Tea is the beverage of choice for a number of people across myriads of cultures. Whether you work in your dream job or run your own business, stress and the numerous problems associated with it will always hang around to haunt you.
Luckily, there is a simple solution and it only requires you to savor every sip. It’s the kind of beverage that has had an immense significance culturally in different parts of the world.
In this article, we’ll look into the many benefits of a healthy tea, and the kind of teas that make you healthier.
Why should you include tea as part of a healthy lifestyle?
Having too much caffeine on a daily basis can wreck your system and cause a negative impact on your body. Have you felt your heart race after your fourth cup of coffee? The general discomfort and restlessness caused by too much caffeine are not unknown.
Consuming caffeine moderately, on the other hand, is said to provide health benefits like keeping diabetes at bay and supplying a rich dose of antioxidants to your body, which are known to positively affect your immunity.
Surprisingly, tea tends to tick these boxes effectively making it a desirable beverage for a healthy life.
There is a vast variety of teas that you can choose from. Some teas, like black tea and green tea, have some amount of caffeine in them while some like chamomile and peppermint are herbal in nature and are brewed by soaking the leaves and flowers in hot boiling water for a few minutes.
Healthy teas and their positive impact
Irrespective of the caffeine content in the tea, each type of tea possesses unique components within them that impart the tremendous benefits to bring about a positive change in your daily life.
1. Black tea helps keep digestive troubles at bay
The next time you suffer from a bout of diarrhea, avoid popping the pill. Instead, brew yourself some black tea and squeeze some fresh lemon or lime in it.
Drinking this lemon flavored black tea relieves you of the discomfort and bloating caused by diarrhea. Black tea is rich in tannins, which are known to possess anti-inflammatory properties. Not only does it help with an upset stomach, but also regular consumption of black tea creates an environment for better digestion in your body.
2. Green tea is a natural remedy for IBS
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is known to affect a large chunk of the global population. If you suffer from IBS, you may attest to the fact that even the mildest of triggers can cause a flare-up leaving you in a miserable state for hours at end.
Introducing green tea as a part of your diet can dramatically help ease your conditions. Green tea contains polyphenols that help to ease the inflammation caused to intestines due to IBS.[1]
3. Green tea helps you burn more calories
If you love being fit and active, you may want to start including a cup of tea as part of your daily diet.
Green tea specifically is known to positively affect your metabolic rate.[2] This fires up the calorie burning process. If you’ve hit a plateau in your workout and just can’t seem to shed those last few pounds, green tea may be one of the solutions that can help you immensely with reaching your fitness goals.
4. Lemon tea helps you recover from the cold and flu
There is an endless variety of herbal teas that you can brew at home. The different kinds of teas help aim a certain kind of uneasiness you may be facing and effectively nips them in the bud.
Take for instance the most common kind of flu and hay fever. As seasons change, your body may sometimes take a while to adjust to these changes leaving you feeling tired and with a runny nose or constant bouts of sneezing.
If you have fallen prey to a seasonal flu or hay fever, start including a cup of lemon tea in your daily routine and watch the illness disappear just as quickly as it emerged.
Lemon tea helps open up the nasal passage. Constant coughing and sneezing can cause swelling of the throat. Drinking lemon tea helps contract this passage, which helps ease the symptoms. To make your lemon tea even tastier, you can add a dollop of honey and some spices.
5. Green tea keeps food poisoning away on your travels
The excitement of traveling to a place you’ve been wanting to tick off your bucket list is incomparable. The sheer joy of experiencing a new culture and the delicious foods a place has to offer is exciting and makes traveling an exciting affair.
However, falling ill on your trip, particularly being hit by food poisoning can put a damper on your trip.
An effective solution to stay healthy when traveling is to sip on green tea regularly on your travels.[3] Green tea is rich in Catechin. It is this substance that gives it its distinctive bitter taste. The bacteria known to cause food poisoning cannot survive in the presence of catechin.
6. Chamomile tea helps you sleep better and overcome stress
Stress in today’s day and age is inevitable. The need to be successful comes with its own baggage that can zap your sleep and leave you with a pit in your stomach.
Depression and anxiety are at an all-time high and in such taxing times, a cup of chamomile tea can be that superhero that doesn’t always wear a cape.[4] Simply taking in the aroma of this tea as it brews is enough to take the edge off the day’s stress.
