Please Share your Email if you Wish to Receive the Golden Tips & Tales Newsletter from History of Ceylon Tea Website
Leading nutrition scientists from around the world convened yesterday to present the latest evidence supporting the role of tea in promoting optimal health.
With new findings from the international scientific community consistently lending credibility to tea’s healthy properties, speakers at the symposium provided a comprehensive update of recent research on the benefits of tea consumption on human health.
As the second most consumed beverage in the world next to water, over 159 million Americans are drinking tea on any given day.
“There is a growing body of research from around the world demonstrating that drinking tea can enhance human health in many ways,” said symposium chair, Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, an active Professor Emeritus in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.
“True teas – which include black, green, white, oolong, and dark – can contribute significantly to the promotion of public health. Evidence presented at this symposium reveals results – ranging from suggestive to compelling – about the benefits of tea on cancer, cardiometabolic disease, cognitive performance, and immune function.”
The Chemistry in Your Cup
Tea contains flavonoids, naturally occurring compounds that have antioxidant properties. Tea flavonoids provide bioactive compounds that help to neutralize free radicals which may damage elements in the body, such as genetic material and lipids, and contribute to chronic disease. Tea also contains L-theanine, an amino acid that is for the most part, uniquely found in tea.
Tea and Immune Function
“Tea may help support your immune system and increase your body’s resistance to illnesses,” says Dayong Wu, MD, PhD, Nutritional Immunology Laboratory in the USDA Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University.
“In the event you do become sick, tea can help your body respond to illness in a more efficient way by ridding itself of the infection and may also alleviate its severity when they happen.”
In a comprehensive review of the published data on this topic presented at the symposium, Wu concluded that green tea/catechins have been shown to help the host fight against a variety of pathogens by decreasing the pathogen’s ability to infect the host and helping the host’s immune system spring into action.
Comments
(In keeping with the objectives of this website, all COMMENTS must be made in the spirit of contributing to the history of this estate, planter or person i.e. names, dates & anecdotes. Critical evaluations or adverse comments of any sort are not acceptable and will be deleted without notice – read full Comments Policy here)