Tea break

Are you sure you want that latte/ long black/macchiato “to go”? Every year, Australians are dinking more coffee and less tea and, in the process, we’re missing a golden opportunity to down a beverage with incredible health punch. Tea is more than a tasty, soothing drink that comes in a variety of flavours: it also has plenty of hidden health benefits to treat health niggles and chronic conditions as well as protect against disease.

A brew with big benefits

Whatever your cup of choice — English breakfast, green or dandelion tea — your body enjoys an immediate increase in health-giving antioxidants such as plant compounds called flavonoids and polyphenols. When you weigh up all the evidence, tea is the healthiest hot beverage you can drink.

So it’s a shame that Australian tea consumption has dropped in the past 40 years in favour of cappuccinos and lattes. Tea appears to have more health benefits than coffee and around 50–60 per cent less caffeine per cup. Within 20 minutes of drinking a cup of black tea, there’s a measurable increase in the level of antioxidants in your blood.

Tea ranks higher than some fruit and vegetables on the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scale, which measures antioxidant levels in foods. The polyphenols in tea help protect the body against free radical damage, which harms DNA and leads to disease. Three to four cups of tea a day appear to give optimal benefit.

Tea also has protective effects against the following:

Heart disease

Tea lowers heart attack risk, according to a growing body of evidence, including research by the University of L’Aquila in Italy. The study found that as little as one cup of regular tea per day, which contains around 200mg of flavonoids, helps keep the endothelial lining of the arteries in the heart softer and more flexible. This helps lower blood pressure, prevent hardening of the arteries and thereby reduce heart attack risk.

Osteoporosis

Elderly women who drink tea have higher bone density, shows research by the University of Western Australia. This may be because tea promotes a more alkaline balance in the body while a more acid state leads to minerals like calcium being leached from the bones.

Cancer

The polyphenols in tea may help reduce the risk of gastric, oesophageal and skin cancer, according to research. At the School of Public Health at Curtin University, research showed that drinking three cups of green tea a day reduces the likelihood of developing prostate and ovarian cancer. If you develop either of these cancers and you are a tea drinker, your survival rate is also increased.

Weight gain

Many studies have indicated that green tea helps boost metabolic rate, encouraging faster burning of kilojoules. This may be due to an amino acid L-theanine, which improves alertness without causing overstimulation.

Technique and taste

Most tea comes from the evergreen camellia plant (), the basis for more than 3000 varieties of tea. The more it’s processed, the darker the tea leaves. Green tea (eg ) and white tea cultivated from the young leaves in early spring (eg baihao yinzhen)