7 Great Health Benefits of Drinking “Matcha” Green Tea

 If you are ready to enhance your health by following a proper diet, then adding matcha green tea to your list of healthy beverages is a must.

Matcha green tea has already been studied, researched and endorsed by many scientists, nutritionists and lots of celebrities who care about their health and wellness. If perform an online Google search of "Matcha Benefits," you will be bombarded with a plethora of great information, both scientific as well as anecdotal, that extol the virtues of matcha green tea.

They understand that matcha green tea has more health benefits than coffee, black tea, and even standard green tea. If you want to avoid the afternoon caffeine crash that coffee gives you, while still getting a nice boost of energy in the morning, then matcha green tea is the solution.

Matcha Green Tea vs. Regular Green Tea

Matcha green tea is a very popular tea in Japan. The Japanese consume matcha green tea in their daily lives, at events and ceremonies. It is no coincidence that the Japanese tend to live longer and enjoy healthier lifestyles than most other populations. Now matcha has come to the United States, where it has become very popular, and that popularity is growing every year. You can purchase matcha as a powder that you mix with hot water to produce the tea.  You can also enjoy matcha in a smoothie by adding milk and ice.

Matcha is also exploding in the health food world as a popular ingredient in baking and cooking. It seems that the possibilities are endless!

Camellia sinensis is the name of the plant where matcha green tea comes from. This is the same plant where most teas come from, including black tea. If you were to make a regular green tea from the plant, you’d brew its leaves like normal. But to prepare matcha tea, the leaves must be raised differently.

When leaf shoots first begin to show on the plant, you must keep it in a shaded area so that the UV rays of the sun don’t shine down on it. By doing this, the plant will produce more L-theanine (amino acid), chlorophyll, and several different nutrients. Once the leaves are matured and harvested, they are steamed, dried in the air, and grounded until the leaves are a fine powder.

Let’s explore 7 top benefits of matcha green tea:

1) Contains Lots of Antioxidants

Green tea is known for being healthy because of its antioxidants. One type of antioxidant that is abundant in green tea is called catechins. They supposedly have anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties to them.

Of course, you can find antioxidants in all types of teas. But research shows that matcha green tea has more catechins than other teas do. If you were to drink 3 cups of matcha green tea, then you would consume a maximum of 400 milligrams of catechins. On the other hand, if you drank 3 cups of black tea or regular green tea, then you’d consume under 100 milligrams of catechins.

 2) Boosts Metabolism and Weight Loss

Green tea can help you lose weight. Several research studies suggest that green tea can boost your metabolism, which is how it helps you lose weight.  If you drink 3 to 4 cups of matcha green tea per day, you should experience a substantial amount of weight loss over the next 2 months.

Weight loss occurs from green tea for a variety of reasons. It boosts calorie burning through a process called thermogenesis. It burns body fat and turns it into energy, which is known as fat oxidation. Green tea also makes you less hungry as well.

 3) Lowers Stress

Stress is a normal feeling that we all experience every day. However, some of us experience stress more intensely and frequently than others. It can even cause us to feel excessively tired and weak in the middle of the day.

The common response to stress-induced tiredness is to drink coffee in order to get an energy boost from its high level of caffeine. But what you might not realize is that too much caffeine will cause your body to produce more stress hormones. Once that happens, you’ll feel more stressed rather than less stressed. That is why people feel edgy or jittery after they drink coffee. 

Even though there is a small amount of caffeine in green tea, it is not enough to increase stress hormone production in the body. In fact, green tea contains a natural substance that can reduce our stress and anxiety levels and increase our ability to concentrate more. This substance is called L-theanine.

The great thing about L-theanine is that it can help you relax more, and it won’t even cause you to feel tired. That is why you should ditch your normal coffee routine and replace it with a nice cup of matcha tea.

4) Improves Brain Function

Matcha green tea has anti-aging properties that work to preserve your brain health. It’ll make sure you don’t suffer from any memory loss or other related conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Research studies show that the catechins in matcha green tea are responsible for these benefits to the brain. They may stop amyloid plaque and phosphorylated tau protein accumulation, which is what causes cognitive decline in the first place. This affects your ability to learn, think, and reason.

 5) Stronger Bones

 Many studies have shown that green tea and black tea can both strengthen the bones of the body. However, green tea is found to be more beneficial to bone strength than black tea. It reduces the cell count of the osteoclasts that diminish bone strength and increases the cell count of the osteoblasts that enhance bone strength.

 6) Fresh Breath and Better Oral Health

Matcha green tea can enhance the health of your teeth and gums while eliminating bad breath too. The anti-bacterial properties of green tea help fight against the mouth bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease.

 7) Better Skin Health

Regular green tea consumption can actually help make you look younger on the outside. Its anti-aging properties can enhance the health and appearance of your skin.

Some studies have shown that people who consume green tea will see reduced redness on their skin after they’ve been exposed to UV radiation from the sun. Not only will the skin look less scaly and rough, but it’ll have more elasticity as well.

Conclusion

As you can see, matcha green tea can give you so many vital health benefits. It’ll enhance the strength and quality of your skin, bones, teeth, brain, and metabolism. Then you can live a life of less stress, more energy, and better overall health.

However, it's important to stress that organic green tea and matcha are what you are looking for. 

You should avoid at all costs, any teas that are not organic because they could do more harm than good. The pesticides that are used to grow non-organic teas can cause grave harm to our bodies as well as our environment.