The Health Benefits Of Drinking Tea

More and more people are turning to natural dietary and nutritional additives and foods to prevent health conditions and diseases such as cancer. Research in the last several years has highlighted the ability of foods that are high in antioxidants as a safe and natural way to eliminate naturally occurring free radical cells from the body. These free radicals are the cause of many health conditions, actually causing an oxidation process that leads to deterioration within the cells. Antioxidants work to clean up the free radical cells from the body before they cause any damage to the healthy tissue. Ridding your body of free radicals through the use of antioxidants is an important part of helping your body to properly function. Increasing the amount of antioxidants in the diet, especially through the use of tea antioxidant and green tea antioxidant beverages is a simple and easy way to incorporate a healthier lifestyle.

Tea Antioxidant Connection

In China, Japan and other parts of Asia drinking tea has long been a tradition and has been historically regarded as a cure and preventative dietary supplement. Researchers now understand that the chemicals, known as polyphenols, that are found in the tea leaves are essential in producing antioxidants in the body to fight the build up of free radicals. Generally when people think of antioxidants and tea they immediately think of green tea, however all forms of the leaf tea have some level of antioxidants.

Green tea has the highest level of antioxidants since it has the lowest amount of processing. The more that the leaves are processed the lower the amount of antioxidants found within the brew. Basically green tea is called green tea because it is not heated to dry, which is what causes other teas to be darker in color and different in taste. Black tea also has a fairly high amount of antioxidants and regular bagged tea has a lower amount. All tea comes from the same plant and leaves; just the processing is different. Green tea or black tea can be consumed either hot or cold, and now comes in a variety of flavors for those that find drinking plain tea not to their liking.

Not all types of cold teas have enough antioxidants in them to make a difference. For example the powder iced tea mixes have virtually no antioxidants plus they are loaded with additional sugar, making them a poor choice in anyone's diet. If you want to add green tea or healthy tea antioxidants to your daily diet just use green tea or black tea bags, add boiling water and allow to steep for several minutes. You can add small amounts of sugar or sugar substitute as well as flavorings such as slices of lemon or orange or even some blended berries for a really high antioxidant drink. Not only is this a refreshing drink and much healthier than sodas or coffee, it will also help your body fight free radicals and disease.