Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Going Green


As I talked about in my first post, a couple years ago I decided to make a change in my life. I decided I wanted to start living a healthier life. One of the first changes I made was to start drinking green tea. I had heard about its benefits from friends, the news, commercials, and even doctors. I was mostly hoping it would give me energy and boost my metabolism. However, when I decided to start researching green tea, I was amazed at exactly how many ways it affects your health.

For one, green tea is better for you than coffee. Aside from the fact that most people drink coffee with added sugar and cream, while tea is normally drank plain, green tea is extremely rich in flavonoids. Flavonoids are antioxidants which has been shown to lower a person’s risk for disease and conditions such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, and stroke. Studies have proven that a particular flavonoid in green tea actually kills cancer cells (Edgar).

I now try to have at least one cup of green tea a day. In my experience, it has immensely improved my mornings. The energy boost I get from green tea stays with me nearly all day, and doesn’t cause me to crash later. It is a refreshing, steady energy, instead of a jittery one that I normally get from coffee. Green tea helps to stabilize my appetite, so I’m not spending my day wondering where my next snack will be. I, personally, prefer loose-leaf green tea, rather than the crushed or powdery variety. By steeping loose-leaf tea, you give yourself more of the nutrients, antioxidants, and flavnonoids.  I buy my tea from either Teavana, or Wegmans. Next time you’re craving an energy boost, try green tea instead of coffee! I guarantee you’ll be hooked.

Work Cited:
Edgar, Julie. "Green Tea Health Benefits." WebMD. WebMD, 29 Aug. 2009.         Web. 30 Jan. 2013.

2 comments:

  1. I'm a fan of tea as well and I'm a bit of a Teavanna addict. But that tea can be cost-prohibitive, can't it? My mother-in-law will go to her local international grocery store and anyone can find less expensive green tea there, from a wide variety of locations (China, India, Sri Lanka, etc.).

    I'd love to see another paragraph on the cancer-cells killing properties of Green Tea. I appreciated the hyperlinnk, but I think this data is so timely (for me, at least!) that I'd love to see how the tea and its antioxidants really work to destroy cancer cells.

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  2. I love green tea. The benefits of green tea are unbelievable, especially the lowering cancer properties. I found that the most interesting out of all things I have read up on about green tea. The research and experiments that have done is astounding. I like how the research being done with green tea is not only strictly in the labs of the scientist but I found experiments being done in the population of China and part of Europe. I figured green tea was better than coffee but I cannot help but love it as much as I do tea. I really like how with green tea you really don’t need to mix in sugar or anything as you do with coffee.

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