Benefits Of Black Tea - Drink To Your Health

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You hear about green tea all the time, and it is certainly good for you. It has a smooth, soothing flavor, and contains oodles of free radical fighting antioxidants, but what about the benefits of black tea? Black tea is every bit as good for you as its big brother, green tea, but you just do not seem to hear as much about it. Let us take a look at black tea and why you will love it.

Black tea is made from the same leaves as green tea. Actually, black tea starts out as green tea, but the leaves are further dried, oxidized and fermented for a longer period of time. Once the black tea leaves reach maximum aroma, and therefore maximum taste, the process is complete. Your green tea has now become black tea! Unfortunately during this process, black tea loses some of its antioxidant properties, which is why green tea still holds the highest level of anitoxidants you can get in a tea.

Perhaps you have heard of English Breakfast or Earl Grey tea? These are varieties of black tea.

The health benefits of black tea are numerous. They include preventing heart disease (heart attack and stroke), keeping your arteries clear, eliminating viruses, helping to correct oral health issues, and of course, helping to control free radical damage which may cause numerous illnesses and diseases throughout your body.

In regard to heart disease, black tea works in several ways. It helps keep the arteries clear and even reverse some damage that may already be present for someone who drinks 4 cups of black tea per day. This is a huge benefit for you if you have a history of heart disease in your family like I do. Also, it helps raise the good and lower the bad cholesterol levels in your body, which is another heart risk factor.

Black tea has been shown to reduce the risk of certain types of cancer. Specifically, breast, oral, stomach and colon cancer. This is because of the good quantity of antioxidants, in addition to a substance known as TF-2, which is a natural compound shown to block inflammation, viruses and cancer itself.

Black tea has a higher caffeine level than green tea, but not to the level of coffee. Black tea has been shown to increase energy levels, improve memory function and increase metabolism to help you lose weight easier. The increase in metabolism is under 5%, but if you are trying to lose weight, why not accept this small bonus in addition to all of the other health benefits of black tea?

Although black tea is an excellent choice for a healthy beverage, there are a few downsides. One is the level of caffeine, which can cause shakiness, sleeplessness, anxiety or heart palpitations if you overindulge, very similar to coffee. Those of you who are sensitive to the effects of caffeine should drink with caution.

Also, due to its rich color, black tea tends to stain your teeth much more so than green tea. Again, very similar to drinking black coffee.

Lastly, green tea outshines black tea in the level of antioxidants, however, you will still receive a healthy dose when drinking black tea. You know the importance of antioxidants and how they prevent, fight and reverse free radical damage, which can wreak havoc on your body if left unchecked.

Now that you have learned about some of the benefits of black tea, consider giving it a try as an alternative to green tea. As a matter of fact, if you switch back and forth between drinking green and black tea, you will have the maximum benefits of drinking both types of tea, and discover a nice way to mix things up while at the same time receiving all of the many health benefits only tea can give you.