Top 10 Health Benefits of Drinking Tea

There are lots of reasons why I enjoy a hot cup of tea: I love the aroma of various flavors of tea; holding onto a hot tea mug warms my hands on a cold winter morning; sipping tea in front of the fireplace is a great way to relax. And those are just the feel-good reasons. If you're not drinking tea yet, read up on these 10 ways tea does your body good and then see if you're ready to change your Starbucks order!

1. Tea contains antioxidants. Like the Rust-Oleum paint that keeps your outdoor furniture from rusting, tea's antioxidants protect your body from the ravages of aging and the effects of pollution.

2. Tea has less caffeine than coffee. Coffee usually has two to three times the caffeine of tea (unless you're a fan of Morning Thunder, which combines caffeine with mate, an herb that acts like caffeine in our body). An eight-ounce cup of coffee contains around 135 mg caffeine; tea contains only 30 to 40 mg per cup. If drinking coffee gives you the jitters, causes indigestion or headaches or interferes with sleep -- switch to tea.

3. Tea may reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke. Unwanted blood clots formed from cholesterol and blood platelets cause heart attack and stroke. Drinking tea may help keep your arteries smooth and clog-free, the same way a drain keeps your bathroom pipes clear. A 5.6-year study from the Netherlands found a 70 percent lower risk of fatal heart attack in people who drank at least two to three cups of black tea daily compared to non-tea drinkers.

4. Tea protects your bones. It's not just the milk added to tea that builds strong bones. One study that compared tea drinkers with non-drinkers, found that people who drank tea for 10 or more years had the strongest bones, even after adjusting for age, body weight, exercise, smoking and other risk factors. The authors suggest that this may be the work of tea's many beneficial phytochemicals.

5. Tea gives you a sweet smile. One look at the grimy grin of Austin Powers and you may not think drinking tea is good for your teeth, but think again. It's the sugar added to it that's likely to blame for England's bad dental record. Tea itself actually contains fluoride and tannins that may keep plaque at bay. So add unsweetened tea drinking to your daily dental routine of brushing and flossing for healthier teeth and gums.

6. Tea bolsters your immune defenses. Drinking tea may help your body's immune system fight off infection. When 21 volunteers drank either five cups of tea or coffee each day for four weeks, researchers saw higher immune system activity in the blood of the tea drinkers.

7. Tea protects against cancer. Thank the polyphenols, the antioxidants found in tea, once again for their cancer-fighting effects. While the overall research is inconclusive, there are enough studies that show the potential protective effects of drinking tea to make adding tea to your list of daily beverages.

8. Tea helps keep you hydrated. Caffeinated beverages, including tea, used to be on the list of beverages that didn't contribute to our daily fluid needs. Since caffeine is a diuretic and makes us pee more, the thought was that caffeinated beverages couldn't contribute to our overall fluid requirement. However, recent research has shown that the caffeine really doesn't matter -- tea and other caffeinated beverages definitely contribute to our fluid needs. The only time the caffeine becomes a problem as far as fluid is concerned is when you drink more than five or six cups of a caffeinated beverage at one time.

9. Tea is calorie-free. Tea doesn't have any calories, unless you add sweetener or milk. Consuming even 250 fewer calories per day can result in losing one pound per week. If you're looking for a satisfying, calorie-free beverage, tea is a top choice.

10. Tea increases your metabolism. Lots of people complain about a slow metabolic rate and their inability to lose weight. Green tea has been shown to actually increase metabolic rate so that you can burn 70 to 80 additional calories by drinking just five cups of green tea per day. Over a year's time you could lose eight pounds just by drinking green tea. Of course, taking a 15-minute walk every day will also burn calories.

1. Which tea is better -- green, black, white?
There really isn't enough difference to get overly excited about. All teas generally contain the same amount of flavonoids. Green and black tea come from the same plants, but green tea is dried for a shorter time and doesn't go through a fermenting process used for black tea.

2. Are decaffeinated teas just as good for you?
Some companies use chemicals to decaffeinate tea; others use a water process. The chemical process removes more of the beneficial polyphenols, so read labels carefully when choosing decaf.

3. How do you brew a perfect cup of tea?
For hot tea:
Bring one cup of water per tea bag, or teaspoon of dried tea, to a rolling boil.
Measure the tea into a glass container (plastic and metal pick up unwanted flavors).
Pour the boiling water over your tea and steep to the desired strength. Steep too long and you'll get an acidic taste.
For iced tea:
Brew your tea with boiling water, as described above.
Chill with ice and keep in the fridge.

Your choice is here (click here)
Herbal teas have a healthy aura about them. Many people drink them simply because they like the taste and want to avoid the caffeine in regular tea, or because they've heard that tea--especially herbal tea--is good for them. But herbal teas don't live up to the hype about their health benefits, and a few types can actually be dangerous.

First of all, herbal teas are not real tea, since they are not made from the leaf of the Camellia sinensis plant, the source of green and black teas. So they may not contain the beneficial phytochemicals (flavonoids) found in real tea, which, research suggests, help protect against cancer and heart disease. Most of the old favorites--raspberry, rose hips, ginger, chamomile, orange, jasmine, hibiscus, peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon, lemon balm, and other fruit-flavored or spiced teas--are pleasant and harmless. They may contain minuscule amounts of healthful phytochemicals, but less is known about these than about those in regular tea

Honest herbals?
Labels and ads for many herbal teas make vague or specific health claims. Specific medical claims are illegal, but some claims skate on thin ice. Chamomile tea is supposed to aid digestion and be calming. Ginger tea is said to combat indigestion or nausea. Echinacea tea, it's claimed, boosts your immune system. Ginkgo is said to keep your mind sharp. St. John's wort tea is supposed to improve mood and relieve depression. These are similar to the questionable claims made for the same herbs when sold as supplements. But with the teas you know even less about what you are getting. How much is in that tea bag, and what happens when you brew it? Some herbs are not water-soluble, and plant material may be old. And many teas contain a variety of herbs, making their effects, if any, even less predictable.

