Green Tea

Green tea. Just gotta love it. I don't know about you, but I'm not into all this newfangled coffee business... I'm a traditionalist. Did you know the chinese have been drinking this stuff for over 4000 years? That's a long time. I can drink it any way... piping hot out of the pot, iced in a glass, lukewarm in a bottle, frozen into icecubes... you name it. And what's more... it doesn't just taste great, it IS great too. So many health benefits. But I'm gettin ahead of myself.

So, I don't think it would be very useful to people if I just rambled on with my praises of green tea. Usually, I find that people like to hear about the health benefits of green tea (I mean hey, who doesnt want to lose weight or prevent cancer?). So, this seems an opportune moment to share some of the health benefits...

-Green tea can help lower LDL, the bad type of cholestrol (you know, the type that those people in the Honey Nut Cheerios commectials talk about when they go running around saying "I lowered my cholestrol")

-Green tea can slightly speed up metabolism, and help with the breakdown of glucose. So it's a great after-meal drink... get those glucose molecules broken down faster.

-After reading about many studies, I have found that green tea can also aid greatly in the prevention of cancer of all types and kinds (stomach, colon, esophagus, prostrate, lung, and many many more)

-Green tea can also help to strengthen an impaired immune system.

-Green tea is also great for the teeth because it has a high fluoride content (fluoride is that really gross stuff the dentist puts in those little styrofoam things and then says 'bite' and 'good job' and 'hold it for a minute')

If you want a little bit of a more in-depth overview of green tea (or black for that matter), you can check out this site that I found informative...

Green Tea Earth

Coffee has become the drink of America; it is a social phenomenon that has permeated the states completely. The question is, is it a healthy phenomenon? That's a good question. If you're somewhat into health foods and such, or even if you're not, you've probably heard something about the health benefits of green tea. So what's better, coffee or green tea?

Let's start with coffee. Recently, studies have been conducted on coffee, to see if it has any health benefits. And surprisingly, coffee is most likely not as bad as you might have thought. Many people don't drink caffeinated coffee, because they think it unhealthy. In moderation, though, it has no adverse affects. Of course anything to the extreme can be bad, and too much caffeine over an extended period of time is unhealthy. But as said before, in moderation coffee is not adverse, and is even a little better than neutral. It can improve cognitive function (fancy way of saying it can help you think better), reduce gallstone development, inhibit colon cancer, and improve long term physical activities.

But there's more to coffee than just coffee. What do I mean? Well, most people drink it with milk, cream, half and half, or something of the sort. Many also drink it with sugar. It should be obvious that these things are bad, the dairy because of it's animal proteins and fat content; the sugar because... well... it's sugar. Of course, coffee is quite drinkable black.

Now how does this match up with green tea? First and foremost, green tea need not be consumed in moderation. It does have caffeine, but it is a very small amount compared to that of coffee. The health benefits are mainly from its high antioxidant content.

Green tea has also been in use for much longer than coffee. Coffee was first made in the middle east by the Arabs in the 15th century (around 1,400 AD), but the Chinese have been making green tea for over 4,000 years. The Chinese recognized the medicinal benefits of green tea, and have been using it for such purposes since antiquity.

Modern studies have shown the Chinese to be right; many many health benefits are being discovered in green tea. It can help to prevent all sorts of cancer, from the esophagus, to the lungs, to the stomach, it prevents many types. It is also said to relax one, prevent tooth decay, and help the immune system, among other things.

So which is better? In the end, it comes down to personal discretion. Green tea health benefits, at least at this point, have shown themselves superior, but those of coffee are not something to sneeze at either.