Traditional Chinese Medicine - Chinese Herbs : The Health Benefits Of Drinking Green Tea

The origin of tea can be traced back to over 4000 yearsago in China. According to Chinese legend the emporer ShenNong, a scholar and medical expert discovered tea in 2737B.C. One day while he was boiling water under a tea tree, a leaf from the tree dropped into the water and Shen Nungdecided to try the brew. The drink was found to be not only invigorating but also to be a rather powerful medication.The emporer immediatedly placed Green tea on his list of medicinal herbs.

The three main types of tea are green tea, oolong tea and black tea. All come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis.Herbal and fruit teas come from plants and fruits and are not tea in the strictest sense of the word. The difference between green, oolong and black tea is due to the method bywhich the tea is produced. With black tea the Camelliasinensis leaves, after they are plucked are left out long enough for them to fully oxidize before being dried. Inthe case of oolong tea the leaves are only partially oxidized and dried, but in the production of green tea theleaves are steamed, rolled and dried before the oxidization process can begin. Thus with Green tea a more significantpart of the nutritional and enzyme content of the leaf is left intact.

The benefits of Green tea to one's health has been increasingly demonstrated by modern scientific research. Many of these health benefits come from the fact that tea contains high levels of antioxidants called polyphenols or flavonoids. These compounds are most prevalent in green andwhite teas, but are also present in varying degrees in Oolongs and black teas. Green tea flavonoids showantioxidant activity. Antioxidants impair the ability of free radical cells to harm the molecules that make up ourbodies. We all know that fruit and vegetables are goodsources of antioxidants but recent scientific research have shown that one or two cups of green tea has the same 'radical scavenging capacity' as five portions of fruit and vegetables. Of course we should all eat plenty of fruit and vegetables every day but why not top up our antioxidant intake by also drinking green tea every day!

Green tea offers many health benefits. Recent medicalstudies suggest green tea to be of benefit in many areas including the following:

Another potentially huge benefit of green tea could as anaid to weight loss. In fact this area is already attracting huge attention. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition recently published the results of research conducted over aperiod of 6 weeks in which a group of healthy men weregiven green tea extract whilst the other men in the studywere not given the extract. Calorific useage was measured on a daily basis and the results concluded that the mentaking the green tea extract burned more calories than themen not given the extract. Other studies show very similar results. More research needs to be conducted in this area but the signs so far are encouraging. Anyone for green tea?!!