The Health Benefits Of Oolong Tea

#1 Over View

Oolong tea is a product made from the leaves, buds, and stems of the Camellia sinensis plant. This is the same plant that is also used to make black tea and green tea. The difference is in the processing. Oolong tea is partially fermented, black tea is fully fermented, and green tea is unfermented.

#2 Why oolong though?

The health benefits of tea range far and wide, and a cup of oolong tea goes a long way when it comes to your well-being.

As one of the most popular and traditional types of tea in China and Taiwan, oolong is known to provide robust health benefits when consumed on the regular. Packed with antioxidants, the oolong leaf combines catechin and caffeine which fight free radicals.

Read on to discover 10 benefits of drinking oolong tea.

#3 What’s inside oolong tea?

Here’re the nutritional values of 1 serving of oolong tea.

Calories: 90

Fat: 0 g

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Sodium: 10 mg

Calcium: 4%

Total Carbohydrates: 25 g

Vitamin C: 100 %

#4 Cardiovascular Benefits:

Regular consumption of oolong tea is known to reduce the cholesterol levels, thereby lowering the risk of heart attacks. Research proves that those who drink 1 to 6 cups of oolong tea in a week are at a lower risk of succumbing to cardiovascular diseases

#5 Helps Fight Obesity and Promote Weight Loss

Oolong tea weight loss has been at the center of a lot of discussion over the past several years, and for good reason.

Drinking oolong tea helps your body produce more heat, a process called thermogenesis, and thereby maintain or increase metabolism (the rate at which your body burns energy). This is especially important for people trying to lose weight, because there is typically a decrease in metabolism rates during the weight loss process. Recovering that loss is just one way oolong tea benefits and supports a healthy weight

Regular oolong tea consumption also suppresses the production of new fat cells.

It helps your body to burn fat faster.

Overall, there’s little doubt that oolong tea not only helps you lose weight in the short term, but also protects against obesity on a large, long-term scale with a consistently increased metabolism, reduction in fat and reduction in inflammation contributing to stubborn weight.

#6 Removes Harmful Free Radicals

The polyphenolic compound in oolong tea is also responsible for the removal of free radicals in our body because it functions as an antioxidant and stimulates the behavior of other free radical compounds in the body. Therefore, consuming daily doses of oolong tea can help people against the potential harm that these free-moving cells often pose to the human body, including cancer, atherosclerosis, stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, neurodegeneration, and diabetes. Any antioxidant characteristic of food or drink is beneficial, but polyphenols are particularly powerful antioxidants in the oolong tea.

#7 Lowers cholesterol

Oolong is known to reduce cholesterol levels and promote heart health. Because oolong tea is semi-oxidized, it produces a perfectly sized polyphenol molecule that is able to activate the enzyme lipase, which is known to dissolve body fat.

#8 Promotes healthy hair

Due to its high level of antioxidants, oolong tea can prevent hair loss if you make a tea rinse out of the leaves. Not only that, but your hair will be thicker and shinier. Oolong softens and adds lustre to your hair.

#9 Improves mental performance

Thanks to its caffeine boost, oolong tea can improve mental performance, including both cognition and alertness. While this is an immediate benefit, some research has also found evidence that long-term tea consumption improves cognition in adults.

#10 Prevents tooth decay

A cup of oolong tea contains fluoride and antioxidants that can help promote healthy teeth. It also has antibacterial properties that may aid in preventing cavities and decreasing the acidity of saliva, which can wear down enamel.

#11 Fights off bacteria

Oolong tea has antiseptic and antibacterial properties, which can help your body fight off bad bacteria. Oolong tea even has antibacterial effects against Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas, and other types of bacteria.

#12 Anti-cancer Properties:

Tea drinkers, in general, have a lower risk of acquiring skin cancer. The concentration of polymeric polyphenols like thearubigin and theaflavin is higher in oolong tea when compared to other varieties. These antioxidants combat carcinogens and help in reducing the risk of cancer. Polyphenols promote the programmed cell death (apoptosis) of cancerous growths in the stomach and act as chemo-preventive agents to suppress the development of other forms of cancer, specifically ovarian cancer in women

#13 Diabetes Prevention

The subject of diabetes is another important one in the quest to improve the health of the masses. Type 2 diabetes (the more common and diet-related form) is a metabolic disorder caused by high blood sugar and insulin resistance. An astounding 25 percent of the American population is prediabetic, and this is a completely reversible condition.

