Tea is known as nature’s 'wonder drug'. Of late, tea and its healthy benefits have been receiving wide attention in the media. The ability of tea to promote good health has long been believed in many countries, especially Japan, China, India, and even England.

The buzz about tea and its benefits is getting louder and is simply becoming too difficult to ignore. Enlightened tea drinkers are rediscovering the protective and revitalizing benefits of this ancient drink. Ever wonder why the Chinese and Japanese have some of the longest life-expectancy rates in the world. Shhh…here's the secret: they drink tea a lot.

First of all, you need to answer these very simple questions:

• Are you concerned that your kids might join the burgeoning ranks of obese children due to the unhealthy effects of their everyday consumption of tasty treats like burgers, hotdogs, pizza, chips and candies?
  
• Are you concerned about the lurking threat of heart attacks and strokes that might hit you, your spouse or your parents anytime due to the adverse effects of fat-filled diet, smoking, and drinking?
  
• Are you concerned that the stress of everyday life and exposure to harmful elements in the environment could wear your family’s defenses down and expose them to the threat of cancer?

If your answer to all those questions is YES, then you need to act now. Take a closer look at tea and the benefits that tea drinking will give you and your family.

Tea is prepared from linder leaves, leaf buds and tender stalks of different varieties of the warm-weather evergreen known as camellia sinensis. The most popular types of tea are:

• Green Tea
• Black Tea

Other teas are:

• Ginseng Tea
• Herbal Tea
• Oolong Tea
• Rooibos Tea
• White Tea

The degree of processing the leaves of camellia sinensis determines whether a tea will be green, black or red (oolong). Green tea is the least processed. These are simply steamed quickly before packaging. Black and red tea are partially dried, crushed and fermented. The length of fermentation, which causes the leaves to blacken, determines whether the tea will be red or black.

Recent research shows that any tea derived from camellia sinensis has cancer-fighting properties. The leaves of this plant contain chemicals called polyphenols, which give tea its antioxidant properties.

• Help protect cells from the normal, but damaging, physiological process known as "oxidative stress." Although oxygen is vital to life, it's also incorporated into reactive substances called free radicals. These can damage the cells in our body and have been implicated in the slow chain reaction of damage leading to heart disease and cancer.
• Help prevent blood clotting
• Help lower cholesterol levels
• Help neutralize enzymes that aid in the growth of tumors
• Help deactivate cancer promoters
• Help stimulate the immune system

Tea also has fluoride for strong teeth, virtually no calories, and half the amount of caffeine found in an equally-sized cup of coffee. Whether decaffeinated tea has the same level of polyphenols, and thus the same health benefits, as regular tea has not yet been studied. Caffeine is a natural component of tea leaves. It is not yet known if removing caffeine also removes polyphenols.

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Tea and Well-Being

• Hot Tea believed to improve general well-being!
• Drinking lots of tea may do the body good!
• Tea's benefits to tap for good health!
• It's official - A cup of tea is good for you!
• Tea drinking and a healthy diet helps keep chronic diseases away!
• Tea health benefit awareness increases tea drinking!
• Tea doesn't dehydrate, has health benefits, study finds!
• Include Tea in your Healthy Holiday Diet!
• New 'Health Foods Pyramid' Includes Tea!
• The Top 5 Tea Health Benefits

Tea and Heart Attack / Strokes

• Tea may help reduce heart attack deaths, study finds!
• Drinking tea may help enhance protection against heart attacks, strokes and other serious illnesses!
• Three cups of tea a day helps stop heart attacks and strokes (unless you're a man)
• Tea drinking can cut stroke risk among male smokers, study shows!

Tea and Cancer

• Tea has cancer-fighting potentials, study show!
• Tea Fights Ovarian Cancer, study indicates!

Tea and Antioxidants

• Tea anti-oxidants make it one of the healthiest drinks around!
• Tea antioxidants now being recognized by the medical community!

Tea and the Flu

• Drink Herbal Tea to protect from flu, Hong Kong tells its citizens

Tea and Your Mind

• Tea drinking associated with lower cognitive impairment and decline risks - study!
• Tea is mind-soothing brew, study finds!

Tea and Today's Trends

• Flavored iced tea comes of age as trendy and healthy alternative to coffee!
• Tea Cola created by Indian scientists!