[Kde-i18n-vi] Alexis Koskan - The Health Benefits of Green Tea

[paul.kholer paul.kholer]

Alexis Koskan

The Chinese have known about Green tea as a powerful medication for at least
4000 years. According to legend, tea was discovered by a Chinese emperor
called Shen Nung. Some tea leaves accidentally fell into boiling water, and
he tried it and found it invigorating. Green tea became part of the Chinese
diet and many important health benefits were attributed to it. Now recent
medical studies in both asia and the west are providing a scientific basis
for the claim that drinking green tea has very significant health benefits.

Green tea, like black tea is made from the leaves of the plant Camellia
sinensis. The difference between the three main types of tea is the way that
they are produced. Green tea is unfermented tea meaning that the leaves used
for green tea are steamed soon after been plucked in order to prevent the
oxidation of the leaves. In this way the leaves remain green and the active
substances within the leaves retain their qualities. Black teas on the other
hand are made from fermented leaves and as a result have less nutritional
and enzyme content as the green tea. Thus green and black teas have
different chemical properties.

Modern science has in recent times been able to demonstrate that green tea
is beneficial to one's health and this is mainly due to the fact that tea
contains high levels of antioxidants called polyphenols or flavonoids. The
antioxidant activity of tea has been compared to that of fruit and
vegetables in a number of studies. One study concluded that consuming three
cups of tea a day produced a similar amount of antioxidants as eating six
apples. Antioxidants help your body fight against free radicals which cause
damage to cells and tisuues in your body.

While all tea is healthy to drink, it is green tea that contains the highest
level of flavonoids. Recent medical studies suggest green tea to be
beneficial in many areas including the following:

-Digestive and respiratory health.

-Lowers cholesterol levels

-Boosts your immune system

-Reduces high blood pressure

-Arthritis - anti-inflammatory effect.

-Oral hygiene - due to antibacterial properties.

-Skin conditions such as acne

-Lowers blood sugar

Weight loss is another area that is attracting huge attention. Recently
published research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests
that an extract from green tea may speed up fat oxidation. A study was
conducted of ten healthy men over a period of 6 weeks. It was discovered
that those men who were given green tea extract burned more calories per day
than those who were not given the extract. Much more research needs to be
conducted in this area but the signs are certainly very encouraging.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-i18n-vi/attachments/20070914/2826a06d/attachment.html