Thursday TeaDay 8/27/09 Tea and minor illness?

[leiche2]

Maybe? Either way, I drink tea for enjoyment. Anything else is a nice bonus.

Started my day with another boring mug of generic Yunnan black. I prefer blacks in the morning, and this is currently the only one in my cupboard. Ugh.

[Chip]

I have said this pretty many times over the last 3.5 years on the forum, but I will again. Before green tea, I would get terrible colds and the absolute worst sinus infections that would knock me on my azz for days, would have to take a series of antibiotics and other meds to get through it.

Since green tea, I have barely had the sniffles and no sinus infections per se. When I seem to be catching something, it is hardly detectable and simply is never an issue. I usually will think, hmmm, am I catching something? But it never develops into anything more.

Also, I had a lot of stomach issues, also had bad acid reflux. Now, nothing.

I am not a scientist, nor a doctor, nor an alternative medicine fanatic. This just happened, and I offer no conclusive proof, just very curious results.

BTW, It was most noticable once I really started drinking Japanese greens.

[Victoria]

Yes I believe so. Definitely more health benefits than coffee. Not mention the nasty instant creamer I used to use in my coffee. Blech! I didn't start for health reasons, so any I get will just be a plus.

Started the day with Tao of Tea Neela.

Have a nice day everyone!

[Dreamer]

Wow, great question…here’s what I’ve learned about the miracle that is the human body: whatever you do either helps build it up or helps tear it down. Whatever you do; including what and how much you eat and drink, what you think, how you sleep, and how you exercise.

So to take the best possible care of the only-and-only you it behooves you to ask yourself, “Will this build me up or tear me down?” If it is good for your cells, it is building you up!

Several people have mentioned the calming effect of preparing and drinking tea. Do not discount the health giving benefit of this!!! When our bodies are in a “fight or flight” mode (our hurry-up, hi-tech lifestyles tend to keep us in this mode for long periods of time), our cells are flooded with powerful chemicals designed to do “helpful” things like: shut down digestion, raise blood pressure and raise blood sugar. The body doesn’t need to worry about digesting lunch if there is a tiger about to attack…it needs blood to the extremities and lots of fast energy (gotta run!). In this mode the body also doesn’t spend much of its resources on the immune system…who cares if a virus might get me next week, the tiger is about to get me NOW! So calming the mind gets the body back to a more normal state of being. (Note: the same argument doesn’t work with everything…cigarettes tend to calm smokers, but they are so toxic that the net effect is a big negative!)

Sal mentioned diets with fruits and vegetables…yep, they are so good for you; proven for example, to support the immune system (good for keeping colds away and cancers too!), protect the vascular system, and protect cellular DNA!!! Another great thing about fruits and vegetables is that they generally “come complete”…all the bits work together to provide nutrition the body can use and to keep the body from overloading on any one thing. Best example…our bodies need iron, but too much elemental iron is pretty toxic. Broccoli contains good amounts of available iron, but it also contains lots of chelators that work to keep the body from getting stuck with more iron than it needs. You can keep on eating broccoli all day and you don’t have to worry that you’re making your body iron toxic.

Tea, especially green tea, is packed with powerful plant nutrients (think vegetable)…so yep, it is definitely good for you. Too much caffeine is not good for a body, but apparently the caffeine in greens is “less available” to the body and in the shady greens (matcha, gyoruko, kabusecha) caffeine is further ameliorated by the lovely theanine. Besides that it seems that everyday another study shows that a little bit of caffeine is beneficial! I think the greens are more beneficial because green tea is not as “oxidized” so the powerful antioxidants are still in it and available to the drinker. Having said that I think that they all probably qualify as healthful!

Bowl of matcha after a stressful root canal…oh, yeah, that’s going to build you up . Big pot of black tea at 10:30 pm when you’ve got to be up at 5:30 am…that’s going to tear you down .

Long answer to a short question…as a person who 10 years ago started a health journey that has moved me from obesity to a far healthier place on the health spectrum and to a business built all around nutrition and wellness, I do get excited about talking about how to take care of our bodies!!!!

Happy, healthy sipping,
Dreamer

P.S. This morning some lovely Ceylon Kenilworth helped warm me and wake me. This afternoon some sweet o-cha Kabusecha from a favorite smooth porcelain cup is bringing me a calm alertness!

[Intuit]

What she said! Tea can:
-supply important microminerals that are essential to metabolic and immune health;
-supply important amino acids needed to build antioxidants in cells and balance neurochemical activity in the CNS. These compounds are enriched in tea leaves as the result of plant growth in volcanic rich soils, at altitude under high-UV conditions;
-supply important antioxidants that are vital to brain, liver, lung and cardiovascular health;
-supply small amounts of natural compounds that act directly on gene expression in the cell nucleus. These compounds are present in many wholesome foods, but some are enriched in teas that play a role in maintaining homeostasis (body temp, blood pressure, ion balance, etc) and also influence cholesterol turnover.

