So the weight loss enhancing qualities of Green tea alone aren’t enough to make you ditch the coffee and soft drinks? Take one look at this gigantic list of health benefits that come from drinking green tea and you’ll want to say goodbye to java for good.

Protects Against Cancer & Diseases

Green tea is packed with potent antioxidants called “polyphenols” and “catechins”. These are remarkably efficient at fighting free radicals, which are nasty little toxins responsible for causing cellular damage, disease, aging, and cancer.

Promotes Healthy Skin & Prevents Wrinkles

The same free radicals that cause cancer and disease also attack skin cells and contribute to signs of aging in the form of wrinkles and skin spots. Green tea finds and terminates these free radicals and helps promote healthy, smooth skin.

Fights Aging

Along with fighting the signs of aging, green tea also helps with less obvious forms of aging as well. A Japanese University study found that drinking more than 2 cups of green tea per day slashed the odds of cognitive impairment in elderly patients by 64%. That’s an amazing number, and really demonstrates the power of green tea against cognitive impairment, memory loss, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Enhances Mental Focus

Green tea contains mild levels of caffeine which has a stimulating effect on the nervous system. That’s not so amazing by itself, but...Green tea also contains the amino acid L-theanine, which is found almost exclusively in the tea plant. Theanine affects the brain’s neurotransmitters and increases alpha brain-wave activity. In simple terms this results in a calmer, yet more alert, state of mind.

Boosts the Immune System

Speaking of theanine, a 2003 study by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that theanine may help the body’s immune system when fighting infection. The study compared coffee drinkers to tea drinkers and found that the production of anti-bacterial proteins was up to five times higher in the tea drinkers, an indicator of stronger immune response.

Another study, published in the November 2005 issue of Antiviral Research, found that one of the catechin antixoidants in green tea (EGCG) dramatically inhibited influenza virus replication. Yep, that means that green tea fights the common flu too.

Promotes Oral Health

Researchers at the University of Illinois in Chicago found that polyphenols in Green tea inhibit the growth of bacteria that cause bad breath. These antibacterial properties also help the teeth and gums. In fact, a Japanese University found that regular consumption of tea strengthened participant’s teeth and helped to prevent tooth decay.

Other Benefits of Green Tea

Starting to get an idea of the amazing health benefits of green tea? There’s a lot more too. Here are a few things that green tea can do that we haven’t mentioned so far:

To Sum it Up Nicely…

We’ll end this page with one of our favorite green tea studies. The study, which began in Japan in 1994, followed 40,530 adults for up to 11 years. It found that women who drank 5 or more cups of green tea a day had a 23% lower risk of dying…from any cause! If that’s not incentive to start drinking green tea, we don’t know what is.