Green Tea

I talked about life changes earlier in September, and those which will now be necessary and those which will be favourable in an attempt to stop the cancer reoccuring or becoming mobile and those which will make me more healthy and stronger.  I think, on the whole, we do not like change, it can be hard and I am not one to embrace the Google philosphy 'change is your friend', although it's being forced on me right now.

One change that I have managed to make without too much difficulty is learning to drink and like green tea.  I am happy to drink it, I find it refreshing and tasteful and much lighter than 'normal' tea, but I have always liked camomile tea at night so I already liked the herbal teas.  I know they are difficult for some people.

Green tea is pretty mythic.  Icontains polyphenols called catechins.  One of these (EGCG), is one of the most powerful nutritional molecules against the formation of new blood vessels by cancerous cells.  This molecule is destroyed during the fermentation to make black tea but is found in large quantities in unfermented (green) tea.

After 2 - 3 cups of green tea, EGCG becomes plentiful in the blood and spreads through the body via the capilliary vessels (which surround and feed every cell in the body).  EGCG settles on the cells and blocks the switches - the 'receptors', the function of which is to set off the signal that allows penetration of neigbouring tissue by foreign cells, such as cancer cells.  This function, in addition to the blocking of the creation of new blood vessels to transport the cancer, plus the detoxifying effect of green tea (it can eliminate cancerous toxins/carciogens that cause breast, lung, oesophagus, stomach and colon cancer from the body), makes green tea a powerful tool against cancer.

Apparently children with brain tumours also experience a more powerful effect of small doses of radiation if their molecules are firstly sensitized by the harmless green tea molecules.

Green tea is also even more powerful when combined with soy.

How Many Cups of Green Tea per Day?
In a group of Japanese women suffering from breast tumours that had not yet mestasized (the cancer was still in situ and had not yet started to move around the body), researchers found that those who consumed 3 cups of green tea per day had 57% fewer relapses than those who only drank one cup per day.

How to drink it
Green tea must be steeped for  5 - 8 minutes to release its catechins.  Do not store green tea as it loses its benefits after one hour so if you make a pot, don't keep it too long.

Thanks to David Servan for the above information, which I have paraphrased from his excellent book 'Anti Cancer'.

I'm not stupid, I  know that there are no magic solutions and no anti cancer pill (maybe one day) and just one small thing will not be a huge turnaround in my health,  but I reckon I can't ignore something that seems to give so many benefits and is so simple to keep as a good habit.

So I've decided to do a green tea taste survey to bring the best of the bunch to you, in case you felt like changing your habits.

First under survey is Hema Fair Trade Green Tea lemon.

Packaging; plain white box, clear graphics with attractive lower case t in a tea pattern.
Tea bags; pretty little transparent bags with a small tag
Taste: You can see from the tea bag that there is a very small quantity of tea in each dose.  No matter how long I steep the bag, the tea never takes a bitter taste.  It is very light and gentle and easy to drink with the taste of a touch of lemon.  Personally, I'd prefer a little more body to the tea but this tea is refreshing, light with a delicate flavour which is not overwhelming, more like an infusion than an actual tea.
Price: sorry can't remember but it was not expensive like most products in Hema

+ not expensive, pretty tea bag, light flavour, Fair Trade
- a little too light tasting and tag a bit too insubstantial to 'hold' the bag in the cup and has a tendancy to fall into the cup