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Tea Benefits and Health

Treating colic in babies with Rooibos tea - April 30, 2012

Rooibos tea is widely used in South Africa for treating colic and a variety of other ailments in infants and children. One of the key factors in relieving symptoms of colic is related to sweetness, which is evident in the use of gripewater for infants. In gripewater, sugar is the source of sweetness, whereas with Rooibos tea, the sweetness is natural. Click here for full article.

Black Tea for a Healthy Heart - February 23, 2012

Recent findings published in the UK Nutrition Bulletin demonstrated a correlation between drinking black tea on a daily basis and reduced risk for heart attacks and diabetes. In fact, the study suggest that drinking 3 cups of black tea a day can reduce the risk for a heart attack by 60% and dramatically reduce the threat of diabetes. Antioxidant flavonoids and theanine, are the keys to preventing artery-blocking blood clots as well as controlling blood pressure. Full article here

Loose tea craze - separating the fad from reality - July 18, 2011

It seems as if drinking tea has now become quite socially acceptable, even for men. Everyone is drinking some type of tea these days, especially green tea. They have been told that tea will cure all their ills. Manufacturers have also jumped on the bandwagon with all kinds of crazy products, including slimming tea and green tea pills. If you think either slimming tea or pills with green tea extract is your ticket to losing weight and a healthy lifestyle, think again.

Loose tea is definitely a part of a healthly lifestyle, but tea in itself will not shed the pounds. Have you ever noticed that people who drink tea regularly seem to also pay attention to the other aspects of their health, such as what they eat or how much activity they get. There is no magic pill, and drinking loose tea every day will not single-handedly solve all your weight or health problems. That said, when combined with other healthy lifestyle choices, drinking tea can be very beneficial to your health. In fact, studies have shown a number of positive benefits from drinking tea, including improving cardiovascular health, reducing risk for some cancers and boosting one's immune system.

The Healing Power of Black Tea: Reversing Blood Vessel Disease - September 25, 2010

The Healing Power of Black Tea: Reversing Blood Vessel Disease

Green, black, and even white tea are all popular as beverages that offer health benefits such as the potential to prevent cancer and to help people lose weight. Black tea, however, is perhaps the first tea found to completely reverse a specific disease. Endothelial dysfunction is, essentially, an imbalance between the substances produced by the endothelium, or blood vessel lining. This imbalance can impair immune function, coagulation or clotting, and the number of electrolytes present in the blood. The condition has been associated with obesity, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), and various types of cardiac disease. In a study conducted by Stephen Duffy and his team from the Boston University School of Medicine, black tea was found to be a successful treatment for these health complications.

Conducting the Study

Duffy and his team randomly selected 66 patients with confirmed coronary artery disease (CAD), then administered both a short- and a long-term test to the subjects. The tests were given in a series of different treatments, rather than having a control group, so all subjects drank both tea and water. For the short-term test, subjects drank 450 mL of either tea or water, then underwent testing after two hours to determine the effects. The long-term test was similar, with the subjects drinking 900 mL of tea or water daily for four weeks. Ultrasounds were used to examine the subjects' arteries both before and after the experimental treatment, so water was proven to have no effect on artery disease while both short- and long-term consumption of black tea improved artery function significantly.

How Black Tea Helped Reverse CAD

The researchers behind this study didn't isolate any "precise mechanism" that enabled black tea to affect patients with CAD, but they gathered evidence that the benefits were related to the antioxidant flavonoids found in the tea. Flavonoids, also referred to as Vitamin P, are widely distributed in plants, and their antioxidant activity has been observed in controlled environments. The researchers believe that the number of flavonoids in diseased tissue was built up, positively affecting reduction-oxidation (redox) reactions taking place in the tissue. When Duffy and his team administered their short-term black tea test to healthy volunteers, they learned that tea consumption can increase the antioxidant activity of the blood's plasma. The implications of their findings are significant, suggesting that the prevention or reversal of endothelial dysfunction by black tea consumption could stop or reverse the development of more severe cardiovascular disease.

