The #1 Best Tea to Fight Aging, Say Experts
There are plenty of reasons to consider adding a cup of tea to your daily routine. In addition to its calming effect and soothing taste, tea boasts a long list of impressive health-related benefits. It can boost brain health, lower bad cholesterol, and reduce cancer risk, to name a few.
Sipping a glass of antioxidant-rich tea can also help you turn back the clock, but not every tea has the same anti-aging properties. What then is considered the best tea to drink to combat aging? According to a group of experts, the answer is none other than green tea.
"When it comes to anti-aging properties, green tea is unrivaled. It contains an antioxidant called epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG, which is effective at rejuvenating dying skin cells," Michael Garrico, a nutritionist and personal trainer, who is also the co-founder of TotalShape, tells Eat This, Not That!.
Going notes that "green tea is also high in vitamin B and vitamin E, both of which are essential for skin health." He further adds that "vitamin B2 helps to keep the skin youthful and firm, whereas vitamin E promotes new skin cell growth and makes the skin softer and more radiant."
Registered dietician Trista Best, MPH, RD, LD, also names green tea as the best choice for anti-aging efforts.
"Green tea is packed with antioxidants, which have widespread health benefits, from preventing illness, reducing inflammation, and even potentially preventing cancer. This fact alone makes green tea an excellent drink to have daily for overall health and longevity," Best tells Eat This, Not That!. "These antioxidants work in the body to prevent and reduce cellular damage from toxins and free radicals, which can cause metabolism to slow down significantly. We take them in primarily through plant compounds, phytonutrients, and amino acids in the food we eat and the herbal teas we drink like green tea."
Nutritionist Juliana Tamayo, MS, similarly considers green tea to be the best option for turning back the clock on aging. Tamayo tells Eat This, Not That! green tea "act[s] as a stimulant and ha[s] neuroprotective substances that can prevent cognitive damage," which "is beneficial in preventing degenerative diseases that come with aging."
However, Garrico cautions that "due to the caffeine content, drinking green tea for an extended period or in high doses (more than 8 cups per day) may be hazardous." It can lead to "headaches, nervousness, sleep problems, vomiting, diarrhea, irritability, irregular heartbeat, tremors, heartburn, dizziness, ringing in the ears, convulsions, and confusion . . . Green tea also contains a chemical that, when consumed in large quantities, has been linked to liver damage."
In other words, you don't need to overdo it in order to take advantage of green tea's anti-aging properties. To find out more about what tea can do for you, check out The Final Verdict on Drinking Tea for Weight Loss. And to get all of the latest news delivered straight to your email inbox every day, don't forget to sign up for our newsletter!
