Three to five cups of green tea a day can do you a lot of good.

Tea, especially green tea has long been known for its medicinal benefits. It helps digestion, boost metabolism and even wards off cancer and heart disease.

According to whether it is fermented or not, tea can be divided into 3 types:

green tea - not fermented;
oolong tea - partially fermented;
black tea - fermented.

While people may prefer black tea or oolong tea, green tea has more healthy benefits. As it's dried straight after picking, it keeps most of its valuable polyphenols while its cousins - black tea and oolong tea lose most of theirs in the process of fermentation. Green tea has a lot more polyphenols than black tea or oolong tea. What's the deal of those polyphenols things, you may wonder? They are known as powerful antioxidants, which remove free radicals from the body. Free radicals in the body's cells are very bad. They very unstable and tend to react negatively with other important molecules like DNA, causing malfunctions and injury on the cellular level. They produce destruction that may therefore pave the way for diseases like heart disease and cancer. Green tea contains rich polyphenols that play an active role in removing the free radicals from the body.

Antioxidants in tea are also known to prevent death from second heart attack by helping blood vessels relax, thus blood can flow through more easily. As a result, that can help lower blood pressure and reduce stress on the heart. Studies show green tea drinkers have 50% lower risk of developing stomach or esophageal compared to non green tea drinkers.

One final benefit of green tea drinking can help lose some weight. It's believed some of its polyphenols and caffeine work together to boost the body's metabolism, thus boost our energy burning system.

How much tea shall we drink? Generally, three to five cups a day is fairly enough for us to get its medical benefits.

Shall we have a cup of tea now?