Part of healthy weight loss is finding nutritious foods to form the staples of a revised diet. Just as importantly, you need to find drinks that are low in calories and promote wellness. Green tea is a wise choice to meet that need. Originally grown and used in India and China, more and more Americans have started enjoying the beverage as well.
To experience the healthy benefits of tea, the green variety is the best option. Although tea itself is second only to water in the list of popular drinks worldwide, most of that tea is black, meaning it undergoes greater oxidation. Green tea only represents 1 out of every 5 cups of tea consumed, while the black version accounts for almost all the additional 80% (with white tea, which is even healthier than green tea but can be prohibitively expensive, making up the balance).
Green tea’s impact on top diseases
Drinking green tea is not just about healthy weight loss. Medical studies suggest that major health issues don’t strike as frequently if green tea is a regular part of one’s diet:
Cancer – The National Cancer Institute reports that polyphenols, prevalent in green tea, decrease the speed of tumor development. In the nations that have the greatest usage of green tea, the amount of cancer diagnoses is generally not as high. Finally, a study looking at the healthy benefits of green tea found that pancreatic cancer was less common among green tea consumers, with the number of afflicted women cut in half.
Heart disease – Research published seven years ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that with all health conditions, particularly with heart disease, the likelihood of death becomes less pronounced with large amounts of daily green tea intake. Tens of thousands of subjects in Japan were included in the analysis. Those who had more than 4 cups of it daily had substantially improved life expectancy and were specifically much less likely to die of heart disease.
Safety of green tea
Green tea in its natural form (consumed as a drink) is very rarely a problem for adults; it’s healthy benefits do not usually come at the cost of any side effects. If you are hypersensitive to caffeine or take medications, especially anticoagulants or stimulants, speak with your physician. Those taking anticoagulants should be especially cautious because green tea contains high quantities of Vitamin K.
Modifying your diet is crucial to healthy weight loss, but long-lasting success is also bolstered with professional guidance. Our tripartite medical weight loss program at Weston Medical – combining nutritional, physical, and medical components – offers a customized approach to help you meet your weight loss goals.
