Go Green with Your Tea

by Heiky | July 4, 2008 at 01:30 pm

1934 views | 29 Recommendations | 34 comments

Eastern cultures have long since associated tea with a healthy diet, but is there any backing or prove that green tea is actually good for you? A new study shows that green tea keeps arteries relaxed and flexible, which lowers risk for heart failures and other heart related diseases. So next time if you're at Starbucks, you might want to consider an iced green tea over your regular choice of a caramel macchiato.

A new study shows that the beverage, which is more popular in Eastern cultures, can protect heart arteries by keeping them flexible and relaxed, and therefore better able to withstand the ups and downs of constant changes in blood pressure. Led by Dr. Nikolaos Alexopoulos of Athens Medical School in Greece, the researchers found that among 14 subjects, those who drank green tea showed greater dilation of their heart arteries on ultrasound 30 min. later than those drinking either diluted caffeine or hot water. That's because, the scientists speculate, green tea works on the lining of blood vessels, helping cells there to secrete the substances needed to relax the vessels and allow blood to flow more freely. It's the flavonoids in the tea, which work as antioxidants and help prevent inflammation in body tissue, that keep the vessels pliable. These substances may also protect against the formation of clots, which are the primary cause of heart attacks. "We found very promptly [that] after drinking green tea, there was a protective effect on the endothelium," says Dr. Charalambos Vlachopoulos, a cardiologist and one of the authors of the study.

Apparently six grams of green tea can do the trick.

All it took, says Vlachopoulos, was 6 g of green tea, which amounts to 3 to 4 cups. To make sure the dilation effect was not due to the small amounts of caffeine found in green tea, the group compared the arterial sizes in the green-tea drinkers with those consuming a diluted caffeine beverage and found no change in arterial size in the caffeine drinkers. Even more intriguing, the beneficial effect seems to be long-lasting and cumulative. When the doctors measured the green-tea drinkers' arteries two weeks after daily consumption of the beverage, they found that their vessels were more dilated than they had been at the beginning of the study. "It's something that needs to be investigated, but we think that if someone takes green tea for one or two months, the beneficial effect will be even greater," says Vlachopoulos.

Green tea may have beneficial effects, but it doens't mean that everyone should be drinking green tea all the time, nor does it mean that it is a recommendation by the researchers.

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Amy Judd

at 13:35 on July 4th, 2008

I don't really like green tea, but I try to drink one cup everyday because I've heard it is really good for you.

Multiple Infusions

at 01:50 on July 5th, 2008

'tis true, green tea is magic.

If anyone wants to know more about the emerald green tea in the Hagi cups, those pictures are from a review I wrote recently.

Multiple Infusions has contributed a photo to this story.

Tom Knapp IV

at 02:37 on July 5th, 2008

a fine beverage no doubt

adamjinj

at 03:13 on July 5th, 2008

Twinings, the famous British tea company makes an Earl Grey green tea which is amazing. I drink it in the morning and it's much healthier than coffee. The photo I provided above also has Twinings Iced Green Tea in it which is another drink I swear by.

sfitz61081

at 04:37 on July 5th, 2008

I drink green tea every morning for breakfast. I prefer green tea with lemon. My photo with the bean cakes was taken in Tokyo at a Japanese Tea House. The tea was kind of thick and foamy. It was very strong but made a pretty picture with the bean pastries. Sfitz

ssoosay

at 05:26 on July 5th, 2008

thanks for adding my photo of green tea :)

ssoosay has contributed a photo to this story.

kevinworld

at 05:29 on July 5th, 2008

this is what I drink and sell. A nice image taken with a SIGMA SD14 DSLR.

kevinworld has contributed a photo to this story.

glassbottle

at 05:43 on July 5th, 2008

Green Tea in Japan is drink as a usual drink everyday. It is good for health. Like when you have toothache, gurgle with green tea and it's gonna be ok. It has lots of vitamin C that is good for skin. And we also use green tea in different kinds of cooking. It's not only a drink but also a food. Scientist here are now finding many interesting thing about green tea that is really good for health and curing many sicknesses.

glassbottle has contributed a photo to this story.

corporate_casual

at 05:43 on July 5th, 2008

I don't think I've ever had anything with green tea in it that I didn't like (soda, candy and even toothpaste!)

Great story! Thanks for using my photo!

corporate_casual has contributed a photo to this story.

Him

at 06:32 on July 5th, 2008

Him has contributed a photo to this story.

baiadha

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 06:36 on July 5th, 2008

Heiky, I like this story. It's good stuff.

meghandahn

at 06:47 on July 5th, 2008

I've always noticed that my body and mind feel "cleaner" and less jittery on the weeks I switch from coffee to green tea.

shellieartist

at 07:12 on July 5th, 2008

I drink my green tea with a dash of local honey. I love that it is good for me and taste so good!

shellieartist.etsy.com has contributed a photo to this story.

paXoo

at 07:40 on July 5th, 2008

I like green tea just fine (thanks for using my photo!) but there’s a lot of misconception that we can only drink tea at the expense of coffee—which, incidentally, is incredibly, terribly bad for you: false!

