How Does This Ayurvedic Food Improve Wellness?

CLINICAL AYURVEDIC REVIEW

Green tea energizes your mind, but without the jitters of coffee. As you sip a cup of green tea, you feel clean and clear. Your mind doesn't race as it does does with coffee. Instead, you feel present and aware. Green tea is the very expression of the "metal element" of Chinese Medicine - pure, mathematical, austere.

Formalized rituals around green tea point to the stark elegance evoked by this herb. Green tea is orderly. It allows you to view life quietly. Unlike coffee, which is adorned with cream and sugar, green tea stripped to its bare essentials. It needs no ornament. This minimalist herb subscribes to the Zen principle, "Less is more."

It's pale green color has a mild herbal taste with a touch of earthy bitterness. It is otherwise mostly bland. The warmth in a cup of green tea calms the nerves as it warms up circulation. A cup of green tea, filled with antioxidants and an abundance of healing qualities, is an excellent substitute for coffee as your morning pick me up.

Green tea is an herb with an illustrious history, as the tea of Emperors and sages. According to legend, Prince Dharma travelled to China sharing Buddhism. He made a vow to remain awake for his entire nine year mission. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts he fell asleep. "Upon awakening, he was so disgusted with himself, he tore off his eyelids, to ensure that they would never inadvertently close again. The place where he threw them on the ground produced enchanted (tea) shrubs with leaves having the power to keep eyelids open. As you can see, in each story, green tea is the herb that helps Bodi Dhama remain austere, refined, true to his path.

Green Tea for Weight Loss

A cup of steaming, pleasantly bitter green tea helps you lose weight when combined with healthy diet and exercise. It's diuretic properties remove excess water from your system reducing puffiness, edema, and a feeling of heaviness. Swiss researchers have preliminary evidence that green tea accelerates the burning of fat calories in people who are overweight, reducing cholesterol, high lipids, and triglycerides.

The bitterness of green tea also helps you detoxify. Green Tea can help regulate your blood sugar and insulin levels, helpful in diabetes. Green tea can also help to prevent plaque buildup on the teeth, since the leaves contain a natural fluoride.

Heart Health

Green Tea helps you take care of your heart. It reduces blood clots through it's bitter, blood-thinning taste, as well as reducing cholesterol, lipids, and triglycerides. It's diuretic action lowers blood pressure. Studies show that green tea may actually lower the risk of arteriosclerosis (hardening of the blood vessels) through anti-oxidant action.

Brighten Your Mind

Green tea has a lower amount of caffeine than coffee, but still gives a nice pick-me-up. Instead of feeling jittery and agitated, green tea gives a softer lift that clears and focuses your mind in the midst of a long day. It is often used in China to soften the pain of migraine headaches.

Additional Health Benefits

Green tea's many health benefits include the healing of ulcers, curing bad breath, and encouraging healthy digestion. Unlike coffee which aggravates inflammation, green tea is an anti-inflammatory. Additionally, green tea boosts your immunity against both viral and bacterial colds and flus. These health benefits are ascribed to the high content of bioactive ingredients such as polyphenols. Due to its stimulating nature, bitter taste and drying effects, caffeine in all forms provokes Vata dosha. Find alternative stimulants such as ginger when energy is depleted due to Vata. However, green tea does one great thing for Vata- it can prevent osteoporosis.

About Green Tea

Green Tea is a preparation using minimally processed leaves from the camellia sinensis plant. This is the same plant used in normal black tea. Black tea leaves, however, are more processed.