Over the last decade, there has been an influx of media coverage about the health benefits of green tea.

The Chinese have been drinking green tea for thousands of years because of its numerous healing abilities. Green tea has been used for treating everything from minor headaches to much larger matters, such as preventing cancer.

Many health studies are beginning to shed some light on why green tea is so beneficial. So, what are the benefits from green tea that can affect your life?

The following are some of the major health benefits of green tea that may substantially change the way you look at this miraculous beverage.

1) Weight Loss

The high concentration of polyphenols in green tea helps to oxidize fat and encourage thermogenesis. Thermogenesis in the body is the rate at which the body burns calories. Green tea results in an increase of energy which raises the metabolism. When we boost the body’s metabolism, more weight is lost than normal.

As a morning beverage, green tea has a small amount of calories compared to most other beverages that Americans tend to consume. The constant barrage of coffee as most peoples’ morning beverage results in a higher amount of daily calories compared to green tea. Substituting green tea for that cup of coffee will make a big difference in the size of your waistline.

2) Prevention of Cancer

The antioxidants in green tea eliminate free radicals that plague the body. These free radicals cause aging and cancer. The polyphenols of green tea constantly search for free radicals and prevent oxidation, or the formation of unstable oxygen molecules, from occurring.

Oxidation damages healthy cells of the body and have been linked to illnesses like cancer, heart disease, and even strokes.

The polyphenols in green tea prevent the birth of abnormal cells, inflammation and destroy most cancer causing agents.

3) Healthy Teeth

Green tea is well known for keeping teeth clean because of one of its ingredients: fluoride. The fluoride kills the bacteria in the mouth that causes plaque. Also, fluoride helps to maintain healthy, cavity-free teeth. This helps to prevent general tooth decay inside of the mouth. This cannot be said about coffee, which stains the teeth with an ugly yellow overcast.

The oral health of teeth can be vastly improved with the consumption of green tea.

4) Lowers Cholesterol

Green tea may be a possible solution for all those suffering from the condition of high cholesterol.

Heart attacks are one of the most common problems associated with bad cholesterol. Drinking green tea could possibly benefit people that are considered high risk because of high cholesterol levels. Green tea lowers the bad cholesterol, or LDL, levels and prevents the occurrence of blood clots in the body.

The LDL cholesterol flows through the liver and cells forming heavy deposits on artery walls—the catechins in green tea help to decrease a person’s LDL levels.

Also, the catechins help to maintain a healthy good cholesterol to bad cholesterol ratio, thereby improving the body’s overall health.

If weight loss, the prevention of cancer, healthy teeth and the idea of low cholesterol does not give you an idea of the health benefits that you can reap by drinking green tea on a daily basis, you must be one of those people who already benefit from perfect health.

However, for the rest of us that have a family history of heart disease or obesity, it’s reassuring that something as simple as adding a few cups of green tea to our daily beverage intake can help decrease our risk factors.

For those of us concerned with drinking too much caffeine, the amount of caffeine in green tea is relatively minor compared to the amount of caffeine in coffee and soft drinks.

If you are still concerned, green tea extract can be taken in pill form and you will still receive all the benefits of drinking green tea.

Remember, good health doesn’t have to be complicated—and now that you know how simple it can be.

I hope that you begin incorporating green tea into your daily regimen tomorrow!

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Ed: Bryonie Wise