When it comes to health and holistic living, you won’t spend much time researching until you come across the recommendation of incorporating green tea into your diet. The elements of this natural wonder offer many benefits for health and vitality. The body’s positive response to this plant-based beverage is as plentiful as the methods of introducing it into the diet.
Health Benefits of Incorporating Green Tea into Your Daily Diet
Incorporating the benefit of green tea into your daily living can be accomplished in a number of different ways. The most obvious is by drinking it. Some people see a cup of hot green tea as a substitute for their morning java. Others may look to add a cold green tea beverage over the course of the day. For those who can’t seem to develop a taste for green tea in the form of a beverage, they may be interested in aroma oil to engage the properties in a more direct method of delivery. Many other cosmetic or toiletry items, such as creams, lotions, shampoos, etc., may contain green tea fragrances or extracts, but those are not as likely to result in health advantages.
Antioxidants are naturally occurring substances found within foods that have been found to therapeutic properties to the individual cells of the body. Green tea is packed with antioxidants, and it’s those antioxidants that spur the body on to positive results. Take a look at the many ways that green tea can improve your wellness.
Brain Function
Many people use caffeine products to help fight off the early morning sluggishness that those who are not naturally “morning people” may experience. Green tea is the most recommended form of caffeine as the amount of caffeine is typically lower as compared to coffee. The lower percentage of caffeine results is a reduced experience of what coffee-drinkers may refer to as the jitters.
As caffeine hits the brain, it blocks adenosine, which is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. When this happens, there is an increase in the number of neurons that begin to fire off. The result is an increase in the neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine. The effect on the body is heightened brain function, mood boost, quicker reaction times, and better ability to retain information.
Green tea, specifically among caffeine products, then boosts the results thanks to another ingredient, L-theanine. This amino acid has been shown to cross what is known as the blood-brain barrier. In so doing, it increases the production of another inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA. The sum of the L-theanine and the caffeine creates a buzz of brain function that other caffeinated beverages cannot match. That window of increased brain sharpness lasts longer and doesn’t cause a reflexive crash that many caffeinated drinks are famous for.
Cancer-Fighting
Antioxidants help the body to prevent inflammation. When inflammation is prevalent and long-term, the body begins to develop chronic conditions. One such condition is cancer. Antioxidants’ introduction can help the body by reducing the oxidate damage that so often creates the early stages of those cycles.
Antioxidants and green tea should not be thought of as a cure for cancer. Still, longitudinal studies conducted on those who drink green tea suggests that green tea drinkers were between 20% – 40% less likely to receive a cancer diagnosis of certain types of cancers, specifically breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers. Again, further studies are needed to prove that the connection and how green tea may be correlated, but at least in the preliminary, there seems to be a significant correlation.
Fat Loss
There are many products on the market that are purposed to help those who wish to lose weight. If you read the label for their ingredients, most of which will include elements of green tea. What is it about green tea that makes it such an excellent ingredient for these products? While studies have not been perfectly conclusive, most studies lean towards the notion that green tea aids in increasing the metabolic rate, which helps the body to burn calories more effectively. The more calories that are burned, the quick weight loss results are realized.
Reduce Heart Disease
High levels of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, commonly referred to as bad cholesterol, are the top risk factors for those who experience cardiovascular diseases. Again, the presence of antioxidants within the bloodstream work to prevent those LDL particles from becoming oxidized and setting the conditions towards heart disease and stroke.
Those who have a habit of drinking green tea regularly typically show comparatively lower total and LDL cholesterol levels. Knowing that those levels contribute significantly to cardiovascular disease, it follows that incorporating green tea into the diet can subsequently reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Prevent Diabetes
Current statistics now suggest that type 2 diabetes affects approximately 1 in 10 Americans. Diabetes is a condition that presents in three possible ways: the body does not produce enough insulin on its own, the body becomes unable to utilize insulin necessary to stabilize the amount of glucose or elevated levels of glucose in the bloodstream to levels that offset proper function. When the glucose level becomes elevated, the body can experience unwelcome, even fatal, effects on the circulatory, immune or nervous system.
Green tea can help with each of these factors by improving the sensitivity the body has to insulin or by reducing the level of glucose. Japanese studies demonstrated that those who frequently drank green tea were about half as likely to exhibit conditions associated with diabetes. It is believed that the elements of green tea help to reduce the glucose level.
Conclusion | Health Benefits of Incorporating Green Tea into Your Daily Diet
Whether you prefer to drink it, apply it topically, breathe in an infusion, or add it as an ingredient to your foods, the components of green tea can offer many health benefits. The impact of daily ingestion of those beneficial compounds can provide an everyday positive consequence in the way of immediate brain focus. It can also offer the hope of long-term overall health benefit of reducing the likelihood of several of the most common devastating diagnosis.