Tea and Health

• No matter what the season, tea is a tasty beverage that can be served hot or over ice. Zealong Tea’s benefits go far beyond refreshment. Zealong tea is 100% organically grown and handpicked in the stunning fields of Waikato, New Zealand. Clean air, fertile soils, warm sun and cleansing waters are the key ingredients required to produce Zealong tea’s distinctive award-winning taste. Zealong tea is naturally good for you. All tea is good for you, we have compiled a list of recent scientific study results, so you know just how good it is.
• Below is the guide to Zealong Tea’s health benefits:

1. Tea can boost exercise endurance. Scientists have found that the catechins (antioxidants) in tea extract increase the body’s ability to burn fat as fuel, which accounts for improved muscle endurance.
2. Drinking tea could help reduce the risk of heart attack. Tea might also help protect against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases.
3. The antioxidants in tea might help protect against a boatload of cancers, including breast, colon, colorectal, skin, lung, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver, ovarian, prostate and oral cancers. Tea is not a miracle cure, and we always advise to seek medical support when feeling unwell.
4. Tea helps fight free radicals. Tea is high in oxygen radical absorbance capacity (“ORAC” to its friends), which is a fancy way of saying that it helps destroy free radicals (which can damage DNA) in the body. While our bodies are designed to fight free radicals on their own, they’re not 100 percent effective — and since damage from these radical oxygen ninjas has been linked to cancer, heart disease and neurological degeneration, we’ll take all the help we can get.
5. Tea is hydrating to the body (even despite the caffeine) and at Zealong our tea is naturally lower in caffeine when compared with others on the market, this is because New Zealand doesn’t have the same bugs and insects as other tea growing countries.
6. Drinking tea is linked with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease. When considered with other factors like smoking, physical activity, age and body mass index, regular tea drinking was associated with a lowered risk of Parkinson’s disease in both men and women.
7. Tea might provide protection from ultraviolet rays. We know it’s important to limit exposure to UV rays, and we all know what it’s like to feel the burn. The good news is that green tea may act as a back-up sunscreen.
8. Tea could keep waist circumference in check. In one study, participants who regularly consumed hot tea had lower waist circumference and lower BMI than non-consuming participants. Scientists speculate that regular tea drinking lowers the risk of metabolic syndrome (which increases the risk of diabetes, artery disease and stroke), although it’s important to remember that correlation does not equal causation.
9. Regular tea drinking might also counteract some of the negative effects of smoking and might even lessen the risk of lung cancer (good news, obviously, but not a justification to keep smoking).
10.  Tea could be beneficial to people with Type 2 diabetes. Studies suggest that compounds in green tea could help diabetics better process sugars.
11. Tea can help the body recover from radiation. One study found that tea helped protect against cellular degeneration upon exposure to radiation, while another found that tea can help skin bounce back postexposure.
12.  All tea has been found to improve bone mineral density and strength.

13.   Tea might be an effective agent in the prevention and treatment of neurological diseases, especially degenerative diseases (think Alzheimer’s). While many factors influence brain health, polyphenols in green and oolong tea may help maintain the parts of the brain that regulate learning and memory.
14. Tea contains amino acid L Theanine, this can cross the blood–brain barrier, theanine has reported psychoactive properties. Theanine has been studied for its potential ability to reduce mental and physical stress, improve cognition, and boost mood and cognitive performance in a synergistic manner with caffeine.

Though most research on tea is highly positive, it’s not all definitive.

1.     Zealong tea is best brewed just off the boil.  Keep it cool. Repeatedly drinking hot beverages may boost the risk of oesophageal cancer. Give tea several minutes to cool off before sipping.
2.       Chemicals in tea may react differently in the lab than they do in the human body. Tannins (and the other good stuff in tea) may not be bioavailable for humans, meaning tea might not always benefit human health to the same degree as in lab studies suggest.
3.       Zealong tea is grown using 100% organic farming practices, good for the soil, good for the environment, good for the tea. All tea drinks are not created equal. The body’s access to the good stuff in tea might be determined by the tea variety, growing conditions and processing, and the way it was brewed.

Green Tea

• Green tea is rich in catechins. Catechins are antioxidants that fight and may even prevent cell damage. These powerful chemicals speed up fat burning as well as reduce stress and heavy metal consumption due to the cell repair compounds found within. Green tea has been shown to improve blood flow and lower cholesterol. A 2013 review of many studies found green tea helped prevent a range of heart-related issues, from high blood pressure to congestive heart failure.

All Zealong tea helps with weight loss, reduction of serum cholesterol, and cardiovascular protection.