Challenge-of-the-Day: Taste the Benefits of Green Tea

Members of our social (and interactive!) employee wellness program enjoy a daily dose of healthy education – with fun and inspiring calls-to-action (you know, so we can actually benefit from the stuff that we learn). We call it the Challenge-of-the-Day, and we’ve decided to give you a taste of it within our Boomer Blog. Enjoy, and check back monthly for more free samples (because who doesn’t love free samples?)…

Going Green (with our tea, at least)…

We don’t all jump out of bed ready to take on the day … and that’s okay! Even for the “morning people” among us, it’s tough to bring energy and enthusiasm to work without first getting some caffeine coursing through our veins. And while coffee is typically our beverage of choice for that much-needed boost, it may not be the best (or healthiest) solution to our sluggishness.

Instead of overloading on caffeine each morning (and overdoing it on the cream and sugar … and the triple pumps of insert-your-favorite-artificial-flavor-source-here!), consider sipping on some good ol’ green tea. Don’t worry, we’re not knockin’ a nice espresso from time to time, but a warm cup of green tea can provide the morning motivation you need (sans the “caffeine jitters”) … and it may help improve your health in other ways to boot!

Today’s Challenge

Ditch the coffee or soda today (c’mon – you can handle a single day, right?), and drink some green tea instead! Brew up an entire pot (leave the sweetened store-bought stuff on the shelves) and allow everyone to enjoy a cup of warm-and-wonderful health improvement. Take note of how you feel compared to how you typically feel after a coffee or soda.

Looking for a little extra challenge? Incorporate green tea into your regular routine! You can still drink coffee if you absolutely love it – just swap a few cups of it (or your other regular refreshment) each week for some delicious tea. Bonus points for switching to green tea altogether.

Nutrition, disease prevention, and other possible green tea benefits

Does any other food or drink have as many health benefits as green tea? We can’t say for sure, but we can confidently assert that it’s pretty darn good for you.

Green tea has a fraction of the caffeine of coffee (a single 8 oz cup of green tea contains 25-29 mg of caffeine to coffee’s 95-165 mg!), but it offers just as many (if not more) energy-increasing qualities. The Chinese have known about its medicinal benefits since pretty much forever – using it to treat everything from headaches to depression – while modern research indicates that green tea lowers total cholesterol levels and improves the ratio of good (HDL) cholesterol to bad (LDL) cholesterol. Purdue University researchers also concluded that a compound found in green tea may inhibit the growth of cancer cells. It may also help regulate glucose, making it an ally against diabetes.

The secret to green tea’s never-ending nutrition (and its potential cancer-fighting properties) lies in its rich catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). You may have heard this “scientific buzzword” in recent commercials or advertisements, but don’t let the overkill marketing make you a skeptic. Despite its intimidatingly complex name, it’s a legitimately fantastic (and completely natural) compound. Studies have found that this powerful antioxidant not only inhibits cancer cells, but may even destroy them without harming healthy tissue.

In addition to its potential cancer-fighting qualities and other feel-good benefits, here are just a few medical conditions for which drinking green tea is known to help:

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• High cholesterol
• Cardiovascular disease
• Impaired immune function

Can your regular cup-o-Joe (or worse, soda) do all that? We think not! Change up your mornings and make the green-tea switch today!

Do you think your company could benefit from an employee wellness program like Sonic Boom? We’d love to chat with your HR/Benefits folks – connect with us here!