant quantities, more specifically: epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin gallate (ECG) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG makes up about 10-50% of the total catechin content and appears to be the most powerful of the catechins, with antioxidant activity about 25-100 times more potent than vitamins C and E. A cup of green tea may provide 10-40mg of polyphenols and has antioxidant activity greater than a serving of broccoli, spinach, carrots or strawberries.
Flavonoids Flavonoids are plant pigments, and are the brightly colored chemical constituents found in most fresh fruits and vegetables. They may aid in protecting against infection.
Theanine Theanine is an amino acid that produces tranquilizing effects in the brain. Theanine is a unique amino acid found in the leaves sencha. Theanine is quite different from the polyphenols and catechin antioxidants for which green tea is typically consumed. Three to four cups of sencha are expected to contain 100-200 mg of theanine.
What is even better than green tea by itself? Well, the benefit of getting an even BETTER benefit! The study by Purdue University researchers, published in the November 2007 Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, involved putting green tea alone and with various additives through a model simulating gastric and small-intestinal digestion. They found that catechins are unstable in non-acidic environments such as the intestines and less than 20 percent of the total remains after digestion. But adding vitamin C (which is done in ready-to-drink products to increase shelf life) increased recovered levels of the two most abundant catechins by sixfold and 13-fold, respectively.
More Green Tea Benefit resources:
A Pilot Study of the Role of Green Tea on Oral Health
11 Benefits of Green Tea That You Didn’t Know About
8 Surprising Benefits of Green Tea