Tea is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide and is becoming increasingly popular, especially in mental health.
People and even certain cultures have gravitated towards drinking tea because of its ancient relaxing beneficial speculation.
For many years, multiple research has shown how drinking tea can improve your physical health. For example, drinking tea regularly can decrease cardiovascular disease, inflammation, lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, promote weight loss, and help fight off cancer.
However, studies are now looking to explore the mental health and behavioral benefits of drinking tea. In a time where we live in a highly stressed and fast-paced society where depression and anxiety are more prevalent than ever, doctors are looking for more ways to prevent and treat these mental health disorders that are putting a significant burden on the healthcare system.
Researchers are now learning that drinking a cup of tea a day could better your mental health by lifting your mood, improving your focus, and helping to fight against depression and even keep it at bay.
In an article published by Nature, researchers present the potential mental health benefits of drinking tea.
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Here are the 4 possible mental health benefits of drinking tea detailed in the Nature article.
1) Lowers your risk of depression:
Low mood and sadness are common symptoms of depression. However, researchers have found that drinking about half a cup (at least 100 milliliters) of green tea a day lowers your risk of developing depression.Low mood and sadness are common symptoms of depression. Researchers have found that drinking about half a cup (at least 100 milliliters) of green tea a day lowers your risk of developing depression.
2) Improves your mood:
Although some researchers are reluctant to overestimate the mental health benefits of drinking tea, they have found clear evidence of moderate mood improvement from drinking tea.Although some researchers are reluctant to overestimate the mental health benefits of drinking tea, they have found clear evidence of moderate mood improvement from drinking tea.
3) Reduces your stress:
Drinking tea lowers the stress hormone cortisol. People usually go to the gym as a way of releasing stress. Well, researchers suggest that regular drinking of a cup of tea is just as good as 2.5 hours of exercise per week! How awesome is that?!
4) Has calming and relaxing effects:
Drinking tea is calming. EGCG, the antioxidant in tea, which accounts for approximately 42 percent of the dry weight of brewed green tea, is believed to make people feel calmer, improve memory and attention. In the same way, the unique ingredients L-theanine (3 percent of the dry weight of green tea) combined with caffeine (5 percent of the dry weight of green tea) are also said to have a calming effect on people even after participating in stressful tasks.
Other great benefits of drinking tea
The article also mentioned how tea’s relaxing effects could be due to the ritual and process of preparing the tea and not necessarily drinking the tea itself!
One psychologist even investigated whether tea’s relaxing and calming effects “are a direct biological outcome or derived from the social context in which the drink is consumed, such as sitting down quietly for a rest.”
In a world where the mental health demands can no longer be met due to increased needs, if there are DIY ways to preserve your mental health, what do you have to lose?
So I say go ahead and drink your tea, whatever works, right?!
The fantastic thing about drinking tea is that there are various teas to choose from, and they are teas for EVERYTHING! There are teas to help you relax and calm down, sleep, support digestion, immune system health, reduce pain, east stress, etc.
If you’re not careful, you can easily get lost in the tea world, but I guess that wouldn’t be such a bad thing considering its mental health benefits!
If you’re not yet a tea drinker, it’s pretty easy to start. All you need is a tea kettle and your preferred teas. For example, here’s one of Amazon’s best-rated tea kettle. And if you don’t have a favorite tea yet, start by trying various teas to figure out which ones you enjoy best. I personally love the Bigelow Tea Variety Pack.
Purchase this Amazon top-rated tea kettle HERE.
