(NaturalHealth365)  Green tea has been renowned for centuries for its delicious, energizing benefits and medicinal properties.  It provides a zip of caffeine and energy that tends to leave people feeling less of a crash later on when compared to a cup of coffee or even black tea.

Modern nutritional science has long investigated the benefits of green tea consumption for various health metrics, including cardiovascular, cancer prevention, diabetes, modulation, and others.  For example, research done in 2022 looked at 22 studies and over 169,000 subjects, 97,000 of which used green tea regularly.  The meta-analysis looked at the health outcomes of those who used green tea regularly versus those who did not, specifically on metrics of body mass index, liver cancer, liver distress as expressed through enzyme levels, and blood levels of HDL and LDL.

The results were both encouraging and quite surprising, and if you like green tea, keep reading – we have even more reasons to keep your green tea habit going.

Green tea offers a multitude of health benefits

Green tea is full of catechins which are polyphenols that behave as antioxidants in your body.  Antioxidants do exactly what they sound like; they counteract oxidative stress and reduce inflammation.  This, in turn, reduces your risk for a variety of conditions, from cancer and heart disease to some autoimmune diseases, leaky gut, and so on.

Green tea is also lower in caffeine, so it’s more tolerable for people who can’t take caffeine for one reason or another.  It’s calorie-free, and the unique combination of molecules in green tea provides a cleaner type of energy – many people report feeling more focused when they swap their morning coffee with green tea.

The combination of caffeine and catechins – specifically Epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG – helps lower blood pressure, improves the function of your metabolism, and is thought to help you lose weight.  There are functionally no downsides to green tea consumption and, as the research suggests, an absolute motherload of upside.

Prevent cancer and support heart health with this antioxidant powerhouse

Antioxidants prevent damage from free radicals, which in turn reduce cell damage and, further down the road, cancer proliferation.  The same benefits of antioxidants also reduce damage to the endothelial cells in blood vessels and arteries, which reduces cardiovascular risk.  The benefits of green tea for weight loss have been understood for decades, and you can often find EGCG and other green tea catechins in supplement form, but we are talking about whole green tea as a drink today, which is far cheaper and easier to access.

The study we are looking at used data from 22 independent studies that used green tea as a focal point.  The research included in this meta-analysis was conducted on the effects of green tea on heart health, LDL and HDL in blood measurements, diagnosis of liver cancer, blood pressure, liver enzymes that indicate distress, and body mass index.

Of the nearly 170,000 participants over the course of the 22 studies, 97,000 indicated an intake of green tea that met the intake threshold for the researchers (2+ cups a day).

The study’s results were profound, finding a very significant association between green tea consumption and a reduced risk of liver cancer versus those who did not drink green tea at all.  Additionally, there was a significant link between lower body mass index, lower levels of distressed liver enzymes, and lower levels of negative blood lipids, including triglycerides.  It is worth noting that no positive association was found between green tea intake and higher HDL levels.

While the studies being analyzed in this research only focused on liver cancer, specifically, there is plenty of evidence and support for the idea that green tea intake, along with a healthy diet, reduces the general risk of cancer and heart disease.

How to incorporate green tea into your daily routine for health benefits

The beneficial effects of green tea are profound and well-researched, and this is just another piece of scientific evidence that suggests you should include green tea into your diet.  With that said, not everyone enjoys the flavor of green tea, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still get the benefits.

If you are the type of person who has smoothies or drinks protein shakes, you can brew a cup of green tea and pour it in, along with more robust flavors that you are using to mask the taste.  You may also find matcha, a Japanese powdered form of concentrated, high-quality green tea, more desirable for you.  Often, people dislike switching from coffee to green tea because green tea is much more subtle, but matcha has a more potent flavor.  It is earthy, grassy, and strong in the best possible ways, and some evidence suggests that matcha is even better for you than simply brewing green tea bags because of its concentrated and high-quality nature.

So, the next time you go to the store, grab a box or two of organic green tea and enjoy this powerful antioxidant drink.  Your heart, liver, waistline, and just about every organ in your body will thank you.

Sources for this article include:

NIH.gov