Introducing oolong tea into your diet is just one way to reverse diabetes naturally. In fact, this tea may help you prevent diabetes in the first place as well as serving a potential role in future diabetes medication development. There’s a substantial inverse association with consumption of oolong tea and type 2 diabetes risk.

Drinking oolong tea every day for at least a month has been shown to decrease blood glucose levels significantly in patients with diabetes as compared to those drinking only water and following the same diet.

#14 Stress Buster:

The natural polyphenols present in oolong tea act as stress busters and alleviate mood swings. Drinking oolong tea during the day helps to maintain focus and improves mental agility

#15 Improves Bone Health

The antioxidants present in oolong tea protect teeth against decay, strengthen the bone structure, prevent osteoporosis, and promote normal, healthy growth of the human body. A number of studies analyzed the long-term effects of drinking tea, particularly on bone mineral density (BMD). It showed that people who consistently drank black or oolong tea for more than 10 years were tremendously less likely to lose their bone mineral density over that span of time. It is thought that some of the components in tea actually stimulate the retention of minerals from other food that we consume.

#16 Betters your skin condition

Eczema often occurs in conjunction with allergies or sensitivities. Oolong tea is able to suppress those allergic reactions because it combats free radicals, which is a healing property of an antioxidant. Also, the antioxidants found in oolong are essential for vibrant, youthful skin. Drinking oolong can greatly slow down the aging process, so it’s a great anti-aging tool.

#17 Method Of Preparing Oolong Tea:

Oolong tea has a great taste and can be consumed either hot or cold. The steeping time of the leaves and the number of infusions depend upon the variety of the tea leaves being used. The method of preparation is simple and easy. Here is what you need to do:

Start by boiling some water in a kettle. In the meantime, rinse and warm up the tea set.

Add some oolong tea leaves to the teapot such that they occupy nearly 5% of the space in the tea pot.

Now pour boiling water (180-200F) into the pot and push away the white floating bubbles which form on the top with the help of the cover.

Cover the tea pot for a few minutes and let it steep.

The tea is now ready to drink. Pour it into tea cups and savor its delicate aroma and rich taste.

#18 Oolong Tea vs. Black Tea vs. Green Tea vs. White Tea

All four common varieties of tea are derived from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. The differences lie in the way they’re processed. Each tea has distinctive properties, but they generally share similar benefits. The levels of processing go as follows, from least processed to most: white tea, oolong tea, green tea and black tea.

What’s the same?

All four of these common teas contain tons of antioxidants to help you fight disease. The list is the same for each type, but the amounts of each differ in quantity.

Teas help you to fight cancer, diabetes, heart disease and aging. They also aid your brain and support strong bones.

What’s different?

White tea has the most acute immunity-boosting effects of the four common varieties. Black tea, on the other hand, aids more in digestion and stress relief. Green tea seems to help prevent Alzheimer’s to the highest degree, while oolong tea specifically helps to reduce eczema outbreaks. Green tea contains the smallest amount of caffeine.

#19 Word of Caution

Despite all of these very important effects, it is important to remember that oolong tea tends to be very high in caffeine, which is not the healthiest component of this beneficial beverage. Caffeine treats many people differently, but some of the side effects of excess caffeine are headaches, anxiousness, sleeplessness, diarrhea, heartburn, irregular heartbeat, and confusion.

More serious conditions that can be exacerbated by too much caffeine are diabetes, heart conditions, anxiety disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, and high blood pressure. Also, drinking too much oolong tea can actually sweep out excess calcium that your body is processing. For patients with osteoporosis, this can speed up bone degradation, even though other elements of oolong tea are helpful for this condition. It is best to use it as a preventative method for bone health, rather than a treatment.

In other words, drink several cups of oolong tea a day, because it might be the best kind of tea for improving your health and is also a delicious and relaxing treat. That being said, be aware that caffeine is a powerful chemical, and monitor your body’s response to this change in your diet, just as you should with all new foods and nutritional sources.