White Tea Health Benefits

In China most people drink green tea, white tea or other kinds of Chinese tea every day. It's a very long tradition; more than 1000 years.Those of you who have been lucky enough to have visited China clearly will have noticed people drinking tea from thermo bottles or have been served Chinese tea several times.

Drinking Chinese tea has become very popular in the western part of the world too. This is mostly because of the health benefits of drinking various Chinese teas. You have probably heard that drinking tea have many health benefits including weight loss etc. Here we will concentrate on the health benefits of drinking White Tea.

There are many types of this tea, the most well known is White Silver Needle (bai hao yinzhen); this is known to be the best quality tea. It's called white tea because of the silvery white hair-like fur covering the buds and newest leaves and not because of the color of the tea brew. This type of tea is the youngest type of the Chinese teas also in the meaning of production and processing.

All types of Chinese tea are used in traditional Chinese medicine. For people in the Western world the big interest has mostly been related to the effect on weight loss and cancer prevention. White tea has very high content of anti-oxidants and there is a lot of empirical evidence from Traditional Chinese Medicine of the health benefits attributed to drinking this type of tea.

Recently we have also got some scientific results revealing various health benefits, including anti-cancer potential, effects on cholesterol levels, antibacterial properties and of course positive effects for weight loss. Many have said they are drinking white tea because of its low levels of caffeine. This is not true, on the contrary this tea may contain higher levels of caffeine than the much more fermented black tea or puerh tea.

The level of caffeine has in fact not much to do with the processing time or oxidation but more about the plant variety and position of the harvested leaves. The tea grown in India and Sri Lanka contains even more caffeine than the Chinese varieties.

The caffeine content is also depending on how the tea is brewed. If it's done the traditional Chinese Gong Fu Cha way it will contain less caffeine because the tea is brewed in small clay tea pots with multiple brews and very short steeping time.

There are two sides of caffeine; it will speed up your metabolism and burn more calories and it will make you lose water weight and dehydration if you drink too much like drinking a lot of coffee. The caffeine is good for weight loss and the negative sides are outweighed by the other positive properties of white tea.

One of the biggest factors of the white tea health benefit is the high levels of anti-oxidants like catechin which is also found in red wine, chocolate and apples. The catechin polyphenols found in white tea belongs to a molecular family called flavenoids. Laboratory tests have shown that these flavenoids inhibit growth of cancer cells and prevent activity of free radicals which can lead to cancer. There are higher levels of catechin in white and green tea than in more fermented teas like black tea and puerh tea.

Some White Tea health benefits include;

Boosting your immune system

Fight bacteria and viruses

High in fluoride (protecting teeth also from plaque)

Lower cholesterol level

Prevent blood clots

Lower blood sugar

Lower blood pressure

Ease arthritis

Prevent Alzheimer

Repair DNA damage caused by radiation

Appetite suppressant

Maintain body's fluid balance

Increase bone density

High source of vitamin A

Anti-ageing (used in cosmetics and beauty products)

Julian Andrews is a writer who specializes in the health & fitness sector. You can check out his latest website at White Tea Health Benefits, where he provides unbiased reviews and advice regarding the health benefits and how to drink various Chinese teas.

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