‘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.’ WILLIAM GLADSTONE
Tea has always had a patina of virtue about it, kind of the flip side to the dark aura of coffee. As it turns out, tea is full of antioxidants known as polyphenols. and, at least in the laboratory, these ingredients have been shown to have effects that would reduce risk of heart disease and cancer in humans. Does it pan out in reality? It’s not clear. Some studies have shown benefits to tea drinking; others have not. Tea drinking, like coffee drinking, has associated lifestyle factors that make measuring its effects more difficult.
By the way, when the virtues of tea are discussed, they are associated only with black tea, green tea or oolong tea. All of these come from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis.
The other types of infusions, which are usually called herbal teas, don’t really count as teas. And while they count towards your daily intake of liquids they don’t contain polyphenols.
I’m from the American South, where you always have two tea choices, both iced: sweet tea or plain. And when they say sweet, they mean it. When you drink that sweet tea, Southern style, it might as well be a cola. That’s okay in small quantities, but adding sugar to tea just increases its calories. Bottom line: drink tea if you enjoy it; it may even be good for you. Just don’t load it up with sugar.