Duffy, Stephen J. et al. "Short and Long-Term Black Tea Consumption Reverses Endothelial Dysfunction in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease." American Heart Association, Inc. 2001.
Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident education blogger and performs research surrounding College Scholarships. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Photo: Public Domain
URL: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Ceylon_black_tea_leaves.jpg

Is your favorite loose tea from a farm or a factory? - March 8, 2010

After having watched the movie, Food Inc., I realized that there are many similarities between food and tea. If you know anything about the book or movie, you understand that most of the food we consume in the U.S. is processed in a factory environment from a small handful of large food companies. Even when you see the words "Farm Fresh" on the labels of your favorite beef or poultry, you can rest assured that the contents in the package most likely did not come directly from a farm. Everything today is highly processed and rarely fresh, primarily because it is cheaper to do so.

The same thing applies to your favorite loose tea. 99% of the tea in the supermarket or tea shops are highly processed, consist of factory blends produced by consolidators and are certainly not direct from tea gardens/farms. Why do they do this? It is cheaper, plain and simple. Just like there are very few retail choices for consumers to shop for organic meats, there are very few places for a tea drinker to purchase organic and garden-fresh loose tea.

The choice is yours. Pay a little more and eat better tasting and healthier food or eat cheap and risk your health. Also, if you are looking to make a change to a more organic lifestyle, do your research and visit your local natural foods stores.

Is drinking loose tea safe during pregnancy? - January 24, 2010

Drinking tea and how it can affect pregnancy is a subject that has recently become very near and dear to our hearts, given that my wife and I are expecting in the next few months. Naturally, as a regular loose tea drinker, my wife is wondering if a cup of tea a day is considered safe to drink without adding significant risk to the pregnancy. Most doctors will tell you, including ours, that everything in moderation is basically safe. While there have been studies that show large amounts of caffeine can have adverse effects on the fetus, there are no conclusive studies that rule out caffeine completely. If you are pregnant, the bottom line is listen to your doctor and also to your body. The following is a well written article on what is considered safe in terms of caffeine intake during pregnancy...read more.

Green tea - one study shows link between consumption and symptoms of depression - January 18, 2010

Just when you think you've seen every benefit to drinking green tea, another one comes along. In one particular study, Japanese researchers discovered that men and women aged 70 and older who drank more than four cups of green tea a day were 44 percent less likely to exhibit symptoms of depression. Read more...

Loose tea has more antioxidants than tea bags - August 30, 2009

Did you know that loose tea typically contains more antioxidants than your average tea bag? The reason for this is that loose tea is less processed than the dust and lower quality tea often used in tea bags.

Green tea and brain power - August 25, 2009

Most of us are familiar with the typical benefits offered by consuming loose tea, such as reducing risk to heart disease, aiding in the lowering of cholesterol, etc.. Recently, a research study discovered that those who drank 2 cups of green tea per day were practically 50% less likely to develop impairment issues with cognitive abilities than those who drank less than 3 cups of tea per week. There is still much research to be done with tea, but everyday, we learn something new about the benefits of drinking tea.

Loose tea vs. bottled tea - August 8, 2009

Bottled iced tea consumption may be on the rise, but what many consumers don't know is that the bottled iced tea isn't as healthy as it is often portrayed. In addition, many of them contain lots of added sugar, and many of the bottled products are not even made from brewing loose tea leaves but from tea extract.

For these reasons, bottled tea, also known as ready-to-drink tea (RTD), can contain much lower levels of flavonoids than freshly brewed loose tea. Flavonoids, as you know, are the primary form of antioxidants found in black, green and white tea. Of course, one of the primary reasons consumers opt for the bottled tea as opposed to loose tea is out of convenience.

With all the inexpensive gadgets available in the market, loose tea is so easy to brew and takes no more time than a tea bag. In fact, even iced tea is easy to make with many of the tea makers available today. So why cheat yourself out of better flavor and more antioxidants just for the sake of convenience?