Humans have been steeping leaves in hot water for 500,000
years. Us Americans drank 79 billion servings of tea last year, amounting to
3.6 billions gallons in total.
So clearly, we’re quite invested in the hot stuff–as is the
freshly tea-pushing Starbucks–but what does it invest in us? New research into
the relationship between nutrition and the brain is helping us to understand
why tea time is such an essential part of the day–for the components of tea
help us be more alert, more relaxed, and healthier over the long term.
THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF STIMULATION
As you may have experienced first-hand, caffeine has strong
effects on people, most famously acting as a stimulant and reducing drowsiness.
As University of Chicago behavioral pharmacologist Emma
Childs explains to us, caffeine increases alertness because it it prevents the
sedative adenosine from working as a receptor.
“Adenosine has sedative effects,” she says, “so by blocking
those effects of adenosine, you’re actually increasing central stimulation.
You’re actually increasing the activity of the central nervous system.”
In this way, caffeinated beverages like tea give us more
energy, since we’re blocking the signal to our brains that we’re tired. But
don’t mistake caffeine for rest: caffeine makes you less tired like an afternoon
nap or an extra hour of sleep might, but it won’t give you the depth of
restoration or consolidation of memory that sleep provides.
THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF RELAXATION
Beyond the caffeine, tea has another killer app, and this
one is unique to the leaf: Theanine, which is an amino acid present in black
and green tea, especially the matcha, gyokuro, and anji bai cha varieties. A
review of the research suggests that theanine reduces anxiety and calms us
because it increases the number of inhibitory neurotransmitters (which balance
our moods out) and modulates serotonin and dopamine (which makes make us feel
good).
Huffington Post writer and naturopathic doctor Natasha Turner
captures the causation:
Theanine works by increasing the production of GABA in the
brain. Similar to the effects of meditation, it also stimulates alpha
brainwaves naturally associated with deep states of relaxation and enhanced
mental clarity. l-theanine may increase learning, attention and sensations of
pleasure as well. These effects are likely due to the natural dopamine boost
brought on by l-theanine. If you are wondering how something with caffeine can
actually relax you, the L-theanine balances the stimulatory effects of caffeine
so you stay alert without feeling jittery.
AND DON’T FORGET THE OXIDATION
Tea is full of antioxidants like thearubigins, epicatechins,
and catechins, which beyond being really fun to say have mightily excellent
outcomes: they protect our cells from free radicals, therefore protecting
against blood clots, cancer, or the hardening of the arteries. Additionally,
the research suggests that regular tea drinkers have a lower risk of heart
disease and stroke, plus lower cholesterol.
In other words, you don’t need to be a tasseographist to
know that drinking tea predicts a healthy, productive future.
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