Is green tea good for you?
Is green tea good for you?
Short answer: yes, but...
Longer answer: read on.
Overall, green tea is good for you. But that doesn't mean to say that the odd cup here and there is going to miraculously cure you of some illness, or cause you to drop an excess 10lbs. Exercise is good for you, but working out for an hour out of the blue when the rest of your time is spent lounging around on the couch watching TV isn't going to do much for you! For exercise to be good for you, you need to be working it into your daily routine, being active in moderation but on a regular basis. The same goes with fruit and vegetables. Fruit and veg are good for you, but eating an apple once a week won't have any noticeable benefits if the rest of your diet is fried food and candy bars! To get the “good” from fruit and veg, you've got to be eating good quality produce, in moderation, and regularly.
It's the same with green tea. It's not a miracle drink. Drinking one cup isn't going to suddenly put a new shine in your eyes and an energetic bound in your step. And be careful about becoming suddenly obsessed with the notion that it's a wonderful cure-all, and downing large quantities of the stuff within a short period of time, as this is more likely to have unpleasant effects than positive ones! But if you're prepared to make green tea a part of your daily routine, part of your healthy diet, then yes – green tea is certainly good for you!
You should take with a pinch of salt many of the amazing claims you'll come across online regarding the miraculous health benefits of green tea. For example, green tea can help you lose weight. But don't be fooled into thinking that by buying a particular (and likely very expensive) brand of green tea, you're guaranteed to lose weight just by drinking it. It doesn't work like that, and the pounds are not, sadly, just going to drop off through the power of green tea and green tea alone. What it actually does is help you to control your cravings for food, making it slightly easier – in terms of willpower – to resist overeating, and to choose healthy food options. Green tea contains something called EGCG, which regulates blood sugar levels and thus helps to combat that vicious cycle of eat sugary food → experience blood sugar high → experience blood sugar dip → experience cravings → eat sugary food (and repeat cycle).
There are many other claims about the benefits of a regular intake of EGCG. Most notably, it blocks the mutation of cells, which is why green tea (with its high EGCG content) is often promoted as a cancer “cure”, or at least a preventative measure. The other major claim you're likely to hear is that it stops the ageing process. Now, both of these are not without reason – but sometimes the claims can go a bit too far! EGCG is certainly beneficial in boosting your body's immune system, but it's not a cure for cancer. Antioxidants do fight free radicals (which cause ageing symptoms in the body), and so can, over time, help to slow down the ageing process, but they won't suddenly make you look 20 years younger.
The best approach is to accept that green tea has beneficial properties, and that drinking it regularly in moderate quantities can only be good for you. Stick with it, and make it a part of a full, healthy lifestyle!
Useful Links:
http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa011400a.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090305183128.htm
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