The most popular drink, tea has and continues to play an important role in almost all world cultures and customs. The most popular drink worldwide, Tea comes in several varieties. In India, black Tea is most popular. India is the largest producer and consumer of black teas in the world. Widely consumed in the Indian sub-continent from the turn of the 20th century, tea is an essential commodity for most people living in this part of the world! In Asia or Europe or in the Americas, Tea is associated both with simplicity and grandiose ceremony.
Recently, however, a new dimension to its nutritive properties has given it the necessary boost. Its medicinal values have also been recognized. Black Tea like Green Tea, it is now being established, has medicinal values worth researching.
History of Tea
Europeans and particularly the British have been drinking tea for more than 350 years, but tea was a popular form of refreshment in the Asian region as far back as 2000 BC.Here is a brief history of tea and how it came to be the world’s favorite drink. The refreshing drink of choice for millions the world over.
The First Cup Was an Accident
Our story begins over four and a half thousand years ago. According to Chinese mythology, in 2737 BC the Chinese Emperor, Shen Nung, scholar and herbalist, was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled drinking water. A leaf from the tree dropped into the water and Shen Nung decided to try the brew. A new drink was discovered.
Tea Gets Its Name
From the earliest times tea was renowned for its properties as a healthy, refreshing drink. By the third century AD many stories were being told and some written about tea and the benefits of tea drinking, but it was not until the Tang Dynasty (618 AD - 906 AD) that tea became China's national drink and the word ch'a was used to describe tea.
The modern term "tea" derives from early Chinese dialect words - such as Tchai, Cha and Tay - used both to describe the beverage and the leaf.
Tea Drinking Catches On
Both Indian and Japanese folklore credit the popularization of tea to Bodhidharma the devout Buddhist priest who founded Zen Buddhism. The Indian legend tells how in the fifth year of a seven year sleepless contemplation of Buddha he began to feel drowsy. He immediately plucked a few leaves from a nearby bush and chewed them, thus dispelling his tiredness. The bush was a wild tea tree.
The first mention of tea outside China and Japan is said to be by the Arabs in 850 AD and it was they who were responsible for introducing tea to Europe. However, it is the Portuguese and Dutch who claim the credit of bringing tea and tea drinking to Europe.
The Portuguese opened up the sea routes to China, some say as early as 1515. Jesuit priests traveling on the ships brought the tea drinking habit back to Portugal, while the sailors manning the ships encouraged the Dutch merchants to enter the trade. Subsequently a regular shipment of tea to ports in France, Holland and the Baltic coast was set up early in the 17th century. England entered the trade via the East India Company, or the John Company as it was known, in the mid to late 17th Century.
Health Tea Benefit
How TEA may prevent disease: An introduction
Experiments have proved that organic tea may indeed have medicinal properties, if not mystical ones. The tea plant, Camellia Sinensis, is rich in a broad class of chemicals found in fruits and vegetables, called poly phenols, that may help fend off cancer and heart disease. Research conducted in Netherlands determined that healthy seniors got 61% of their poly phenols from black tea. Poly phenols are what give tea it's body, it's flannel texture in the mouth. They're similar in chemical structure to compounds in spinach, grapes, peppers, and other produce that have been found to tie up unstable oxygen molecules, or free radicals.
Other experiments explain the apparent links between tea and good health observed in Asia. Japanese who drink more then 10 cups a day, have lower rates of stomach cancer than those who drink fewer than 10 cups. And, compared to Americans the Japanese are heavy smokers, yet they have lower rates of lung cancer.
Tea also appears to slow absorption of some vitamins and minerals, particularly iron and calcium. Tea also contains caffeine about half as much as coffee per cup and can create the same jitteriness, and withdrawal headaches as coffee if drunk compulsively.
TEA and Heart Disease
Human epistemology and animal studies suggest that tea drinking may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. It also reduced the animals blood cholesterol as well as the concentrations of low density lipoprotein. It also suggested that a diet containing green tea catechins prevented the blood pressure increase. A greater consumption of green tea was linked to a lower total concentration of cholesterol in the blood.
TEA and Cancer
In a study conducted in Japan, the frequency of stomach cancer was lower in people who drank 10 or more cups of green tea daily. In a chinese study the consumption of green tea appeared to cut the risk of esophageal cancer.
Black, green, and oolong teas have also been found to reduce the numbers of nitrosamine induced tumors of stomach and intestine in rats. Black tea and green teas also appear to influence the family of liver enzymes called the cytochrome. Studies have also found that tea can inhibit the formation of nitrosamines, a group of highly active molecules that can be found within the body and cause mutations by attacking the DNA of living cells. It also exerted a protective effect against skin tumors in mice.
The use of tea for medicinal purposes can be traced back more than 1,000 years. We still drink tea today for its health benefits, and science increasingly is supporting tea's medicinal claims.
Tea contains antioxidants known as catechins and flavonoids, which help fight a number of diseases such as certain types of cancer and heart disease.
While research is still preliminary, studies show some benefit from consuming tea, both green and black, in the prevention of cancer and heart disease.
Remember, tea is a source of caffeine. If that's a concern, drink decaffeinated tea or be moderate in your consumption of regular tea.
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