Green Tea

Green tea is said to be a health hero, because it helps to speed up your metabolism and promoting weight loss, and can scare away colds and flu, and even protecting against tooth decay. It is said to be powerful against serious diseases, like cardiovascular disease. Green tea drinkers outlived their tea shunning counterparts by a measure of 16 percent over 11 years when they did a study on green tea. Is this popular beverage, enjoyed widely in Asian countries such as Japan and gaining momentum in Western societies, really the key to living longer? Green tea, which is made with unfermented leaves, has high levels of disease fighting antioxidants called polyphenols. Polyphenols work to neutralize disease causing free radicals that alter cells. Just drinking three to four cups of green tea daily improves the functioning of the lining of cardiac blood vessels, making them more pliable and able to withstand changes in blood pressure. It also may be effective against the formation of blood clots, a big cause of heart attacks. And studies show that green tea lowers total cholesterol while raising levels of HDL, or "good" cholesterol-all things that can help you live longer. So we should all drink some green tea, at least once a day.