Increased Metabolism – Green tea has been shown in study after study to enhance metabolism. In two different clinical trials at the University of Birmingham and the University of Geneva, it was shown to improve insulin sensitivity, speed up fat oxidation and glucose tolerance. The effect does not seem to be related specifically to the caffeine in the tea, which is mild compared to other drinks like coffee. It seems to have more to do with the types of antioxidants in the tea.
Lowers Stress – Green tea lowers stress in a strange way. It is not just that drinking something warm reduces stress, as other research has shown about other hot drinks. It contains a unique chemical, known as theanine which is a psychoactive drug shown to create a calm, alert mood and works with caffeine to achieve this. There is also something soothing about sipping tea, we might add.
Lowers the Risk of Cognitive Impairment – A 2010 study at UCLA showed that tea drinkers had less cognitive problems than non-tea drinkers. The rate of cognitive problems decreased with the increasing amount of tea the participants reported drinking. It is not clear if one needed to drink tea all of one’s life to achieve these benefits or if they “took effect” immediately. Coffee, we might add, also decreased cognitive impairment but only in very high doses.
Eliminates Bad Breath – Green tea is good for you in ways that you may not even think about. One of these ways is that it can help with bad breath. The reason seems to be that it helps to kill the specific types of bacteria associated with bad breath, according to a study by the University of Illinois – Chicago.
It Lowers Cholesterol – Green tea fights the bad cholesterol according to studies performed in the Netherlands and Japan. In both studies it increased fat oxidation which helped to increase metabolism. This helped to reduce the bad form of cholesterol (LDL) which would have an impact on heart disease as well as diabetes. The rate at which it lowered these depended on the amount of green tea the participants drank.
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