Green tea is closely associated as tea for diet. The fact that this type of tea is super low in calories and green is the reason why this tea is considered as healthy tea. However, there are a lot of people out there are still wondering about the health benefits of drinking 3 cups of green tea a day, whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. Before we learn about the benefits of green tea and the nutritional values contained in a cup of green tea, you should familiar yourself with what green tea is.
What Is Green Tea?
Green tea is made from the leaves of flower plant well known as Camellia sinensis, the same leaves plant to make black tea and oolong tea. The only thing that makes green tea different is while black tea is fully fermented and oolong tea is partially fermented, green tea is totally unfermented. The flower plant itself is originated from China and that’s why green tea is famous among Asian people before its popularity hit Europe and United States.
Nutritional Values of Green Tea
In a cup of green tea you could get all essential vitamins such as Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin B, Vitamin B5, Vitamin H and Vitamin K. Green tea is also excellent source of antioxidants and alkaloids with super low calories. Though in a cup of green tea also contains caffeine but the amount is very low.
- Excellent Source of Antioxidants
It is a common knowledge that green tea is excellent source of antioxidants. Antioxidants are essential for human metabolism to help fighting free radicals caused by environmental toxins. Antioxidants may be beneficial to fight cancers and other dangerous diseases.
- Natural Stress Relieve
Whenever you feel stressful, a cup of green tea may help you relieving your stress and calming your mind. The soothing effects of green tea are not only good to calm your mind but also reducing the symptoms of depression.
- Great for Weight Loss
Drinking three cup of green tea is likely great for weight loss management. Green tea contains caffeine and catechin which together are considered as caloric expenditure to help optimizing the burn fat process.
- Reduces the Risk of Diabetes
There is a specific study conducted in Japan that showed consuming more than 3 cups of green tea daily is able to reduce the risk of diabetes compared to those who are only consuming less than one cup per week.
- Excellent for Cardiovascular Health
Green tea is one of the foods that lower cholesterol level. It means green tea could help managing the level of cholesterol and reduce the risk of conditions related to cardiovascular health such as heart attack and stroke.
- May Promote Healthy Bones
There are some studies that stated green tea may promote healthy bones. The reasons are because first green tea contains anti-inflammatory properties to relieve some bone conditions while the minerals content may help improve the bone density for old people.
- Immunity System Booster
Green tea is packed with essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. That is why green tea is an excellent immunity booster. During recovery stage, enjoying three cups of green tea per day could help accelerating the recovery prosess.
- Prevents Dental Caries
Dental caries occurs when bacteria form maltose that will lead to form hole or cavity which later will lead to dental caries. However, green tea contains anti-inflammatory properties that could help inhibiting the growth of bacteria inside the oral organ and prevent dental caries.
- Promotes Healthy Gut
Do you know that there are a lot of types of microflora in your intestine? Green tea contains active compounds that could help killing the bad microflora and bacteria but doesn’t change the level of good bacteria inside to promote healthy gut.
- Prevents Neurodegenerative Diseases
Some studies have been conducted between a group of Asian and a group consists of Europeans and Americas. The Asians are consuming more green tea than both Europeans and Americans, the result is the Asians have lower rate of neurodegenerative diseases.
- Natural Anti-Aging
There are a lot of benefits of green tea for beauty and one of them is as natural anti-aging. Antioxidant contents of green tea is effective for cells regeneration to help keeping the skin looks young longer while the vitamin C benefits will optimize the collagen production for healthy and skin elasticity.
- Great for Hair
The main reason why green tea is good for hair is because it contains potassium. One of the health benefits of potassium is to promote healthy hair growth and prevent hair loss because potassium will optimize the oxygen distribution for healthy blood circulation in the scalp.
- Hydrating Low Calories Beverage
If you are looking for hydrating low calories beverages that you could drink whenever you want and then green tea is the best option. While you are enjoying all the benefits of green you don’t need to worry about weight gain and your body will be fully hydrated.
Cautions of Drinking 3 Cups of Green Tea A Day
For all the health benefits of green tea, you should consume it in moderate amount only. However, do you know that green tea is hydrating calories free beverage that you could drink up to eight cups per day? So, if you are in healthy condition, consuming three cups green tea per day is still safe and super recommended. With one condition, if you are not in the healthy stage, the cautions below should be your concern as well.
- If you are super sensitive to caffeine, no matter how low the caffeine content in green tea is still may affect you.
- Those who are currently in severe insomnia stage should avoid green tea as well due to its caffeine content.
- Green tea contains tannins that may affect the absorption of several minerals such as iron and folate.
One more thing you should aware of when consuming green tea is the additional ingredients that you may add such as honey or sugar. Sugar is the source of calories and if you want to avoid it, don’t add any sugar, dairy products or even honey to your green tea especially when you want to get all the health benefits of drinking 3 cups of green tea a day.