Green tea is antioxidant-rich and likely to improve your health, but that doesn’t mean we have to give up coffee to drink it. Instead, we’d be better off giving up, say, soft drinks. Coffee, as it turns out, has many health benefits as well, including News > Health — The perks of coffee”>preventing diabetes, liver disease, and gallstones. So the next time you’re trying to decide what to drink, make it green tea or coffee.

duplamox

at 08:17 on July 5th, 2008

This is how green tea is prepared in Morocco (north africa). Given the hot&dry weather there, green tea is the national drink and always prepared with fresh menth and a lot of sugar. Tea gets stronger if you go from north to south.
Rachid Lamzah (duplamox).

duplamox has contributed a photo to this story.

Bassom

at 09:07 on July 5th, 2008

I took this foto while studying ,,

too bad the mug is lost now; I think the maid broke it and trying to hide it lol ..

anyways, my pix are available at my flickr account
http://www.flickr.com/photos/_basmah_/

sorry no recent activity .. really busy with MEDICINE

Bassom has contributed a photo to this story.

fualoquita

at 09:34 on July 5th, 2008

it is amazing how many varieties come with green tea, from this collection I found, I liked better lemon and green tea, really tastes like lemon!

fualoquita has contributed a photo to this story.

Pistols Drawn

at 09:09 on July 5th, 2008

i love green tea. drink it for taste and the health benefits. double score!

fualoquita

at 09:10 on July 5th, 2008

ash.matadeen

at 11:33 on July 5th, 2008

Green tea + Veg juice + Fruit juice = Awesome idea

ash.matadeen has contributed a photo to this story.

..mimsy

at 12:31 on July 5th, 2008

i've never been a coffee drinker, but i love green tea. in the evening, i like hot tea but during the day i prefer iced green tea. i think amyjudd may find she likes green tea if she tries it iced vs hot. one other benefit i've not seen mentioned here, is that i read green tea helps fend off cavities.

my green tea photo shows my favorite cup for drinking hot tea. (yes, certain cups make drinks taste *even better*!). for more of my photos you can view my photostream at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/miriam_k

msvolition

at 12:51 on July 5th, 2008

There is a wide and generous variety of green tea being grown all over the world today. The tea depicted is Kapchorua Kenya Green Tea and it can be used repeatedly until the flavor is exhausted, just like many loose teas. I tried out this tea upon recommendation from a friend and it's a wonderful and interesting taste from the more traditional green teas.

msvolition has contributed a photo to this story.

shushusuru

at 13:23 on July 5th, 2008

A Japanese woman named Masumi served me this delicious and refreshing cup of hot green tea one rainy afternoon at her house in Osaka, Japan.

shushusuru has contributed a photo to this story.

krisy_kwan

at 14:34 on July 5th, 2008

I love the color and smell of green tea. It's really soothing. The good thing about green tea is it can be mixed with other type of food like bakery. I have tried Green Tea cake. It was so good. I try to reduce my caffeine intake by drinking a cup of green tea everyday instead.

krisy_kwan has contributed a photo to this story.

Flitterby

at 23:13 on July 5th, 2008

I drink green tea all day long. As a diabetic, I've found that having at least 2 cups after each meal significantly lowers my blood glucose levels. As I use flavoured green teas (often brewing several flavours at once in the pot), I have absolutely no problems with its taste. My current favourite 'recipe' for a 1.5 litre tea pot is 1 bag black tea, 3 bags plain green tea, 3 bags vanilla green tea, 1 bag Chai green tea with spices, and 2 bags of variously flavoured green teas such as mandarin, lemon, or apple. The combination of apple, vanilla and chai green tea is like having a cup of 'apple pie' but without the guilt!

This makes a very strong, concentrated pot of tea. I use half a cup of hot water in my cup, and then fill the rest of the way with tea from the pot.

My photo was taken for the TuDiabetes (http://tudiabetes.com) group. We were asked to write something on our hand pertaining to diabetes. I use this image for my Random Experiments blog at http://randomexperiments.com. Drinking green tea started as an experiment, but because I have had such good results with it, it's now part of my daily life.

kcfoo24

at 02:33 on July 7th, 2008

Green tea is good for your health. This photo is taken in Japan, where green tea is one of their main drinks. From hotels, restaurants to vending machines, green tea is widely available and cheap as well!

kcfoo24 has contributed a photo to this story.

SHGarden

at 14:18 on July 7th, 2008

a hot matcha latte by a rainy day in Seoul

SHGarden has contributed a photo to this story.

sutekikirbz@sbcglobal.net

at 22:53 on July 12th, 2008

Also, in Japan, at restaurants it's common to get green tea as the free drink of choice instead of water. I heard it is also common in other Asian countries too. Now, I just need to jump on green tea, I'm still getting my "wake-up juice" from coffee. XD