Benefits of Green Tea for Your Body

Green Tea Tree

Green tea is tea made solely with the leaves of Camellia sinensis that have undergone minimal oxidation during processing.

Health Benefits : Cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, high cholesterol levels, cariovascular disease, infection, impaired immune function.

Over the last few decades green tea has been subjected to many scientific and medical studies to determine the extent of its long-purported health benefits, with some evidence suggesting regular green tea drinkers may have lower chances of heart disease and developing certain types of cancer. Green tea has also been claimed as useful for "weight loss management" — a claim with no scientific support according to medical databases such as PubMed.

Green tea also contains carotenoids, tocopherols, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), minerals such as chromium, manganese, selenium or zinc, and certain phytochemical compounds. It is a more potent antioxidant than black tea, although black tea has substances which green tea does not such as theaflavin.

In vitro and animal studies as well as preliminary observational and clinical studies of humans suggest that green tea can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer as well as beneficially impact bone density, cognitive function, dental cavities, and kidney stones.

Harmful effects : To date, the only negative side effect reported from drinking green tea is insomnia due to the fact that it contains caffeine. However, green tea contains less caffeine than coffee: there are approximately thirty to sixty mg. of caffeine in six - eight ounces of tea, compared to over one-hundred mg. in eight ounces of coffee.