Tea consumption had its origin in China almost 5,000 years ago. Green tea has been used as traditional medicine in areas such as China, Japan, India and Thailand to help everything from controlling bleeding and helping heal wounds to regulating body temperature, blood sugar and promoting digestion

Green tea is made solely with the leaves of Camellia sinensis, that has undergone minimal oxidation during processing. Green tea originates from China and has become associated with many cultures in Asia from Japan to the Middle East.

Tea is the most commonly consumed beverage in the world after water. Contain polyphenols which give tea its antioxidant properties. Antioxidants may help protect our body from free radical damage. Indeed, tea ranks as high as or higher than many fruits and vegetables.
Standardized extracts of green tea, typically containing 60 to 80% polyphenols are available on the supplement market.
Traditionally, 4-7g of loose green tea an average infusion may contain from 50 to 400mg of polyphenols per cup a dose of 500mg of green tea polyphenols, three or four times daily, has been recommended.

The secret of green tea lies in the fact it is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant: besides inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue.

Processing

Green tea is the least processed tea. They are simply steamed quickly. Black and red teas are partially dried, crushed and fermented. As we have mentioned before, regardless of the processing method, all teas contain polyphenols.

 

 

Brewing

2.25 grams of tea per 6 ounces of water, or about one teaspoon of green tea per cup, should be used. With very high quality teas like gyokuro, more than this amount of leaf is used, and the leaf is steeped multiple times for short durations.

Green tea brewing time and temperature varies with individual teas. The hottest brewing temperatures are 180°F to 190°F (82°C to 88°C) water and the longest steeping times 2 to 3 minutes. The coolest brewing temperatures are 140°F to 150°F (60°C to 66°C) and the shortest times about 30 seconds. In general, lower quality green teas are steeped hotter and longer, while higher quality teas are steeped cooler and shorter.
Steeping green tea too hot or too long will result in a bitter, astringent brew for low quality leaves. High quality green teas can be and usually are steeped multiple times; 2 or 3 steepings is typical. The brewing technique also plays a very important role to avoid the tea develop an overcooked taste. If a tea claims to be high grade but the vendor instructions says that boiling water mustn`t be used then there is a chance that the tea is not so high grade.

 

Herb Interaction

Green tea consists of high nutritional and medicinal values that help to treat and prevent everything from headaches to depression.

• Green tea contains polyphenolic catechins, which can act as antioxidants and potentially decrease risk for cardiovascular diseases.
• Act as an anti-inflammatory agent, possibly also due to the catechins’ antioxidant actions
• Have antiatherogenic activity, although the exact mechanism is still unclear.
• Have anticarcinogenic activity. EGCG may inhibit the proteolytic enzyme urokinase that cancer cells may use to invade normal tissue and form metastases.
• Promote thermogenesis possibly by inhibiting the enzyme catechol-O-methyl-transferase.
• Have antimicrobial activity, but the exact mechanism is unknown.

Potential effects of green tea on health

Drinking green tea can have a positive effect on the five vital organs, especially the heart. Many researchstudies has resulted that drinking green tea lowers total cholesterol levels as well as improving the ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol and also inhibits the growth of cancer levels. Effective in lowering LDL cholesterol levels, and inhibiting the abnormal formation of blood clots, thrombosis (the formation of abnormal blood clots) is the leading cause of heart attacks and stroke.

Antioxidant: Green tea polyphenolic antioxidants have been shown to possess anticarcinogenic properties which may have inhibitory effects on tumor formation, growth, invasion and metastasis.

• Increasing fat oxidation (helps the body use fat as an energy source) and raising metabolism.
• [the catechins in green tea] increase levels of the metabolism speeding brain chemical norepinephrine (noradrenaline).
• Reducing the negative effects of LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) by lowering levels of triglycerides and increasing the production of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol).
• The prevention and treatment of cancer
• Stopping certain neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Potent nutrients of green tea fight against various forms of cancer and heart diseases. Many research studies have been proved that green tea is more powerful than vitamin C and twenty times more powerful than vitamin E as an oxidant. The Antioxidants are required to prevent diseases, sustain health and improve longevity. Antioxidants neutralize and stop free radicals that are highly reactive chemical substances, which can damage cells such as DNA, leading to premature aging and diseases.

 

7 Reasons to Drink Green Tea

CUT YOUR CANCER RISK
Several polyphenols - the potent antioxidants green tea's famous for - seem to help keep cancer cells from gaining a foothold in the body, by discouraging their growth and then squelching the creation of new blood vessels that tumors need to thrive. Study after study has found that people who regularly drink green tea reduce their risk of breast, stomach, esophagus, colon, and/or prostate cancer.

SOOTHE YOUR SKIN
Got a cut, scrape, or bite, and a little leftover green tea? Soak a cotton pad in it. The tea is a natural antiseptic that relieves itching and swelling. Try it on inflamed breakouts and blemishes, sunburns, even puffy eyelids.

PROTECT YOUR SKIN
In the lab, green tea applied directly to the skin (or consumed) helps block sun-triggered skin cancer, which is why you're seeing green tea in more and more sunscreens and moisturizers.

STEADY YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE
Having healthy blood pressure - meaning below 120/80 - is one thing. Keeping it that way is quite another. But people who sip just half a cup a day are almost 50 percent less likely to wind up with hypertension than non-drinkers. Credit goes to the polyphenols again (especially one known as ECGC). They help keep blood vessels from contracting and raising blood pressure.

PROTECT YOUR MEMORY, OR YOUR MOM'S
Green tea may also keep the brain from turning fuzzy. Getting-up-there adults who drink at least two cups a day are half as likely to develop cognitive problems as those who drink less. Why? It appears that the tea's big dose of antioxidants fights the free-radical damage to brain nerves seen in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

STAY YOUNG
The younger and healthier your arteries are, the younger and healthier you are. So fight plaque build-up in your blood vessels, which ups the risk of heart disease and stroke, adds years to your biological age (or RealAge), and saps your energy too. How much green tea does this vital job take? About 10 ounces a day, which also deters your body from absorbing artery-clogging fat and cholesterol.

LOSE WEIGHT
Oh yeah, one more thing. Turns out that green tea speeds up your body's calorie-burning process. In the every-little-bit-counts department, this is good news!

Chemicals in green tea can increase a person's metabolism. The two chemicals most widely investigated in this issue are catechin polyphenols and caffeine. These two components are thought to increase fat oxidation and thermogenesis. In other words, they assist the body in breaking down fats and burning more calories. This is why many people look to green tea for weight loss.

Negative side effect reported from drinking green tea is insomnia due to the fact that it contains caffeine. Green tea contains less caffeine than coffee: there are approximately thirty to sixty mg. of caffeine in six - eight ounces of tea, compared to over one-hundred mg. in eight ounces of coffee.

Meanwhile, skin preparations containing green tea - from deodorants to creams - are starting to appear on the market.