Green tea – Benefits and harms

Tea is a drink without which many do not understand their existence. Today you can buy a wide variety of types of tea: from classic black to white fruit. Green tea has gained its popularity not a single century ago. The drink has its own contraindications and useful properties.

What raw materials are green tea made from

Green tea is a drink that is obtained from the leaves of the same tea tree as the classic black. The difference is only in the method of processing raw materials. To obtain green tea, the leaves are treated with high temperature steam – more than 160C. After that, the raw materials are given two days for oxidation. This process is stopped by heating the leaves in traditional pottery. Unlike the Chinese, the Japanese prefer to inhibit oxidation by repeated steam treatment. As a result, the leaves have time to oxidize by no more than 10%-12%.

The benefits of green tea

In the composition of the raw materials collected from the tea bush, you can find a lot of useful and important chemical elements and substances for the human body:

• Alkaloids. These are substances, of which there are quite a lot of varieties and names. It makes no sense to go into the details of the origin of each. The basic information about alkaloids that you need to know is that these substances contribute to the process of vasodilation.
• Amino acids. These are chemical compounds that our body is not able to produce independently, but without many of them, the normal functioning of all systems of the human body is impossible. Amino acids are involved in the formation of tissues, the laying of organs in the fetus, the tying of neural connections in the brain and many other processes. A person can get amino acids only from vegetable raw materials, eating vegetables, fruits and herbs, as well as drinking green tea.
• Antioxidants. These are the main defenders of the body from the formation of compounds by free radicals, which can become malignant and form tumors. Regular consumption of green tea reduces the risk of cancer.
• Tannins. Green tea is rich in them, thanks to which the drink relieves many problems in the work of the intestine. In particular, it solves the problem of constipation, normalizing the natural intestinal peristalsis.
• Vitamin A. It is an important helper of antioxidants. It enhances their activity and helps to remove free radicals from the body.
• Vitamins of group B. Their benefits are difficult to overestimate. For example, thanks to vitamin B3, green tea reduces the level of bad cholesterol. Its counterpart, B2, strengthens the protective functions of the body, allowing it to fight viral and bacterial infections more effectively.
• Vitamin E. It strengthens cell membranes, there is no healthy and beautiful hair without it, it nourishes the skin and does not allow it to peel off.

Marketers often add high concentrations of vitamin C to this list, which is not cheating. However, it must be remembered that upon contact with hot water, this vitamin breaks down and it is no longer possible to detect it in tea. Vitamin C can be preserved only at a temperature no higher than 50C, and tea will not be brewed with such heating. Therefore, it is not necessary to think about strengthening the walls of blood vessels through drinking a drink.

What and to whom is green tea harmful

It is the saturation of green tea with vitamins and minerals that does not allow everyone to use it without exception. Contraindications include:

• Diagnosed gout. The use of green tea can provoke an attack of exacerbation of the condition.
• Age 60+, because green tea can negatively affect the work of joints at a certain concentration of uric acid.
• Stomach ulcer. This is due to the fact that green tea increases the concentration of gastric juice. This can also include erosive damage to the gastric mucosa and gastritis.
• Kidney stones and sand are also considered a contraindication, since tea can provoke the movement of stones.
• Arrhythmia, high blood pressure, insomnia are also a reason to give up green tea. The composition of the drink contains caffeine.

Despite the impressive list of contraindications, one cup of green tea a day will not do any harm. It is not necessary to drink it several cups for people who have at least one disease from the list. The well-known phrase: “Everything is good in moderation” very accurately reflects the rules for taking green tea.

How to make green tea correctly

Tea making in China and Japan is equated with rituals, rituals and a separate and respected culture. In our country, they like to drink tea, but we have neither our own nor borrowed brewing culture. Therefore, everyone tries to brew a drink according to their taste, as they can. However, there are some brewing rules that will allow you to get the right and rich taste, while without bitterness and watery.

In the homeland of tea, they say that for proper preparation it is necessary to calculate a single dose. It is equal to 2 g or 1 teaspoon of dry matter per 150-200 ml mug. Varieties of tea supplied to our country consist of such leaves that need to be filled with boiled water with a temperature slightly above 90C. The tea leaves are kept for 3-5 minutes, then filtered and drunk. Adding sugar is not welcome in the land of the rising sun.

It is not difficult to recognize low-quality tea with the addition of a dye. If the drink acquires a rich color in a matter of seconds, and the added slice of lemon does not lighten it, this indicates a low quality of raw materials. Real tea will certainly brighten after contact with lemon.

Large-leaf tea is considered to be of the highest quality. The smaller the particle fraction, the lower the quality of the drink. That is why filter bags can hardly be called a real drink from India – they contain not even a small leaf, but tea dust, which is probably collected after processing the leaves of the first grade.