The Health Benefits of Drinking Tea
How tea can support your healing and overall wellness, plus my personal tea favorites!
When it comes to healing and overall wellness, I love low-lift, easy to implement habits that anyone can integrate into their daily life. Give me the things that I can do when I’m dead tired or not feeling well, don’t want to spend any money, or need to stay home in sweatpants all day. Tea is one of my favorite healthy habits for this reason - it doesn’t require fancy equipment, can be found at any grocery store, takes minutes to prepare, comes in all sorts of flavors, and can be pretty inexpensive.
Preparing a mug of tea is a lovely ritual that can help you begin your morning, find a moment of stillness in the middle of a busy day, and ground your evening routine. My morning cup of Sencha green tea, and my evening mug of Nighty Night tea, have become treasured bookends to my day. When I’m under the weather, it’s fresh ginger and lemon tea. Rainy days are for Chai, and a pot of Earl Gray with a splash of soy milk does the trick when I need an afternoon pick me up. Tea can punctuate our days, help us slow down and soak in the moment. When I found out that tea has real health benefits, it was the icing on the cake.
When I received my cancer diagnosis, I tried to find every food and drink available that could help me heal and prevent a recurrence. Tea - especially green tea - kept coming up as one of the healthiest beverages out there (tied with coffee (!! praise be); it’s second only to water, as ranked by the Beverage Guidance Panel). All of a sudden, my tea collection took on new importance. I started researching more, and then making a bigger, concerted effort to seek out high quality teas that would support my health.
Almost all teas - whether they’re caffeinated or herbal - contain polyphenols, which are antioxidant micronutrients essential to reducing our risk for most chronic diseases. These potent antioxidants, along with phytonutrients found in the tea plant, are what make certain teas an essential part of your wellness routine or healing regimen. Teas can boost the immune system, help prevent cancer and heart disease, prevent early death from diabetes and protect the brain against cognitive decline and stroke. Drinking tea may also reduce overall inflammation, lower your cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and body fat, and reduce symptoms of seasonal allergies. Most teas also contain smaller amounts of health-promoting minerals such as potassium, phosphorous, magnesium and zinc.
When choosing teas, the less processed, the better (which is a my general rule of thumb for anything ingestible). That means, anything powdered or decaffeinated could potentially lose some health benefits during processing. You’ll also want to avoid adding refined sugar and dairy milks/creamers to your tea, too. If you need some sweetness, a very small amount of maple syrup or honey will go a long way.
I purchase both bagged and loose leaf tea. When using bagged tea, be aware that many brands use tea bags that contain microplastics. In a recent study, one tea bag steeped at brewing temperature released 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion nanoplastics into the cup of tea. Consuming microplastics and nanoplastics could cause a variety of serious health concerns, including endocrine disruption, reproductive toxicity, neurodevelopment issues, cancer, and metabolic problems.
These brands use teabags made without plastic:
-Traditional Medicinals (my personal favorite)
-Pukka
-Numi Teas
-The Republic of Tea
-Stash
-Yogi Tea
These brands (among others) use teabags that contain plastic, so please avoid!
-Tazo
-Teavana (Starbucks)
-Celestial Seasonings
-Mighty Leaf Teas (owned by Peet’s)
Once you choose a plastic-free brand you like, or are ready to purchase some loose leaf tea (my favorite place to purchase loose leaf is Mountain Rose Herbs for their outstanding quality and selection), these are my 3 favorite types for their health benefits and flavor:
Green Tea is my all-time favorite, go to type of tea for both general enjoyment and health benefits. I choose Sencha for its grassy flavor profile, but there are many delicious kinds (like jasmine and matcha!) to experiment with. Green tea is a must for a cancer-preventing/cancer healing protocol due to its high antioxidant/polyphenol content and a phytochemical called ECGC, which helps the body with DNA damage and inhibits tumor growth.
Hibiscus Tea is a simple, naturally caffeine-free herbal infusion made from hibiscus flowers and can be enjoyed both hot and cold. It is the most antioxidant rich of all common beverages, and is extremely effective in lowering blood pressure. It has a beautiful, bright red hue and a tart, cranberry-like flavor. I order whole hibiscus flowers from Nuts.com for my tea.
Tulsi Tea, or holy basil tea, is an adaptogenic, herbal tea popular in Ayurvedic medicine that is used to help with depression, anxiety, stress, sleep issues, blood sugar, oral health and cholesterol. I love Tulsi because it has a delicious basil/licorice flavor, and grows abundantly in my garden. I pick a bunch at the end of each season and dry it out for teas throughout the year, but it can also be purchased in both bagged and loose leaf form. Sometimes I’ll add a small pinch of tulsi to steep with my green tea for a flavor/health boost.
This list isn’t exhaustive, obviously, as there are countless varieties of teas and herbal blends on the market. Once you choose your tea, it’s important to store the bags/leaves in an airtight container, in a dark, cool, dry place.
While not necessary, I like using an electric tea kettle when brewing tea since you can control the precise temperature of the water, which is important depending on the type of tea you enjoy. This is the one I have and like.
If you choose to drink loose leaf tea, a fine mesh Stainless Steel infuser to put directly in your mug is my preferred way of brewing tea. This is the one I own and like.
Happy tea time!
I am very concerned about these micro plastics. I have had Pique tea in the past which is I guess this ground tea in a sachet. Do you know if that one is ok or is it too concentrated?