Green Tea Promotes Healthy Skin, Protects Against Radiation
Not only is green tea known for its cancer-preventing properties and weight loss benefits, but it also plays a significant role in promoting skin health. It protects the skin from the damaging effects of UV radiation, leading to better skin quality.
Green Tea, Antioxidants, and Skin Health
Several studies have noted green tea’s ability to keep your skin looking youthful and reduce the risk of sun damage. Like its anti-cancer benefits, its skincare benefits are due to the powerful catechins inside. These are the active antioxidants in the tea that hold the key to all of green tea’s varied benefits.
According to one study, supplementing with green tea catechins increased oxygen flow to the skin. Increased blood flow will not only result in better looking skin, but also healthier skin cells overall. The same study also found green tea to improve elasticity and water content of the skin while reducing roughness and scaling.
Antioxidants like catechins protect cells from damage by free radicals. It guards against oxidative stress and can even protect against UV damage, reducing your possible risk of skin cancer.
These studies and others like them are part of the reason we are seeing more and more cosmetics and skin creams containing green tea. But while slathering something on your skin might deliver some benefits, ingesting something and therefore making it a part of you certainly will.
Green tea is entirely safe. You don’t have to limit your consumption unless you are sensitive to caffeine. Have a cup with breakfast or make a routine of enjoying it after each meal. In China and other Asian countries where green tea consumption is credited with their longevity and lower rates of cancer and disease, drinking multiple cups each day is the norm. The health benefits of green tea truly are astonishing.
Make sure you are getting a high quality green tea and prepare it according to package directions. With spring around the corner, try making sun tea with it for something new.
And one last tip: try adding some almonds in with your green tea consumption – they are great for skin health as well.
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