The latest research has found that drinking several cups of green tea daily appears to cut the risk of having heart disease by as much as one third. Coffee, seems to have some of the same benefits as green tea, just not to the same degree. This particular study followed 40,000 healthy people around for an amazing 13 years, then compared the rates of heart disease among those who consumed three to six cups of tea per day. They were surprised to find that those who drank higher amounts of green tea were nearly 45% less likely to die from heart disease than those who consumed fewer amounts or none at all. The researchers were surprised to find that neither the green tea nor the coffee consumption appeared to affect the risk of dying from a stroke or from cancer. The study did not include people who already suffered from heart disease to take away the high-risk population.
Getting Enough Green Tea and Coffee
Many people feel that reaching these levels of green tea and coffee consumption can be difficult, however in the summer, many people would enjoy iced tea and iced coffee-just be careful on adding sugar to your healthy green tea! Scientists don’t really understand why green tea, and to a lesser extent, black tea and coffee, appear to offer such great heart protective benefits. They believe that the good benefits could be due to polyphenols in green tea and coffee. These polyphenols are also found in red grapes, wine, dark berries, red beans and dark chocolate, and are well known to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and many other health promoting benefits.
Japanese and Green Tea
Aside from water, tea is the most consumed beverage in the world, with over three billion kilograms of tea being produced each year worldwide. Green tea is widely consumed in Japan, with more than 80% of the Japanese residents consuming three or more cups of green tea each day. Of course when research is done on Japanese residents, the fact that they eat a much healthier diet than Americans must also be taken into consideration-in fact, the rate of heart disease in Japan is already one of the lowest worldwide.
Healthy Lifestyle in Addition to Drinking Green Tea
It’s important not to forget that simply increasing your consumption of coffee and green tea will not change your overall health and your future health risks. In fact, having a cigarette with your cup of morning coffee would likely cancel out the benefits of the coffee, while sitting in front of the television endlessly, getting no exercise-but sipping green tea-would probably offer your heart little, if any, protection.
Rooibos Tea
Green tea especially has garnered considerable notice for its health benefits, as have black tea and coffee, to a lesser extent. There are other teas, however, which have been gaining attention and generating some real interest in the health benefits category. Rooibos tea comes in both green and red varieties, and is grown in South Africa on the Western Cape. Rooibos tea is lacking caffeine, and also has few tannins-the substance which gives black tea its bitter taste. The tea has been used in healing applications for centuries and has recently gained attention because it is so high in healthy antioxidants, and may be beneficial in preventing heart attacks and reducing the risk of heart disease.
Whether you choose to drink green tea, black tea, the new rooibos tea, coffee, or a combination of all of them, you will definitely be improving your health, most especially if you are combining these healthy drinks with a healthy lifestyle.