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| MIRACLES IN A CUP OF TEA!!! | | Celebrating the International Tea Day! | | Dr. Pragya Khanna
According to the UN, Tea is central to many cultures, and it contributes to employment, exports earnings & food security.
There are people like me who cannot begin their day without the proverbial ‘cuppa’, and for us every day is a tea day. Although the International Tea Day is celebrated in the month of May because in Darjeeling and Nepal, known for some of the finest teas in the world, the season for the first plucking of a tea plant’s harvest arrives in spring, somewhere around this time of the year.
Drinking of tea has grown in different ways over the years in India and differs from region to region. Earlier it was thought of as the drink of royalty but tea has now become the household favourite in India as our country leads the world in tea drinking. From the ordinary roadside tea stalls and the railway platforms to the boardrooms of corporate India, tea is easily available everywhere. Customarily, a guest in any Indian home is welcomed with a cup of tea.
Tea saga began in ancient China over 5,000 years ago. According to a fable, the Shen Nong, an ancient emperor was an accomplished ruler, creative scientist, and patron of the arts. His visionary statutes required, among other things, that all drinking water should be boiled as a hygienic safety measure. One summer day while visiting a distant region of his realm, he and the court stopped to rest. In accordance with his ruling, the servants began to boil water for the court to drink. Dried leaves from the nearby bush fell into the boiling water, and a brown liquid was infused into the water. As a scientist, the Emperor was interested in the new liquid, drank some, and found it very refreshing. Therefore, according to legend, tea was created.
The original English pronunciation of the word tea was “tay” and can be traced back to around 1655 when the Dutch introduced both word and beverage to England. The pronunciation “tee” also originated in the 1600’s but only gained prevalence after the late 18th century.
The word “tea” was derived from ancient Chinese parlance. Such words as “Tchai,” ““Cha,” and “Tay” were used to describe the tea leaf as well as the beverage. The scientific name of the tea plant is Camellia sinensis, and it is indigenous to China and parts of India. The tea plant is an evergreen shrub that develops fragrant white, five-petaled flowers. Tea is made from young leaves and leaf buds from the tea tree. Two main cultivated varieties are C. sinensis sinensis, a Chinese plant with small leaves, and C. sinensis assamica, an Indian plant with large leaves. Hybrids of these two varieties are also cultivated.
Today, there are more than 1,500 types of teas to choose from because over 25 countries cultivate tea as a plantation crop. China is one of the main producers of tea, and tea remains China’s national drink. The documented evidence according to the history of tea drinking in India dates back to 750 BC. Tea in India is generally grown in the North Eastern regions and the Nilgiri Hills.
Tea comes in five main types:
Green Tea
Oolong Tea
Black Tea; and
White Tea
Pu Erh Tea
Green Tea is pan fried or steamed to prevent the leaves from oxidizing or fermenting. Oolong Teas are the most high-priced because they are semi-fermented and made in a more detailed method. The color of this tea is usually a light yellow. Black Tea is the strongest tea of them all, the type we are most used to drinking in the west; it is fully fermented and has up to three times as much caffeine than the other teas. White tea is quite rare and is made from the white buds of the tea plant as opposed to the green tea leaves. It is a clear white color and much finer. Pu Erh Tea is Chinese tea that has been fermented twice and then left to grow mould on it. It is said to have strong medical properties.
There are also herbal teas but these are not really teas as they are not usually made from tea leaves but from other types of plants and consist of a mixture of flowers, fruit, herbs or spices. There are now also some infused blends of tea where other flavours have been adde If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you.
~Gladstone, 1865
Many of us have the general idea that tea is good for us but we don’t actually know what it actually does. It is also good to know that different types of tea have different effects on the body. Here are some health benefits of tea:
1. Tea is an anti-cancer plant: If you drink a lot of tea you are less likely to get cancer. If you drink about four cups of tea a day you are up to 60% less likely to get cancer. The credit goes to the antioxidants in tea leaves. That is a remarkable statistic.
The studies have in fact only been done with Green Tea but others are presently in progress. White Tea is supposed to be even more effective from a traditional point of view and there is some scientific evidence to support this fact.
2. Tea boosts your brain: One of the notable effects of tea is that it helps you concentrate and focus. This is important for all of us who are sitting on a computer trying to stay on track with some really boring data analysis.
This effect is said to be due to the amino acid L-theanine which gets absorbed in your gut and travels in the blood to your brain. This results in keeping you awake.
3. Tea helps you fight off illness: Tea is supposed to be a very strong immune booster. Those people who drink tea on a regular basis are supposed to be more immune to the cold or flu and other minor health problems such as infections.
4. Tea beats stress: A cup of tea helps you fight the physical signs of stress by reducing the stress hormone in your body.
5. Tea can help you lose weight: Many studies have confirmed what the Chinese doctors have been telling us for centuries, tea boosts your metabolism and helps you lose weight. Drinking a few cups of green tea at work (without the sugar) can have a really good effect on your waistline.
Now that we have looked at all the pleasant things tea can do it is a good idea to take a look at whether tea will cause your body any damage. Before making any assessment about your health it is important to weigh up the pros and cons of the argument and then make a decision based upon good information. To go on about the miraculous qualities of tea without talking about the possible drawbacks would be irresponsible.
1. Sleep problems: Many people are very sensitive to the effects of caffeine. If they have a tea or coffee within four or five hours of their bed time they have a lot of trouble getting to sleep.
2. Kidney damage: Some scientific studies have shown that the oxalates in tea can cause some kidney damage. However, this has only been shown in people who drink a lot of tea.
Although there other drawbacks associated with tea none of them have been definitively proven by science. The main message is that excess is not a good idea. If you are drinking more than about four cups of tea a day you are more likely to have some negative effects.
Here are some other tips many people have picked up about how to make sure your tea works well for your health.
1. Don’t add milk: Scientists have found that adding milk to your tea actually detracts from the health benefits.
2. Don’t add sugar: Sugar has so many negative effects on the body and you should avoid it at all costs. If you can cut out or reduce the amount of sugar that you put in your tea you will be doing your body a big favour.
After water, tea is the most ingested liquid in the world. People from Asia drink it the most and Japanese people say that a cup of tea is a cup of health. In China, at one time tea was regarded a precious medicine and was kept in secrecy.
Today, there are more than one thousands types of tea all over the world. According to scientific studies, tea is very important for health and it can easily replace coffee, cola drinks and energy drinks.
According to an old adage, “There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea”. Truly! Tea beckons us to enjoy quality time with friends and loved ones, and especially to rediscover the art of relaxed conversation.
It is strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company. |
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