Thursday, April 18, 2013

Rainy Thursday Cuppa Tea

Today I am so thankful for tea. It's awfully wet here this morning, and a warm cuppa tea is just the thing!
Rainy days are always good writing days. Or reading days. Or napping days. Or movie watching days. Basically anything that involves a couch, warm blanket and TEA!
Did you know tea is actually super good for you? I mean, besides tasting wonderful it actually has amazing health benefits. I wanted to tell you all about a few you may not be aware of, or at least I wasn't until I did some research.

1. Research has shown that tea may actually help in reducing your chance of having a heart attack, or other cardiovascular diseases. 1

2. Tea has been shown to protect people from a wide variety of cancers. 2

3. Tea may also make you age more slowly, because consuming green and black tea can protect your skin from harm of UV rays that can cause wrinkles and even skin cancer. 3 & 4

4. Drinking green tea regularly can help your skin in other ways as well. It can actually improve skin's elasticity. Tea contains EGCG polyphenol, which can help fight bacteria on the skin, and promote heathy, clear skin. Tea, especially green, can help with inflammation and swelling on your skin, and can help with skin conditions, like acne. Using products on your skin that contain green tea extract can also aid in the health of your skin. St. Ives has a good one, or you can check here for some simple ideas of how to use green tea on your face. 4

5. Drinking tea can actually promote great oral health. It can prevent decay of your pearly whites, and fight against bad breath. The fluoride present in tea can help protect against cavities, and the catechins (or antioxidants) help fight bad breath (halitosis) by killing bacteria that is in your mouth. Tea also contains calcium and magnesium. That helps in teeth and bone formation and strengthening. 5

6. Who doesn't want to fight some body fat? Green tea has high amounts of catechins, which do this amazing thing called blocking fat. Yay! The especially benefit the abdominal area. The catechins also help burn fat, by activating enzymes in the body that aid in metabolism. Studies have also shown that the EGCG polyphenal found in green tea actually helps you gain weight more slowly. Who doesn't love that? 5, 6, 7


Anyway, if these don't make you go get yourself a cuppa tea, I don't know what will! Be sure to check out all the link in this post (I know, there are a lot this time), because that's where I did all my research about tea. It's pretty fascinating, actually. And, there are benefits I didn't even touch on in this post.

Cheers and blessings,

Emily xo

Links I used...
1. Taken from here. See number two on Reasons to Love Tea.
2. See Number Three on this page.
3. Taken from this study.
5. Find out about oral health benefits of tea from this Canadian Living article.
7. Science Daily study on green tea benefits.




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