Green Tea - I TOLD YA SO!!

Green tea: the answer to all of your problems?
by Maggie Nemser, Shine staff, on Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:40pm PDT

I have a confession to make. I don’t like the one thing that will make me svelte, reduce my cancer risk, beautify my skin, steady my blood pressure, keep me youthful and preserve my memory. Wait, what was I just talking about? Oh, right—dang that short-term memory problem--I don’t like the taste of green tea. Ick. But I’m going to start spiking it with honey, soy milk, caramel syrup, tequila, whatever it takes to make the stuff more palatable since according to the sages at Beauty Eats the stuff really is all that and more. Here are their 7 reasons why we should drink green tea...

1. "CUT YOUR CANCER RISK
Several polyphenols - the potent antioxidants green tea's famous for - seem to help keep cancer cells from gaining a foothold in the body, by discouraging their growth and then squelching the creation of new blood vessels that tumors need to thrive. Study after study has found that people who regularly drink green tea reduce their risk of breast, stomach, esophagus, colon, and/or prostate cancer.

2. SOOTHE YOUR SKIN
Got a cut, scrape, or bite, and a little leftover green tea? Soak a cotton pad in it. The tea is a natural antiseptic that relieves itching and swelling. Try it on inflamed breakouts and blemishes, sunburns, even puffy eyelids.

3. PROTECT YOUR SKIN
In the lab, green tea applied directly to the skin (or consumed) helps block sun-triggered skin cancer, which is why you're seeing green tea in more and more sunscreens and moisturizers.

4. STEADY YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE
Having healthy blood pressure - meaning below 120/80 - is one thing. Keeping it that way is quite another. But people who sip just half a cup a day are almost 50 percent less likely to wind up with hypertension than non-drinkers. Credit goes to the polyphenols again (especially one known as ECGC). They help keep blood vessels from contracting and raising blood pressure.

5. PROTECT YOUR MEMORY, OR YOUR MOM'S
Green tea may also keep the brain from turning fuzzy. Getting-up-there adults who drink at least two cups a day are half as likely to develop cognitive problems as those who drink less. Why? It appears that the tea's big dose of antioxidants fights the free-radical damage to brain nerves seen in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

6. STAY YOUNG
The younger and healthier your arteries are, the younger and healthier you are. So fight plaque build-up in your blood vessels, which ups the risk of heart disease and stroke, adds years to your biological age (or RealAge), and saps your energy too. How much green tea does this vital job take? About 10 ounces a day, which also deters your body from absorbing artery-clogging fat and cholesterol.

7. LOSE WEIGHT
Oh yeah, one more thing. Turns out that green tea speeds up your body's calorie-burning process. In the every-little-bit-counts department, this is good news!" [-beautyeats]

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I LOVE green tea!! Get the kind in a tea bag to brew yours fresh, and preferrably decaf. If you can't handle the flavor (I have no problem with it), then try Lipton's Berry Green tea. It has less than half the "good stuff" but still much better than traditional black teas. Drink 2-4 cups a day and see how great you feel!!