For the love of tea

I love tea. I was raised on it. My family is from the South. Georgia. So I was raised on what people now call Sweet Tea. When I was growing up nobody called it sweet tea. It was just tea. It's what we drank. I honestly didn't know that tea came any other way. That is, not until I was about 16 years old. I was at a restaurant with my mother. Hard to believe but until that day I had not ever ordered tea in a restaurant. So imagine my surprise when I took that first sip... I guess the look on my face said it all. My mother giggled and pushed the bowl of lemon slices and the sugar toward me. She told me, "You have to add the flavor."  

I don't add sugar to my tea. I don't know what the deal is on that. But no tea has ever come close to my grandmother's tea. So, ever since she passed away, which has been a very long time, I drink my tea plain. People tease me for drinking brown water. 

For most of my life I've drunk black tea. Again, I wasn't aware of any other type of tea. My tea world was small. But about 5 years ago I discovered green tea. It's a lighter tea. A lighter taste. It tastes fabulous hot or cold. And it is a wonder beverage.

Researchers believe that the high level of polyphenols in green tea help kill cancerous cells and stop them from growing. In countries where green tea consumption is high cancer rates tend to be lower and according to the National Cancer Institute, the polyphenols in tea have been shown to decrease tumor growth in laboratory and animal studies and may protect against damage caused by ultraviolet UVB radiation.

It is also believed green tea helps lower cholesterol. But you have to drink 10 cups a day. That may seem like a lot, but for us tea drinkers, it's a drop in the bucket. 

They say 5 cups a day can help cut your risk of dying of heart disease. I think I saw this one put to the test. My grandfather's wife drank green tea every day all day long. And she outlived him by 10 years. She passed away at the ripe old age of 98. And she looked great! 

I truly enjoy the taste of green tea all on it's own. However, when you drink tea, your body's digestive enzymes may actually destroy as much as 80% of tea's good-for-you catechins. But adding a squeeze of lemon can counteract that. They say the citrus works to preserve some of those powerful disease-fighting compounds. Researchers think that when the phytochemicals in citrus are in your digestive tract, they work some kind of stabilizing magic on the catechins.

So here is my starting point for making 2014 my healthiest year ever. Green tea with lemon every day. Happy New Year!