Healthy Green Tea to Lower Your Blood Pressure

 Healthy Green Tea to Lower Your Blood Pressure

There are certain foods that should be a part of every person's diet, even if they don't particularly care for the taste. These foods could be referred to as natural medicine, as they do so much for us and yet have virtually no side effects. So why wouldn't you take them, even if you haven't yet developed a taste for them. One of those foods is green tea, and just by looking at the grocery shelves and their wide variety more people are obviously on to green tea.

The latest research published in the British Journal of nutrition states that the long-term intake of this variety of tea has a significance effect on lowering blood pressure. After drinking this tea for 12 weeks blood pressure was lowered the most substantially and black tea performed the next best. So significant are blood pressure reductions that they can reduce the risk of stroke by 8% and coronary disease by 5%. To get these results we would need to ideally drink about 3 to 4 cups per day.

By understanding the prevalence of high blood pressure and the effects it has on overall health would be reason enough to drink tea regularly. However, there are many other health benefits that have been scientifically proven through testing:

1. Weight control. Green tea has one of the most powerful catechins called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). EGCG has been shown to have a positive impact on a number of illnesses. In addition to its beneficial effects on your circulatory system, it has a regulatory effect on fat metabolism, thereby increasing fat oxidation and preventing obesity. It has also been shown that exercise improvement can be gained by drinking green tea.

2. Diabetes. Diabetes and obesity usually are related, so when there is a benefit for one there usually is a benefit for the other. An animal study found that EGCG was as effective as the diabetic drug Avandia in diabetic mice, suggesting this tea, or a high-quality green tea extract, could help in the treatment of diabetes.

3. Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Research has found the potential to enhance brain function, and this would be important in preventing healthy aging associated with brain degeneration. Specifically, EGCG can decrease the production of the protein beta-amyloid, which when it over-accumulates in your brain can result in nerve damage and memory loss over time.

4. Protection against glaucoma. Catechins in green tea seem to protect against eye diseases. In one study, scientists analyzed eye tissue from rats that consumed it and found that eye tissue in the lens and retina had in fact absorbed catechins.

5. Normalizing cholesterol levels. Because of green tea's ability to relax blood vessels and regulate blood clotting, cardiovascular health will be promoted.

So what is it about green tea that gives us all of these health benefits? Green tea tends to be the least processed of the teas, and therefore the most natural. When you look on the grocery shelves there is an abundance of these teas to choose from, and not all are equal health-wise. Also, remember that just because it has these health benefits does it mean they will be absorbed into your body. Many of the things that we use in conjunction with green tea will block absorption, and even ice can be an issue. Experts say that hot or freshly brewed green tea with lemon or other citrus will best preserve its nutritional content.

These five breakfast foods tick all the boxes as far as what you should be eating in the morning. Foods that are rich in fiber will stay with you longer, but they do have calories that you must keep under control. Rich Carroll is a health enthusiast and writer living in Chicago.