Herbal teas that can actually be dangerous include "dieter's," "cleansing," or "detox" teas. These may contain harsh laxative herbs such as senna, aloe, cascara, rhubarb root, frangula, or buckthorn, which cause diarrhea and dehydration and thus lead to temporary weight loss. They can also cause abdominal pain, muscle weakness, and severe diarrhea. Several healthy young women have died after drinking senna-containing teas for months. Thus, in California such laxative teas must bear a warning label. A newer generation of "diet teas" contain ephedra-like ingredients, such as green-tea extract and bitter orange, as well as garcinia, guarana, and yerba mate (the last two also supply caffeine). There's no evidence that any of these lead to long-term weight loss, and there are safety concerns
Other problems in teas

Comfrey harms the liver and causes cancer in animals--it has been banned in Canada, and the FDA warned about it in 2001. Chaparral can also cause liver damage. Some types of star anise are toxic. Lobelia can cause breathing problems. Licorice can boost blood pressure. Foxglove and lily of the valley can affect heart function. St. John's wort can interact with many medications. Other teas to avoid: sassafras, hydrangea, black cherry, blue cohosh, elderberry, periwinkle, nutmeg, and foxglove. Even good old chamomile, in rare cases, can cause reactions in people allergic to ragweed

Booton Line

: Be wary of medical claims made for herbal teas. Traditional herbal teas from major makers are usually safe, but don't expect them to keep you healthy

Teas Goes Strong

Green tea has taken on almost mythic proportions as a promoter of health and fighter of disease. You can even buy soaps and lotions and breakfast cereals containing green tea extracts. Whether these do you any good is open to question. And, indeed, whether green tea itself will prevent cancer or heart disease is also open to question. But there's no doubt green tea is a healthful drink, containing antioxidants as well as fluoride, in addition to the natural caffeine that occurs in the leaf (a plus for most people).

And now regular black tea--which constitutes 78% of all tea produced and consumed worldwide--is turning out to be just as healthful as green. Chemically it's different, but it has its own potential benefits to offer. We are not talking about herbal teas here, but only the leaf of Camellia sinensis, from which all tea comes. In the making of green tea, the leaves are steamed, rolled, and dried to keep them from oxidizing (turning black). Black teas are dried, crushed, and "fermented"--in this context the word means oxidized or blackened; no alcohol is involved. Red, or oolong, teas are also fermented, but not as a fully.

The evidence for tea's health effects comes mainly from lab studies, though some human studies point to possible benefits in preventing heart disease and cancer. The chemicals that make tea potentially protective are called flavonoids, which belong to the larger classification of polyphenols. Flavonoids have antioxidant activity--that is, they help deactivate cell-damaging free radicals. Tea leaves may have as much antioxidant power as vegetables or fruits. And, in theory at least, the flavonoids may also help halt or prevent tumor growth. But exactly how or even whether this happens in the human body--as opposed to a test tube--is as yet unknown. Population studies on tea consumption have yielded complex and contradictory evidence; a few even suggest an increased risk of certain cancers.

It's true that the fermentation process alters some of the chemicals in green teas, turning certain polyphenols (a category known as catechins) into a related form called theaflavins. These contribute to the taste and orange color of black teas. And--again, in lab tests--these theaflavins show the same antioxidant power as the flavonoids in green tea. With black tea, as with green tea, results in the lab have been encouraging, suggesting potential protection against cancer and heart disease and even cataracts and arthritis. And some clinical trials with humans have also had positive results: in one, black tea helped restore arterial function in patients with atherosclerosis. And a study of Dutch men found that those who consumed the most tea were the least likely to die of a heart attack. But some other tests with humans found no benefits from drinking tea.

Tea--a liquid vegetable?
Think of tea as you might think of your favorite green vegetable--an element in a healthy diet, but not a magic bullet. In China and Japan, where the average person drinks six or more cups of tea daily, cancer and heart disease and other ailments are still common. Nevertheless, tea may help you stay healthy. Here are just a few things you can count on

* A cup of tea can be a pleasure any time of day, as well as the basis of sociability or even ceremony.
* You need not buy the most expensive blends--plain old tea bags will do.
* Tea is good for your teeth: black tea contains enough fluoride to inhibit tooth decay, and green tea contains twice as much. There's some evidence tea protects your bones, too.
* If you don't add sugar or honey, tea has only 2 calories per cup.
* Caffeine content varies, depending on how much tea you use and how long you brew it, but it's usually about 40 milligrams in 6 ounces--half the amount in brewed coffee.
* Despite rumors to the contrary, tea does not contain vitamin K, so people taking anti-clotting drugs need not worry.
* Nobody knows whether decaf tea is as good for you, potentially, as regular tea. This simply hasn't been studied.
* Herb teas lack the polyphenols of Camilla sinensis and do not have the same potential health benefits.

UC Berkeley Wellness Letter,
Updated Jan

Updated January 2004

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