Scientific studies continue to show that green tea is good for you.

Tea began its illustrious history as a Chinese medicinal drink, and only gradually did it become popular beverage that it is today. In traditional Chinese medicine, tea is considered good for you to clear eyes and head, resolve excess phlegm, promote urination, relieve toxins, aid digestion, and quench thirst. As with so many foods and medicines, traditional Chinese medicinal thoughts are being proven scientifically in modern times. Today, there is ample evidence to recommend tea as a daily tonic in interest of preventing or treating a wide range of maladies, including: cancer, hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol, premature aging, food poisoning, dental decay and bad breath, and even arthritis.

Tea is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant: besides inhibiting growth of cancer cells, it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue. It has also been effective in lowering LDL cholesterol levels, and inhibiting abnormal formation of blood clots.  The latter takes on added importance when you consider that thrombosis (the formation of abnormal blood clots) is leading cause of heart attacks and stroke.

• Green tea may help dieters.   In November, 1999, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published results of a study at University of Geneva in Switzerland.  Researchers found that men who were given a combination of caffeine and green tea extract burned more calories than those given only caffeine or a placebo.

• A Japanese report found that men who drank ten cups of green tea per day stayed cancer-free for three years longer than men who drank less than three cups a day (there are approximately 240 - 320 mg of polyphenols in three cups of green tea). Meanwhile, a study by Cleveland's Western Reserve University concluded that drinking four or more cups of green tea per day could help prevent rheumatoid arthritis, or reduce symptoms in individuals already suffering from disease.  

• Scientists at Saitama Cancer Research Institute discovered that there were fewer recurrances of breast cancer, and disease spread less quickly, in women with a history of drinking five cups or more of green tea daily.

• Scientists also discovered that EGCG from green tea can help to prevent metastasis, or movement and spreading of cancer cells from one organ or tissue to other by bloodstream or lymph. Cancer cells secrete special enzymes in order to enter and colonize tissues. Research shows that EGCG stops secretion of these special enzymes.

• A case study that was done in China, reports that those women who drank green tea regularly had a 50% lower risk of developing esophageal cancer. Men showed less risk as well, but not as significant as women.