Tea and health

Tea contains plentiful amounts of flavonoids

Tea contains plentiful amounts of flavonoids, which are efficient antioxidants. Antioxidants defend your body from free radical attacks and they are needed for the defensive mechanisms of your system. Antioxidants possess abilities that fight sickness. If the antioxidant barrier gets weak, cells start to take damage and become sick.
The most significant antioxidant found in green tea is Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and it takes around 40% of green tea's dry weight.

Tea has been an important resource of flavonoids in Asia
(Japan 90%), while onion and apple (64%) have been used in Finland. Research shows that three cups of green tea provide the same amount of antioxidants as do six apples.

Tea lowers cholesterol

Drinking five cups of tea a day for three weeks lowered the cholestorol level (and the especially ”bad” LDL cholesterol)
of a person whose cholesterol level was a bit high to begin with.

During the experiment, subjects first drank five portions of black tea a day for three weeks. For the next three weeks they drank tea-flavoured water. During the third period of the experiment, they drank tea-flavoured water with the same amount of caffeine as black tea. The first period showed that the subjects' cholesterol levels came down 6 – 10%.
The experiment took into account the subjects' diet.

According to the results, researchers came to the conclusion that by drinking black tea and following a diet with reduced amounts of fat and low cholesterol food, you can significantly lower your cholesterol level, LDL-cholesterol level and thus possibly reduce the chance of heart disease.