My grandmother lived to nearly 100 years old and died of a hip fracture, no cancer, no cardio-vascular disease or any of those what we call these days life style related conditions. She never went to school and could not read (not influenced by media of any kind), but she knew ‘tea is good for you’ and drunk tea all her life.
Tea has been consumed in China for more than 2000 years and the health benefits were felt long before the modern since started researching into their active compounds and documenting their health benefits about 30-40 years ago. Tea is a gift of Mother Nature, like many other medicinal herbs. An important aspect is that tea is also a beverage that can be consumed on a daily base and the ultimate benefits come with its long term consumption.
Of the majority of the studies conducted so far, teas have been reported to be beneficial to many life style related conditions, such as cancers, cardio-vascular diseases, obesity, diabetes, and immune system related conditions. The research is ongoing and one can only expect that there will be more discoveries to be reported.
People have taken up tea drinking during recent years to subsidise their coffee and other beverage consumption. One important thing to remember is that tea consumption is only beneficial as a life style. Drink it as a medicine for a couple of weeks will produce no merits. I have always advised our customers to pick up a couple to a few teas that they really enjoy and make tea drinking part of your life style. The health benefits will come naturally as side effects of the long term consumption.