Care for a refreshing glass of cold iced tea? Hot tea with your breakfast? Green tea to go with sushi or dim sum? Besides flavor and relaxation, tea drinking may offer health benefits.
Although the research isn’t definitive, tea’s catechins and other polyphenols may help reduce your risk for cancer, heart disease, and stroke by protecting your body cells from damage by free radicals, which are formed in nature and when your body uses oxygen to make energy. Here’s the clincher: You may need 4 to 6 cups of tea (black, oolong, or green) daily for the benefits.
Smile about this: When brewed, tea leaves release fluoride, which helps tooth enamel stay strong. Tea also may help reduce plaque and inhibit cavity-forming bacteria.
Try these when you set your “tea time”—especially during June, National Iced Tea Month:
- Hot or iced, order tea latte, prepared like coffee latte—and get milk’s calcium benefits, too.
- As a summer refresher, make mint tea lemonade. Steep green tea with fresh mint. Mix in spoonfuls of frozen lemonade concentrate to taste. Chill.
- As a switch from sugar or honey, sweeten tea with citrus slices, ginger, or a cinnamon stick.
- Try chai: spiced milk tea with origins in India, often made with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and pepper. Ice it down!
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