Tea can't:
-correct for shitty diet, lack of exercise, poor sleep habits, lack of sunlight.

Organic Oothu (Kerala district/Nilgiri region) white tea in my cup. Lovely spicy/flowery flavor from very large, wiry leaves. At $2.59/oz, a sleeper of a deal from my local natural foods store.

[brad4419]

Thanks everyone its always great learning more about health.

I like to think tea is healthy and from everything I have read on research about tea it seems to be just that. If nothing else tea is so much more healthy than soda and many other drinks out there that are consumed on a daily basis. The one thing Im sure of is that making and drinking tea makes me feel good and sometimes thats the most important health benefit of them all.

Long Jing today

[JP]

In order to respond properly to this topic we have to first define what "tea" is. The term tea can encompass several different plants. Are we only thinking about the black and green teas, or are we also including others such as Rooibos, Yerbe Mate, and herbals?

[Intuit]

* Main Entry: tea
* Pronunciation: \ˈtē\
* Function: noun
* Etymology: Chinese (Xiamen) dé
* Date: circa 1655
From Mr. Webster's standard lexicon:
1 a : a shrub (Camellia sinensis of the family Theaceae, the tea family) cultivated especially in China, Japan, and the East Indies b : the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the tea plant prepared and cured for the market, classed according to method of manufacture into one set of types (as green tea, black tea, or oolong), and graded according to leaf size into another (as orange pekoe, pekoe, or souchong)
2 : an aromatic beverage prepared from tea leaves by infusion with boiling water
3 a : any of various plants somewhat resembling tea in properties; also : an infusion of their leaves used medicinally or as a beverage b : tea rose
4 a : refreshments usually including tea with sandwiches, crackers, or cookies served in late afternoon b : a reception, snack, or meal at which tea is served
5 slang : marijuana

We are most certainly discussing meanings 1 and 2. Three refers to tissanes and extracts not derived from Camellia, a discussion best left for other days. Number four would be met with scorn by the perfectionists here who would not dare sully their learned palates with food when imbibing tea.

We are NOT discussing definition 5 (unless you are Artemis ).

Yunnan Silver Tips tea in my cup - late-ish for me, but it's been a busy day.

[Riene]

Maybe? Either way, I drink tea for enjoyment. Anything else is a nice bonus.

Same here.

Love the avatar, btw.

Dublin breakfast blend this morning, Lady Grey this afternoon, contemplating trying one of my new sampler tins of white tea for the evening.

[geeber1]

Hmmmm, I remember typing something in this morning, but apparently I didn't hit Submit!

I think that any cold symptoms I've experienced since I started to seriously drink tea have been milder than in the past. Maybe this is because drinking warm drinks helps keep congestion under control? But I like to think that since tea has so many beneficial qualities, that it helps keep some illnesses away. At any rate, it isn't hurting!

Right now I'm enjoying some Li Shan oolong. (Thanks, V!)

[Proinsias]

At the very least I don't think it does much to encourage minor illness.

I've been drinking that much for that long my body doesn't feel quite right after a few days without tea.

[Chip]

Very good TD begining with Yutaka Midori a la O-Cha. Followed by Zencha Sencha the Ultimate with DW, which it is the ultimate, most excellent. Lastly, Honyama from Rishi.

A shincha hat trick, but nothing new there ...

[Cinnamon Kitty]

Maybe? I don't know if it cures it, but a warm cup of tea is incredibly soothing and just makes me feel better. As someone with nearly constant sinus allergy issues, tea doesn't make the allergies go away, but it helps break up the congestion and soothe a sore throat. There are some many good things in tea so it has to help some at least.

Cup is empty, but I had Organic Monk's Blend earlier today and have some set out to make first thing tomorrow morning.

[silverneedles]

ah Intuit , how's it going ...

What she said! Tea can:
-supply important microminerals that are essential to metabolic and immune health;
-supply important amino acids needed to build antioxidants in cells and balance neurochemical activity in the CNS. These compounds are enriched in tea leaves as the result of plant growth in volcanic rich soils, at altitude under high-UV conditions;
-supply important antioxidants that are vital to brain, liver, lung and cardiovascular health;
-supply small amounts of natural compounds that act directly on gene expression in the cell nucleus. These compounds are present in many wholesome foods, but some are enriched in teas that play a role in maintaining homeostasis (body temp, blood pressure, ion balance, etc) and also influence cholesterol turnover.

you know i got to butt in

which "microminerals" supplied by tea are
"essential" to immune health???

"amino acids needed to build antioxidants"

supply "antioxidants" that are "vital" ?!?!!? to ...organ health?!?! ...vital?

natural compounds that maintain homeostasis of body temp?!?! BP ???? ion balance ?

omg please list them all.