The Hidden Reason Tea Is Good For You

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Many people know that tea has anti-oxidants.  They may also know it cuts cholesterol.  There is a reason that tea is good for you that most people in the West don’t know.  It has to do with temperature.

According to Chinese Medicine, drinking cold drinks is bad for you. We tend to drink a lot of them in the US.  Many health conscious people drink ice water, cold juice, or smoothies blended with ice.  People knowledgeable about Chinese Medicine wince when they see this.  They believe that it feeds “damp heat,” a condition that causes inflammation.  From this perspective, tea is good when it is drunk hot.  Hot drinks are often beneficial in Chinese Medicine, especially in the morning.  The heat helps us get our metabolisms going.

Think of it is way.  There is a special kind of vitality that is used to run our internal organs.  Every time you consume cold food or drink, that special energy is diverted to warm the contents of your stomach to body temperature.  This interruption stops your body from running the way it should. Cold food is also bad.  In Chinese Medicine, it’s better to consume stuff hot or at room temperature.

Other cultures feel similarly.  In Germany there is saying, “nothing too hot or too cold.”  Some Italians feel that Americans are shocking our stomachs with so much of ice and cold drinks.  In general, Europeans do not consume as much ice and cold drinks as Americans do.

In any event, hot tea is not another dose of ice water.  It’s also one less soda, energy drink or Frappucino.  Hot herb tea, green tea, black tea, or decaf tea all are good from this perspective.  Whatever agrees with you.

To find out more about Chinese Medicine, I’d recommend a book called Asian Health Secrets by Letha Hadady, D.Ac.  You might also look at Total Health the Chinese Way by Esther Ting PhD.

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To see my tea blog go here: http://www.longecity.org/forum/blog/blog-92/cat-59-tea-blog

To see more of my writing about food and drink go here:  http://www.longecity.org/forum/blog/blog-92/cat-9-food-drink

Luminosity
Luminosity writes about health, politics, the media, food, drink, the paranormal, conspiracies, supplements, Chinese Medicine, and tea. On her personal blog she also writes about general subjects and her personal life, including rising from a wheelchair.
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