The Relationship between Cancer and Green Tea

Do you know that drinking green tea can prevent you from cancer disease? There are many interest about green tea has arisen in the Western medical community, which is means that the subject matter is no longer only being examined by the Eastern medical community. Real green tea contains high levels of plant polyphenols that many scientists believe fight illness. Green tea has been found to contain high levels of Epigallocatechin Gallate, or EGCG, which is a powerful antioxidant.

In normal, human bodies produce unstable molecules called oxidants, or free radicals, which can cause tissue damage and cancer. EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) is a flavonoid that has been shown to destroy cancerous tissues in vitro (in a test tube) and in animals. Nowadays, medical authorities are reluctant to connect tea directly with the healing of cancer because definitive studies take time, and only long-term results will allow the researchers to understand specific benefits.

On the other hand, Chinese people have believed in the health benefits of green tea for thousands of years. Chinese doctors often prescribe herbs, roots, or flowers for healing specific ailments. These plants are readily available in many pharmacies in China, and are more common than pills as remedies.

Related Sources:
Beverage: The History of Tea
Beverage: The Tea Plant
How Do Tea-Drinking Customs Differ Throughout The World?
Green Tea Extract to Boost Cancer-Fighting Enzymes

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How Do Tea-Drinking Customs Differ Throughout The World?

The manner in which people prepare and drink their tea differs all over the world. Some people drink tea plain. Others like to add milk and sugar or lemon juice. A few people like to add liquor, such as rum, scotch, or cognac, to their tea. In Tibet a cup of tea is served with a lump of yak butter floating on its surface. The Tibetans are so fond of this that they drink a great many cups every day. The Tibetans drink at least 10 or 20 and sometimes many more.

Another old custom, once typical in Russia, was the use of samovar in making tea. The samovar is a large, graceful urn made of copper, brass, or silver. It holds about 40 cups of boiling water. The water is heated by charcoal. The top of the urn is saucer-shaped to hold the teapot, in which a strong essence of tea is kept steaming hot. Tea is served in a glass or a cup. About one quarter of a cup of the tea essence is used, and the rest of the cup is filled with boiling water from samovar.

The Russians usually take lump sugar with their tea. In olden days the peasants rarely placed the sugar lump in their tea but held in between their teeth as they drank. Sometimes a spoonful of jam, instead of a slice of lemon, was put into the tea for flavoring.

Nowadays, people drink the beverage tea through bottles. The tea is packages in a plastic bottle.

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Beverage: The Tea Plant

Tea is made from the leaves of an evergreen tree with the botanical name of Camellia sinensis. The plant can grow to be 20 to 30 feet high, but on tea plantations it is constantly cut back so that it is only 2 or 3 feet tall. It spreads into a low bush, from which it is easy to pluck the leaves.

Tea grows best in temperate and tropical zones where the rainfall is heavy and well distributed throughout the year. It can be grown anywhere from sea level to 7,000 feet. The best-quality tea, however, is grown at the higher altitudes.

Tea plants usually are grown from cuttings or seeds. The tea seedlings, or small plants, are carefully placed in the soil about 3 to 5 feet apart. The young plants are often shaded to protect them from the fierce heat of the sun. At least 3 years must go by before a tea plant is ready for plucking. Then the two leaves and bud at the top of each young shoot are plucked. Only new shoots are used. During the growing season, plucking is done every 10 days or so, depending on the climate, the height, and the age of the bushes. The leaves are gathered in baskets by workers, who may each pick as much as 40 pounds a day.

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Beverage: The History of Tea

According to an ancient Chinese legend, tea was discovered by the Chinese emperor Shen Nung in 2737 B.C. Leaves from a wild tea bush fell into a pot of his drinking water as it was being boiled. He enjoyed the flavor of this brew, perhaps the world’s first cup of tea.

For centuries the tea plants in China provided all the tea there was in the world. Then in the 9th century A.D., Japan began to grow tea from plants imported from China.

Traders from Europe sailing to and from the Far East in the 16th century began to bring back word of an unusual Oriental beverage called tea. The first European book mentioning tea was published in Venice in 1559. But it was not until 17th century that the Dutch began bringing tea to Europe in any quantity. By the 18th century, tea had become England’s national beverage. In 1823 tea was found growing wild in India by a British Army major named Robert Bruce. In the next few years many tea plantations were established in India. In 1839 eight chests of tea, the first ever to come from India, were auctioned in London. The price was as high as US$ 10 a pound. But it was not until 1880 that tea became an important part of India’s economy.

The first tea on the islands of Indonesia was planted about 1684. But on the islands of Ceylon coffee was the chief crop until a few years following 1869. Starting that year, a terrible blight attacked the coffee trees and gradually killed them all. Since the farms had to be planted all over again, tea was planted instead of coffee. Today tea is Ceylon’s principal crop.

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