Why you need to start drinking green tea in 2019

Every first month of the year, people make a list of all the things they want to do (new year resolutions). This time, Business Insider Sub Saharan Africa is recommending adding drinking green tea to this list.

For one, it contains natural antioxidants and critical vitamins that are great for your body. It also improves your metabolism. But the main reason to add this in your to-do list is due to how it affects one's lifespan.

Recent research conducted by Dr Shinichi Kuriyama from the Tohoku University School of Public Policy and published in The Journal of the American Medical Association has discovered that green tea is so powerful that it can actually extend one's life expectancy.

After studying 40,530 adults, ranging in age from 40 to 79, for up to 11 years, the doctor concluded that "the difference in Green Tea consumption might help explain why the Japanese age-adjusted rate of mortality due to Heart Disease and Stroke is about 30 per cent lower than that of the United States."

Old couple pensioner ece-auto-gen

Following the results of this extensive research, WorldLifeExpentency.com has declared green tea a Life Expectancy Super Food.

ALSO READ: World Bank says Africa's giant, Nigeria, will soon become the world's capital for infants' deaths

Why Nigerians, in particular, need green tea

This study comes as Nigeria has just been ranked as the country with the lowest life expectancy in West Africa.

According to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) data, 54.5 years of age is the average life expectancy here. This low ranking has been attributed to various types of cancer, stroke, heart diseases and other causes.

Some of these causes (see the full list here) can be controlled and even prevented by simply drinking green tea, as the above research has found.

Top 50 leading causes of deaths in Nigeria worldlifeexpectancy

This is a result all of the amazing goodness contained in this tea. Apart from increasing life expectancy, here are some other health benefits of green tea:

Prevents diabetes

This is the 18th cause of death in Nigeria. It is responsible for killing over 30, 000 people and affects about 400 million people worldwide.

Studies have shown that drinking green tea can actually reduce one's chances of ever developing the disease. Healthline reports that seven different studies carried out on 286,701 individuals have discovered that green tea drinkers have an 18% lower chance of becoming diabetic.

This is due to the tea's ability to regulate glucose levels, thus preventing high insulin spikes.

Reduces the risk of cancer

WHO data lists at least four types of cancer as top causes of death across the country. But research by the National Cancer Institute has discovered that this doesn't have to be the case if more people drink green tea.

Thanks to properties like catechins, EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate and other polyphenols, green tea has what it takes to fight and even kill cancer while protecting the immune system. Research shows drinking about 4 cups of green tea on a daily basis can aid in cancer treatment.

Weight loss

While this is not a major cause of death in Nigeria, it's definitely something most people crave. Due to properties contained in the tea, research has shown that it is capable of helping the drinker lose weight. This is done by its natural antioxidants, which boasts one's metabolism and decreases overall body fat.

It's important to add that although green has certain side effects, the health benefits definitely outweigh them.