Why green tea is good for you!

I developed a range of six herbal teas for Nature’s Wish in December 2019. The reason being……I simply love herbal tea! I have drunk herbal tea for years, ever since I was pregnant with my son. Since that pregnancy, I couldn’t drink black tea so I looked to herbal teas to fill that gap of sitting down with friends having tea and a chat.

Tea has always been a very sociable activity. For centuries we drank tea together although for black and green teas these teas were often reserved for the wealthy until taxes were reduced and everyone could afford to have a cuppa.

But now we can all take part in drinking tea and for me green tea is very much a part of my daily rituals. As I make my way to the back door in the morning to let the chickens out, I always turn on the kettle ready for when I am back from the garden. I usually choose between Clarity and Joy as these are both green tea blends. Green tea is a great way to start the day for us as a family and because I believe in the health benefits, I feel I am doing a good thing for my body too.

When my husband had prostate cancer in 2017 I investigated beneficial foods and drinks for him. Green tea came up time and again as something that should be incorporated into our everyday routine. Green tea was shown in many research studies to have an important role in the prevention of carcinogenesis including prostate cancer. The polyphenols are believed to have an active role in encouraging apoptosis (where the body can detect and get rid of abnormal cells). Whilst studies have varying outcome it is documented that Japanese and Chinese men have lower numbers of prostate cancer than western men, and this is attributed to diet in some studies.

Green tea is also said to help improve brain function, and for those of you who follow my Instagram will see that I regularly allude to being Peri-menopausal, so any help that I can get for improving my brain function just now is most welcome!

It is also full of antioxidants that help to prevent cell damage, reducing the formation of free radicals in the body, protecting cells and molecules from damage.

Green tea may boost your metabolic rate, and therefore increasing fat burning in the short time. For some it boost the metabolism due to the caffeine in the f=green tea, though this doesn’t happen for everyone.

And, well it just tastes good! Now some people will say green tea tastes bitter, but that is usually down to the way it has been brewed. Many people brew their green tea with boiling water, 100 degrees. This will cause you to burn the tea and so when you drink it, it will taste bitter and not very delicious at all!

If you aren’t sure if you will like green tea, then Clarity is a good place to start as it is combined with mint and is quite gentle but refreshing in its green tea flavour. If I want a slightly stronger green tea I will opt for Joy, with it’s blend of Jasmine green tea combined with lemon myrtle, lemon verbena and jasmine blossom, it’s super uplifting!