Focusing on your health, wellness, and lifestyle is the way forward. Ensuring that you reduce the amount of junk food or fast food that you consume is a start, as is cutting down on those soda and sugar-filled drinks that do nothing but add inches to your waistline. When you hear about healthy living, you hear lots about stopping drinking and smoking and reducing the amount of alcohol you consume, but do you hear much about what you drink and why. In short, no, you don’t, and this article is going to give you a few reasons as to why you should focus on drinking well, and specifically why you should introduce green tea into your daily diet.
Focusing On The Benefits of Green Tea
Green tea is hugely popular in Japan and China, but the benefits and positives are only just coming to light in other places of the world. If you are looking for a healthier drink that can be consumed either hot or cold, you need to be looking at drinking green tea.
Health Benefits
All tea contains antioxidants, however, did you know that green tea is said to have high levels of antioxidants, it also contains the highest amount of flavonoids. Antioxidants are necessary to prevent cell damage, which is just one of the benefits of cold green tea. Green tea has also been linked to preventing type 2 diabetes, and it has also been linked to preventing cardiovascular disease. Although research is still ongoing, it is known that it contains no harmful additives or nasties, which is always good news. As part of a healthy and balanced diet, green tea can even possibly contribute to weight loss as it contains no fat or sugar.
Lifestyle Choice
While research into how great green tea is still underway, there is no denying that green tea, whether warm or cold, is packed full of healthy compounds and antioxidants. When green tea is drunk as part of a mindful and balanced lifestyle, you may notice more benefits; remember that your healthy lifestyle should also feature exercise as well as the consumption of plenty of fruit and vegetables. Meditation and mindfulness are beneficial alongside drinking tea and can ensure you live a happy life, content and fulfilled. Being more mindful of what you drink and consume goes a long way, and it is worth noting that cold green tea has much lower caffeine content. The process of making cold green tea and green tea, in general, is therapeutic and can help slow down even the busiest of days. When drunk, in addition to water, you will find that green tea will keep you hydrated throughout the day.
Stress and Sleep
Life is stressful, sometimes there is no way to get around it, and other times to reduce stress levels, you need to focus more on achieving a healthy balance. High stress levels can affect your sleep, and when you are sleep-deprived, you are like a zombie going about your day. You need at least 8 hours of sleep a day to function effectively and efficiently. If stress is affecting your sleep, then you may find drinking green tea beneficial as it produces and provides stress-related hormones within your brain, which consequently allows your brain to relax. Green tea also contains less caffeine which can lead to exaggerated and heightened levels of stress and pressure you may be feeling.
Just as focusing on reducing stress is important, so is focusing on sleep. The quality of sleep that you get can affect areas of your life, and caffeine is known to keep you awake and keep your brain active too. Staying awake may be necessary for those occasions when you want to stay up or see in a special event, but for every other time getting regular sleep is essential. Cutting down on the caffeine you consume before bed helps you get a peaceful and restful night’s sleep. Consuming one cup of warm or cold green tea may leave you feeling calm, peaceful, and relaxed, and you, therefore, may find it beneficial to drink before you start getting ready for bed.
Changing your mindset and outlook and programming your brain can help you live a fulfilled life, and on its own, you may not truly appreciate all that green tea can off you, but as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle, you should feel the benefits of green tea, especially cold green tea.
