The Life Ledger

Fitness is a way of life.

I read an interesting article in this month’s Fitness magazine about the health benefits of white, black and green teas.  According to the article:

• black tea helps prevent heart disease and ovarian cancer
• green tea may protect against breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease
• white tea fights bacteria and viruses (the article says white tea “is so potent that it  can kill bacteria, including strep and pneumonia, and destroy 80 percent of bacterial viruses in 10 minutes” - that’s some serious stuff!).

Green tea has the additional property of speeding the body’s metabolism, showing in one study a 4% higher calorie burn rate in people drinking the equivalent of three cups of green tea over those who didn’t.

The magic ingredient behind all these benefits?  The antioxidants called flavonoids found in the plant from which all four types of tea are derived, Camellia sinensis.  Even though all four teas are made from the same plant, they are processed differently and use younger or older leaves, embuing the teas with different taste and benefit properties.

As for the fourth type of tea, oolong tea wasn’t mentioned in the article but probably has benefits similar to green tea, as the processing methods appear similar.

If you’re going to try out tea, here are some tips:

• Make sure you select a good tea.  I personally like Mighty Leaf teas; we’ve tried Twinnings and liked it as well.
• Use boiling water for black tea; wait ten minutes after boiling before brewing green, white and oolong teas (otherwise they can taste bitter).
• Steep black tea for 3-5 minutes and green, white and oolong teas 1-1.5 minutes.
• For maximum metabolic results, drink your tea in the morning.

Personally, I enjoy my cuppajoe too much to give it up for tea.  I do really enjoy oolong teas, and occaisionally sip them in the evenings.  For a sweetener, try the agave nectar I mentioned a while back.

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