Why should you have green tea?
Green tea is a tea category exclusively made from Camellia sinensis leaves that have not undergone oxidation. It tastes bland and sometimes bitter too. Green tea has a package full of health-promoting compounds that have a lot of help to offer. It helps to ward off heart diseases and cancer, along with reducing body weight.
Apart from curing physical health, green tea also plays a vital role in actively lowering stress and anxiety. In this article, we will see how suitable green tea is for stress and the other health benefits of green tea.
How does green tea help in calming stress?
Green tea has a calming effect on the mind due to the presence of theanine. This amino acid relaxes your mind and acts as a stress buster. Part of the acid also helps in reducing anxiety.
The best green tea for calming stress would be matcha. Matcha has relatively higher levels of L theanine compared to other types of green tea.
The best time to have green tea
Most of us think consuming green tea on an empty stomach is very healthy and will help to reduce weight more effectively but doing that might be hazardous for your health. It may affect your liver and lead to dehydration or ulcers. The better way would be to have foods that go well with green tea. Here are some of the crucial points that you must keep in mind regarding having a cup of hot green tea.
- In between meals
- Approximately three to five cups per day
- Not before your good night's sleep
In between meals
You can have green tea in between meals, i.e., two hours before and after the meal. In this way, the antioxidants in green tea will work more efficiently. If you consume green tea with your meal, the nutrient intake capacity will be lowered, and the antioxidants might react with the proteins.
Approximately three to five cups per day
It is true that consuming green tea regularly will benefit your body, but you must remember that the number of times you have green tea should not exceed three to five times. Overconsumption can make you anemic.
Not before your good night's sleep
Having green tea before going to sleep is not a good idea because it contains caffeine which can destroy your sleep, and it is a diuretic that can make you go to the washroom quite often. The best option is to have it two hours before going to sleep. This will help you burn calories while you're asleep.
Other benefits of green tea
- Reduces bad breath
- Good for skin
- Wards off type 2 diabetes
- Lower cholesterol level
- Reduce the risk of stroke
- Might help to reduce cancer
1. Reduces bad breath
The catechins in green tea help to reduce bad breath. Drinking green tea can hinder the growth of oral bacteria known as Streptococcus mutans. These bacteria contribute to plaque formation, bad breath, and tooth decay.
2. Good for skin
Green tea is packed with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties, making it a great choice for enhancing skin health. The skin benefits of green tea include protection against premature aging, reduction in redness, and soothing of irritation.
2. Type 2 diabetes
Studies say people who consume green tea are less likely to have type 2 diabetes than people who do not drink green tea. Green tea is said to have a connection with a reduced level of insulin in the body hence it wards off type 2 diabetes.
3. Lower cholesterol level
Green tea affects the total low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, as per many observations. The level remains normal if green tea is consumed regularly.
4. Risk of stroke
A lot of people have the risk of experiencing a stroke at any time. These people should start consuming green tea to reduce the risk of stroke. There may be a small change, but that will be very valuable.
5. Effect on cancer cells
Green tea is said to have the ability to kill cancer cells. It aids healthy cells at some stage, but it has come up that some doctors are still not confirming that green tea can reduce the risk of cancer, and therefore, it's a mixed notion.
Green tea has proved to be one of the most useful drinks for health benefits. You might want to consider having green tea regularly because it is indeed contributing a lot.
We would suggest you try it and see the changes.