If the subsequent stress is keeping you awake all night, a cup of this soothing tea before bed can help you sleep better leaving you feeling fresh, productive and ready to take on a new day.
7. Green tea gets you a glowing acne-free skin
You may spend thousands on expensive skin creams that promise results within a week. However, they pale in comparison with natural remedies that are not just pocket-friendly but cleanse your system from the inside out.
Green tea is one such remedy. If you’ve been struggling to get those breakouts under control, skip the skin cream and include green tea in your diet. The fact that tea is rich in antioxidants helps keep your skin healthy and glowing.
In addition to the green tea, it is also necessary to clean up your overall diet to include fresh and natural ingredients and limited consumption of processed foods.
8. Black tea and green tea get you a healthy heart
With tea, it all boils down to the immensely rich antioxidants that it boasts of. The presence of these elements in tea instantly offers myriads of benefits that can help you lead a wholesome and happy life, a healthy heart being one of the many benefits.
Particularly, black and green tea tend to have exceptional heart health benefits. The likelihood of suffering from cardiac arrest is much lower if you enjoy drinking your black tea.
Similarly, as a green tea drinker, you can be assured that your cholesterol levels will be much lower. This is owed to the fact that it dramatically lowers the LDL and triglyceride levels in the body. In addition to this, HDL, which is known as the good cholesterol increases enormously with green tea consumption.
9. Green tea helps you live a diabetes-free life
Tea is rich in certain elements like polysaccharides and catechin, which can greatly affect the blood sugar levels, keeping them low. This helps keep diabetes at bay.
Green tea, in particular, has a much higher level of polyphenols, thereby massively reducing your chances of developing type 2 diabetes by encouraging a healthy and normal functioning of insulin.
10. Tea can strengthen your immunity
Tea is rich in antioxidants. Not only is it an excellent way to slow down your aging, it can also dramatically impact your immune system, making it much stronger. The antioxidants in tea help in cell regeneration and repair, therefore, you are much less prone to falling ill in an environment harboring cold and flu symptoms.
If recent studies are to be believed, the antioxidants found in a single cup of tea is about five times more than an average fruit or vegetable. Your afternoon tea ritual may well help your overall health and wellness by keeping flu and diseases at bay, helping you fight stress and keep your fitness levels in check.
11. Tea helps you stay hydrated throughout the day
Caffeinated beverages are known to cause dehydration in the body. However, this only stands true if you consume caffeine in very high amounts by drinking over 6 cups of coffee or tea in a day.
Moderate consumption of tea on a daily basis provides as much hydration as water with the added benefits of rich antioxidants. This is true more so in the case of herbal teas as they have absolutely no caffeine in them.
12. Drinking tea gets you a bright and beautiful smile
Tea has had a bad reputation in the past and has been blamed for poor dental hygiene. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Tea is rich in fluoride and tannins.[5] These substances are known to suppress the growth of bacteria on your teeth, keeping them healthy and bright. Savor your daily cuppa and you will find that plaque build-up reduces dramatically and your instances of cavities are diminished drastically.
13. Your daily cuppa can strengthen your bones
It has been established that people who drink tea on a regular basis tend to have higher bone density. Tea is rich in phytochemicals, flavonoids being one of them, which are responsible for bone health.
Including tea in your daily life can be particularly advantageous in your older years by preventing the occurrence of rheumatoid arthritis in the future.[6]
14. Tea is a healthy companion for your brain
A cup of tea can help you focus on your work better by substantially improving your attention span. Drinking tea regularly also has a positive impact on the functioning of your brain and the neurological processes associated with it.
Therefore, tea can considerably help in keeping Parkinson’s disease at bay. It has also been found that while drinking tea can’t stop Alzheimer’s, it can significantly slow it down.
Conclusion
Tea is not just a warm hug on a cold winter evening, it is chock full of all the good nutrients that can help nourish your mind, body, and soul.
Including it as part of your daily routine can massively impact your lifestyle, keeping you happy and healthy. Whether you enjoy caffeine or prefer going the herbal route, you have a variety of options at your disposal to pick a tea that suits your needs.
So, get the kettle going, brew yourself a nice hot cuppa and savor the little moments in life: