Aside from pure water, green tea is arguably one of the healthiest beverages around, with research pointing to impressive health benefits for your heart, bones, weight, vision, and even your brain.
Tea comes from the evergreen plant called Camellia sinensis. It's the processing that gives it its color and taste. For green tea, the leaves are unoxidized (not exposed to oxygen), and this minimal processing may help to keep the beneficial antioxidants intact.
If you're interested in improving your health, and specifically your brain health, green tea is definitely worth considering.
Green Tea Boosts Brain Health
In a new study of 12 healthy volunteers, those who received a beverage containing 27.5 grams of green tea extract showed increased connectivity between the parietal and frontal cortex of the brain compared to those who drank a non-green tea beverage.1
The increased activity was correlated with improved performance on working memory tasks, and the researchers believe the results suggest green tea may be useful for treating cognitive impairments, including dementia. According to the study authors:2
"Our findings provide first evidence for the putative beneficial effect of green tea on cognitive functioning, in particular, on working memory processing at the neural system level by suggesting changes in short-term plasticity of parieto-frontal brain connections.In this case, the researchers also suggested that the effects might have been strengthened if the volunteers had consumed a pure green tea extract, as opposed to a green tea-fortified beverage. And that is one of the great things about tea – if you don't enjoy it as a beverage (or if you only drink it on occasion), you can still get the health benefits by consuming it in supplemental extract form.
Modeling effective connectivity among frontal and parietal brain regions during working memory processing might help to assess the efficacy of green tea for the treatment of cognitive impairments in psychiatric disorders such as dementia."
How Else Might Green Tea Benefit Your Health?
Your brain is only one part of your body that might benefit from green tea, which is recognized as an abundant source of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a catechin polyphenol, and other antioxidants. So what else is green tea good for?Reduced Mortality and Chronic Inflammation
Drinking green tea is associated with reduced mortality due to all causes, as well as mortality due to heart disease. Research also shows holistic benefits to green tea consumption, including lower blood pressure, oxidative stress, and chronic inflammation.3Heart Health
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