The Tea of Life
I've rediscovered green tea and a wealth of information about it's health benefits, particulars of it's preparation, and the various qualities available.
I once meet a couple who cut fine opals for a living. They were old hippies who lived in a junky trailer on the edge of a national forest out in the boonies. Twice a year they flew to China to buy opals and meet with Chinese businessmen who made gem-cutting equipment for them. When I was a newly married bride, my husband took me out to their property to meet them; he had a habit of making odd acquaintances. We sat in the smoke-filled living room of their rundown trailer and listened as they told wild stories and showed us several hundred thousand dollars worth of fine opal beads that they had been working on. The wife asked me if I’d like something to drink, and I hesitated, expecting her to open the fridge and toss me a beer. From behind the Formica countertop, she lifted a beautiful china pot and proceeded to make tea. Ten minutes later, she handed me a tiny china cup with steaming-hot Jasmine Green tea. I had never tasted anything so fine in my whole life. Four years have passed since then, and I still have not succeeded in finding tea like that.
A few months ago I began to search the internet for detox and weight-loss herbs, and rediscovered Green tea. As I began to search, I found a wealth of information about the health benefits of Green tea, the particulars of its preparation, and the various qualities available. The overwhelmingly dominant characteristic of Green tea is its health benefit.
My husband and I both love Jasmine tea (Green tea scented with Jasmine flowers), so we ordered the cheapest Jasmine Green tea in bulk that we could find. It was well worth drinking, but clearly not the stuff of sweet memories. I cannot tell whether there is a difference in health benefits among the various qualities of Green teas, but I gladly pay extra for the flavor alone.
So, not only is Green tea a drink of refinement and beauty, it is a drink of health. You can practically name just about any disease, immune system malfunction, and mystery symptom, and the answer would be (at least in part): “Drink Green tea.” There is far too much information for me to list here, so I will only tempt you with a few of the health facts that I found.
Green Tea is known to help the following conditions:
Cancer – Daily consumption of Green tea is effective, especially in preventing but also treating a wide variety of cancers: Including, bladder, colon, esophagus, pancreas, skin, rectum, respiratory, and stomach). Topical administration of Green tea both prevented and reduced skin tumors in one study.
Leukemia – One study showed that Green tea prompted leukemia cells to die in eight of ten patient samples tested in the laboratory.
Heart Disease – In Japan, researchers found that there were fewer incidents of heart disease among Green tea drinkers.
