Drinking Tea : Some Merits & Some Demerits

Drinking Tea : Some Benefits  &  Side Effects :

Put down those saucer cups and get chugging — tea is officially awesome for your health. But before loading up on Red Zinger, make sure that your “tea” is actually tea. Real tea is derived from a particular plant (Camellia sinensis) and includes only four varieties: green, black, white, and oolong. Anything else (like herbal “tea”) is an infusion of a different plant and isn’t technically tea.

But what real tea lacks in variety, it makes up for with some serious health benefits. Researchers attribute tea’s health properties to polyphenols (a type of antioxidant) and phytochemicals. Though most studies have focused on the better-known green and black teas, white and oolong also bring benefits to the table. Read on to find out why coffee’s little cousin rocks your health.

1.    Tea can boost exercise endurance. Scientists have found that the catechins (antioxidants) in green tea extract increase the body’s ability to burn fat as fuel, which accounts for improved muscle endurance.

2.    Drinking tea could help reduce the risk of heart attack. Tea might also help protect against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases.

3.    The antioxidants in tea might help protect against a boatload of cancers, including breast, colon, colorectal, skin, lung, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver, ovarian, prostate and oral cancers. But don’t rely solely on tea to keep a healthy body — tea is not a miracle cure, after all. While more studies than not suggest that tea has cancer-fighting benefits, the current research is mixed.

Refreshing The Mind, Charming The Body !

      4.    Tea helps fight free radicals. Tea is high in oxygen radical absorbance capacity (“ORAC” to its friends), which is a fancy way of saying that it helps destroy free radicals (which can damage DNA) in the body. While our bodies are designed to fight free radicals on their own, they’re not 100 percent effective — and since damage from these radical oxygen ninjas has been linked to cancer, heart disease and neurological degeneration, we’ll take all the help we can get.

5.    Tea is hydrating to the body (even despite the caffeine!).

6.    Drinking tea is linked with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease. When considered with other factors like smoking, physical activity, age and body mass index, regular tea drinking was associated with a lowered risk of Parkinson’s disease in both men and women.

7.    Tea might provide protection from ultraviolet rays. We know it’s important to limit exposure to UV rays, and we all know what it’s like to feel the burn. The good news is that green tea may act as a back-up sunscreen.

8.    Tea could keep waist circumference in check. In one study, participants who regularly consumed hot tea had lower waist circumference and lower BMI than non-consuming participants. Scientists speculate that regular tea drinking lowers the risk of metabolic syndrome (which increases the risk of diabetes, artery disease and stroke), although it’s important to remember that correlation does not equal causation.

9.    Regular tea drinking might also counteract some of the negative effects of smoking and might even lessen the risk of lung cancer (good news, obviously, but not a justification for cigs).

10.    Tea could be beneficial to people with Type 2 diabetes. Studies suggest that compounds in green tea could help diabetics better process sugars.

11.   Tea can help the body recover from radiation. One study found that tea helped protect against cellular degeneration upon exposure to radiation, while another found that tea can help skin bounce back postexposure.

12.    Green tea has been found to improve bone mineral density and strength.

13.   Tea might be an effective agent in the prevention and treatment of neurological diseases, especially degenerative diseases (think Alzheimer’s). While many factors influence brain health, polyphenols in green tea may help maintain the parts of the brain that regulate learning and memory.

How To Use Green Tea For Weight Loss:One catechin in green tea known as EGCG is so powerful it can even help with weight loss. This green tea component helps with weight loss in several ways. By acting with the caffeine that is also present in green tea, the EGCG also helps to boost the metabolism which will help with weight loss by stimulating a process known as thermogenesis. Thermogenesis is the process by which the body starts to burn more fat through the activation of the metabolism and therefore, helping with weight loss.
The EGCG in green tea also helps to prevent fat absorption through the walls of the small intestines which will also help with weight loss in as far as it will prevent you from absorbing any excess fat that you don't need to be storing in your system.
To get the most benefits from green tea for weight loss be sure to only drink good quality green tea. The good quality green tea contains higher amounts of vitamins but more importantly, this green tea also has a greater amount of antioxidants which will be the main ingredients that are helping with weight loss.
Research has shown that just 2-4 cups of green tea per day can on average help a person to lose around 14-16lbs of fat per year if they were changing nothing else about their routine such as diet and exercise. This is pretty good going for green tea alone!
Start your day with a cup of green tea, one before and one after breakfast to help kick-start your metabolism. To assist your weight loss further, have another cup in the afternoon and also before you work out. Having a cup of green tea before you work out will assist your body in burning extra fat by giving your metabolism a boost. 
Green tea especially targets that stubborn belly fat that accumulates around the mid-drift. If you want to really target this area and lose belly fat or love handles then consume a cup of green tea before and after an abdominal exercise workout.

How is Tea Bad for Your Health?

Medical / health studies and research are showing that there are some side effects of tea that have a bad effect on your health. These potential tea side effects can range from cancer (esophageal and prostate) to brittle bones.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways tea may be bad for your health.

1. Hot tea may increase the risk of esophageal cancer.

A 2008 study showed that drinking tea that is too hot may increase your risk of developing esophageal cancer.

The study examined regular drinkers of black tea. Those who drank their tea hot (65-69°C/149-156°F) or very hot (over 70°C/158°) were more likely to develop esophageal cancer.

It further found that those who drank their tea within 3 minutes of pouring had a greater cancer risk than those who allowed their tea to cool for 4 or more minutes prior to drinking.

2. Tea may cause osteofluorosis.

There are cases of people who have damaged their bones by drinking too much tea.

A case published in the New England Journal of Medicine details a 47-year-old woman who developed brittle bones and lost all of her teeth from drinking too much tea. Every day, she drank tea made from 100-150 tea bags, giving her a daily fluoride consumption > 20mg.

Older tea leaves tend to contain more flouride than younger leaves, thus younger leaves may have a smaller risk.

3. Tea may increase the risk of prostate cancer.

Research from the University of Glasgow linked heavy tea drinking with an increased risk of developing prostate cancer.

The research indicated that men who drank seven or more cups of tea a day had a 50% higher risk of prostate cancer than those who drank little to no tea (0 to 3 cups daily). Drinking 4-6 cups a day didn’t significantly increase the risk over drinking 0-3 cups daily.

Note: A link doesn’t mean that tea causes prostrate cancer. Other factors may have contributed to the results, including age, diet, stress, family history, etc.

4. Tea may have negative- caffeine side effects:

Sleep Difficulty, Increased Heart Rate,Depression,Panic Attack.

Tea naturally contains caffeine. While the benefits of caffeine include increased energy and alertness, if you consume too much or are sensitive to caffeine, you may experience some negative side effects.

Common negative caffeine side effects include difficulty sleeping, increased heart rate, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and more.

Remember that caffeine can be addictive. If you reduce it or eliminate it completely, you may experience withdrawal symptoms, such as headaches, irritability, and nausea.