Being that today is the day after St. Patrick’s Day, we decided to celebrate this “Day of Green” by focusing on one of our favorite green foods: Matcha Tea. But why matcha tea, you ask? Perhaps you don’t even know what matcha tea is! Well, in this article, we’re going to focus on the benefits of matcha tea, how matcha tea can help you, and why you should be imbibing this bright green liquid.
What is Matcha Tea?
Simply answered, Matcha Tea is Green Tea. However, you make traditional green tea by picking the tea leaves and drying them, then steeping the leaves in hot water. After the leaves finish steeping, you discard them and drink the remaining liquid. Matcha tea works with a completely different process.
In order to make Matcha tea, the tea farmers grow the tea under shade and then allow the tea leaves to dry naturally in the sun. After drying, the farmers remove the sticks and veins from the leaves and stone-grind them into a fine powder. To make the tea, you must make a paste from the powder and a small bit of water by whisking the two together. After adding more hot water, you continue to whisk until the tea develops a froth on its surface. The resulting liquid turns a vibrant green color, as opposed to the wan yellow-green of tradition green tea.
Why Matcha tea is so good for you.
Matcha tea has a surprising list of health benefits. Because the tea comes from stone-grinding the leaves into a fine powder, you are able to ingest more of the tea in a single cup than from simply steeping the leaves. In other words, with matcha tea, you are ingesting 100% of the tea leaf (minus the veins). This gives you 10 times the nutritional benefits of traditionally brewed green tea! That includes the caffeine boost, too.
But perhaps you didn’t know that green tea even has nutritional benefits? Well, let us tell you, green tea gets a spot on that coveted list of “Superfoods”! And because matcha is a concentrated form of green tea, all of those benefits are amplified!
1. High in antioxidants.
Matcha tea contains a type of antioxidant called “polyphenols”. These antioxidants help protect your cells against cancer, as well as lower your risk for heart disease. The amount of antioxidants in a single cup of matcha tea are staggering. Let’s think about our foods known for their high amounts of antioxidants: green tea, blueberries, and goji berries. All three of these foods are considered Superfoods. Well, Matcha tea leaves them all behind. Matcha tea contains 6x more antioxidants that goji berries, 17x more antioxidants than blueberries, and a whopping 137x more than a cup of leaf-brewed green tea! That’s crazy!
But if that is not enough of a reason to start believing why matcha tea deserves a spot in your daily routine, we’ve got more proof for you.
2. Helps fight cancer.
We mentioned earlier that matcha tea helps fight cancer. How? Because matcha tea not contains high amounts of “polyphenols”, but also a high amount of another type of antioxidant called “catechins”. Specifically, matcha tea contains a type of “catechin” named Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or EGCG. This type of catechin arrests cancerous cell growth and can even trigger a “pro-death protein” to be released within the cancer cell itself, causing it to “commit suicide”. EGCG accounts for 50-75% of the catechin content in matcha tea. The catechin is so powerful, in fact, that drinking matcha on a daily basis can cut your risk of breast cancer IN HALF!
For more information about the cancer fighting properties of EGCG in green tea, check out this article here.
3. Detoxifies the body.
No joke, matcha tea detoxifies the body. The key ingredient of matcha in this magical benefit is “Chlorophyll”. In plants, chlorophyll is the name of the pigment which makes them green. Without chlorophyll, plants cannot survive. Plants use chlorophyll to convert sunlight into energy. Humans, on the other hand, use chlorophyll to clean out their bodies of heavy metals and other toxins. And it just so happens that matcha tea has a lot of chlorophyll!
4. Boosts Metabolism and Weight Loss
This was the first reason that we started drinking matcha tea, and we discovered the other great benefits later. It turns out that all of those polyphenols and catechins have the added benefit of kicking your metabolism into high gear and helping you lose weight. The polyphenols have been proven to help inhibit the process of fat digestion in humans, while EGCG – the same catechin that arrests cancer growth – has been shown in clinical tests to speed up metabolism and burn fat up to 17x more when combined with cardio exercise! This makes matcha tea a great addition to any diet and exercise program, and should be considered when creating a diet plan. For more information about creating your own diet plan, check out our dieting articles!
Also, drinking matcha tea provides you with longer lasting energy. Matcha tea does have caffeine in it, but the caffeine is contained within amino acids through which your body must digest first. This means the caffeine in the matcha tea digests slower and provided energy in a more “time-released” manner”, as opposed to the direct hit to your bloodstream you’ll get from a cup of coffee or an energy drink. That means no jitters! This is a huge reason why matcha tea is so much better for you than coffee!
5. Stress Relief
As if matcha couldn’t get any better! Above, we mentioned that the tea plants used to make matcha mature under a shade until the leaves are ready to be picked. This gives the tea one more massive benefit. The tea leaves build up a higher concentration of L-theanine, an amino acid which has been shown to calm your mind and provide relief from stress. It also prevents damage to your brain cells by blocking overstimulation. And the combination of L-theanine and caffeine has been shown to imbue a greater sense of alertness.
Why matcha tea is amazing!
We hope these reasons above convinced you that matcha tea should be a part of your daily routine. Try replacing your afternoon cup of coffee with matcha and see what happens. Kora, for instance, drinks about three cups of matcha tea a day. You can also cook with matcha. We love the taste!
Of course, you must make sure to buy high quality matcha. We always buy ceremonial grade. The powder will cost you a pretty penny, but it lasts longer than you think. You only need a tsp of the powder per mug of tea. But with all of those health benefits we listed above, how could you not go out and buy yourself some right now? Even better, just click on the link we shared to the left and get some for yourself off of Amazon!
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