5 Reasons to Enjoy the Benefits of Tea

5 Rea­sons to Enjoy the Ben­e­fits of Tea

1. Main­tain Hydra­tion: Drink­ing tea keeps you hydrated through­out the day. On aver­age, Amer­i­cans con­sume 1 can of soda per day lead­ing to an extra 15 pounds of weight gain over the course of a year. Research shows that when calo­ries are restricted from solid foods, no sig­nif­i­cant weight loss was appre­ci­ated.  Weight loss only occurred when calo­ries were restricted from sugar-sweetened bev­er­ages. (dis­claimer: caf­feinated teas can dehy­drate you by mak­ing you urinate!)

2. Quell the Urge for Easy Snack Food: When Amer­i­cans become bored, they often seek out the pantry for a quick snack. Why not sip on a cup of tea instead? Amer­i­cans have for­got­ten the food is for nour­ish­ment first. Skip the snack food aisles and try out a new tea. The more vari­ety, the bet­ter! Research shows that com­bin­ing teas can have syn­er­gis­tic health effects!

3. Sup­ply Your Caf­feine Fix: When asked about caf­feine con­sump­tion, Amer­i­cans typ­i­cally respond that they have 1 cup a day. Well the size of the aver­age Amer­i­can cup has increased over the years well beyond the rec­om­mended 8 ounces. If you find your­self drink­ing a pot of cof­fee in the morn­ing, maybe its about time to begin sub­sti­tut­ing some of your cof­fee with tea. It is inter­est­ing to note that if caf­feine were dis­cov­ered today, it would most likely be a reg­u­lated sub­stance. Green tea con­tains about 1/3rd of the caf­feine of cof­fee and many teas are caf­feine free. Tea can be won­der­ful for relax­ation late in the day.

4. Con­trol Stress Bal­ance: Green tea cat­e­chins, polyphe­nols, and a chem­i­cal known as epigallocatechin-3-gallate or EGCG,  reg­u­late your body by act­ing on enzymes and even play a role in genetic expres­sion. This reg­u­la­tion is highly dynamic and is why food chem­i­cals can pro­vide ben­e­fits to mul­ti­ple body sys­tems at once.

Drink­ing a vari­ety of teas through­out the day gives your body high expo­sure to a a num­ber of polyphe­nols and phy­to­chem­i­cals that it will likely not obtain through diet. Unlike phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal drugs, the effects of these nat­ural chem­i­cals coax your body into a state of balance.

In fact, many pop­u­lar drugs have their roots in com­pounds found in plants. Instead of tak­ing chances with a con­cen­trated form of a sin­gle phy­to­chem­i­cal, the nat­ural form of the plant con­tains mul­ti­ple chem­i­cals work­ing in sym­phony with each other as nature intended for the body.

5. Tea is Social and Saves You Money: Instead of meet­ing a friend over cof­fee, why not enjoy a cup of tea instead? While traveling, it is easy to toss a cou­ple of teabags with you and fill a non-plastic traveler’s mug with free hot water at stops along your trip.

Even if you enjoy the free WIFI atmos­phere of a cof­fee shop for your work, it is unlikely that a cof­fee shop will deny a request for a cup of hot water while you meet with friends or cowork­ers. Instead of pay­ing 4 bucks for a tea, spend 4 bucks on a box of tea and ask for a cup of hot water instead.

This infor­ma­tion is not intended to treat, diag­nose, cure, or pre­vent any dis­ease. All mate­r­ial in this arti­cle is pro­vided for edu­ca­tional pur­poses only. Always seek the advice of your physi­cian or other qual­i­fied health care provider with any ques­tions you have regard­ing a med­ical con­di­tion, and before under­tak­ing any diet, exer­cise, or other health program.