Having a cup of green tea when you eat a carbohydrate-rich meal can go a long way in helping keep your blood sugar levels stable afterwards as you digest it.

But green tea does a lot more. In this article we'll discuss the other health benefits of green tea.

Digestion

Green tea health benefits center around green tea's benefits in the metabolism of fat, its' support for the liver and the cardiovascular system, and its' effects on insulin levels. All this is described in the following sections.

Green Tea Dental Health Benefits

Green tea can help stop the production of plaque, leaving you with cleaner, healthier teeth and gums.

A study conducted by Yasushi Koyama and colleagues at the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan looked at more than 25, 000 men and women between the ages of 40 and 65. They found that, overall, if you drank at least one cup of green tea a day, you had more chance of keeping your teeth as you age.

Those involved with the study believe it is the catechins in green tea that provide this protective dental benefit. It is known that catechins kill the bacteria associated with tooth decay and gum disease, and they are plentiful in green tea. Of course, if you want the dental health benefits of green tea, make sure you drink it without sugar!

Green Tea Health Benefits In Cancer

Green tea health benefits for cancer are not yet fully established. Most studies have looked at how well, if at all, drinking green tea prevents the development of cancer. Studies have shown conflicting results for colon, esophageal, stomach, and lung cancer. That is, some results are good, showing it did help reduce the risk of getting those cancers, whilst others showed that it had no effect.

The US National Cancer Institute report that the catechins in tea may inhibit the growth of cancer cells without harming normal cells. They describe how, in animal studies, catechins scavenged oxidants before they had a chance to damage the cell; and that they reduced the number of tumors and their size.

They then point out the contradictory findings of results in green tea and cancer studies on people, but they use a rather poor example of a study that showed no benefit. That study, conducted in the Netherlands used black tea, and found that drinking black tea did not reduce the risk of stomach, colorectal, lung, and breast cancers in men and women.

It was certainly a large study. But it's not really relevant to a discussion on green tea given that green tea has a high level of the antioxidant catechins. In black tea, those catechins have been fermented into other molecules. And it is the catechins that are believed to have an anti-cancer effect, as demonstrated in results in the laboratory.

Green Tea Health Benefits For The Heart

Green tea mainly promotes heart health via its benefits for cholesterol. Green tea reduces overall cholesterol, and in particular, levels of the 'bad' cholesterol. It blocks the absorption of cholesterol in the intestines, by up to 89%. And it increases the elimination of cholesterol in the feces; protects the liver from the effects of high cholesterol; and reduces the conversion of low-density lipoproteins (LDL - building block for the 'bad' cholesterol) into sticky, artery-clogging plaque.

The heart health benefits of green tea may be lost somewhat in all the talk about how green tea helps with weight loss, but they are significant.

Green Tea Health Benefits For The Immune System

Green tea has shown promise in treating anogenital warts, inhibiting the replication of the adenovirus and the influenza virus (both cold and flu viruses), as well as increasing the effectiveness of antibiotics up to three times, without producing any side effects. The studies on the cold and flu viruses were done in a lab, and not on people, and as such are considered preliminary studies.

However the other studies were done on people. It is believed the theanine in tea boosts the immune system, though there are also other constituents of green tea that benefit the immune system. It was the catechins in green tea (in particular one called sinecatechin) that were tested in the study on warts, and other studies have shown that another catechin, EGCG, works in the same way that some antibiotics do in regard to bacteria.

One cup of green tea contains about 200 mg of catechins. And it should be steeped in hot water for at least 5 minutes, preferably 15 minutes for those wishing to use green tea medicinally.

Green Tea Health Benefits For Rheumatoid Arthritis

An animal study showed green tea helped prevent rheumatoid arthritis in mice. Another lab study found that joint cells affected by rheumatoid arthritis that had been treated with the green tea extract EGCG had lower levels of inflammation. With the highest dosage of EGCG, the cells even stopped producing inflammatory chemicals altogether. Other tests using EGCG on the infected cells showed that it blocked a chemical chain reaction involved with inflammation and joint damage.

Further tests need to be done to see whether drinking green tea has the same effect, but it is certainly promising, and could lead to new treatments that help stop or slow the degradation of the joints in rheumatoid arthritis. In the meantime, rheumatoid arthritis sufferers may well benefit from including green tea in their diet.

In other autoimmune disorders, like crohns, people seem to benefit when taking green tea.

These are not the only green tea health benefits. It is believed green tea has an antidepressant effect, and we've already seen how it can be helpful for stress.

Conclusion

For those looking to use green tea medicinally, you should take 5 to 10 ml of the herb and let it sit in boiling hot water for about 15 minutes. But if you don't have that kind of time, steeping it in hot water for 5 minutes will release around 80% of its' catechins. You can of course buy green tea supplements to really get the health benefits of green tea. After all, if one researcher (Holt) is to be believed, to get the full cancer protective effects of green tea, you needed to drink more than 10 cups a day. And given that green tea does contain caffeine, albeit in smaller amounts than coffee and black tea, that could be a problem. Plus you'd have to really love the taste of something to drink that much of it!

A Tip To Improve Green Tea's Health Effects

Drinking green tea with citrus, such as lemon or lime juice, improves the capacity of the body to absorb green tea's catechins. If you're taking a supplement of green tea, try drinking it with orange juice, or even water with lemon in it.

For a high quality, standardized extract of green tea made to European standards, with no harsh solvents, click here.

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