Benefits of Green Tea: Your New BFF

“A cup of tea would restore my normality," Douglas Adams once wrote in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And he was definitely onto something healthy and good. Turns out that regularly drinking green tea can do lots and lots of wonders for your body and health. Here are 7 easy ways the drink gives you a much needed health boost:

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#1. Green Tea is good for your bones

Everyone from our mothers to health experts used to say "Milk is good for your bones", although personally, I don't find myself growing any taller all these years. But according to a study published in the journal Nutrition Research, green tea can help slow down the process of age-related bone loss and at the same time help to decrease the risk of fractures caused mainly by osteoporosis. Especially women who made the effort to drink at least 3 cups of green tea per day have a 30% chance to lower the risk of osteoporosis-related fractures, most noticeably from the hip.

#2. Green Tea prevents cancer

If we are to take a look at Japan for example, cancer rates are actually lower there, because green tea is the number 1 go-to drink. While researchers cannot be absolutely sure that just consuming green tea alone is responsible for low cancer rates, we do know that tea contains chemicals EGCG, EGC and EC, which are highly known for their antioxidant activity. These chemicals help protect our cells from DNA damage, which is one of the first steps in growth cancer cells. Also, the properties in green tea can help protect your skin from UV damage which is also a leading cause of skin cancer.

#3. Green tea to lose weight

Not only does green tea helps you to maintain a healthy weight when taken on a long-time regular basis, it can also help to reduce body fat at the same time. According to a 12-week study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, green tea extracts may also have the power to help decrease obesity and obesity-related illness, like diabetes to quote for example.

#4. Green tea lowers your cholesterol

Green tea has been linked to lower levels of LDL which is known as the "bad" cholesterol, according to a paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In short, tea drinkers have slightly lower levels of LDL compare to those who do not drink green tea at all. So, load up on all that green tea.

#5. Green tea gives you healthy gums

Those of you who drink green tea on a regular basis would have realized that their gum-tissue and gum bleeding problems doesn't happen that much, as compared to the rest of us who probably don't even touch a single drop of tea at all. According to researchers at a Japanese university, the more tea their test subjects drank, the fewer symptoms of periodontal disease are displayed, so drinking more than a cup of green tea a day is definitely the way to improving your oral health. Psst! It's not just about the specific brand and type of toothbrush and mouth rinse anymore huh?

#6. Green tea helps your heart <3

According to Harvard Medical School, drinking green tea daily can help you to lower the risk of heart disease. Reguar tea drinkers also showed a 26% lower risk of dying from a stroke or heart attack in a Japanese study of over 40,000 participants. And to further back this up, all these 40,000 participants consumed at the very least, 5 cups of green tea on a daily basis. So, do drink up on your green tea.

#7. Green tea gives you energy

Those of us (me especially) who are trying to cut down on caffeine can also reap the energy benefits of green tea as well. One 8-ounce cup of green tea contains at least 24 to 45 miligrams of caffeine, as compared to 95 to 200 milligrams in a cup of coffee, tea itself offers a boost of much-needed energy with the chance of a lower risk of headaches, shakiness and nausea that comes complimentary with caffeine overload. And that healthy jolt of caffeine in tea can boost exercise endurance, according to a research published in the American Journal of Physiology. So it doesn't matter whether you're an athlete or just a normal person looking for a quick and healthy instant pick-me-up, it definitely helps to go the path of green tea.