The Value of Tea in England - Essay Example

Tea in England Tea in England As a drug, tea is frequently used in England. This is because they value its advantages and health benefits as compared to coffee. In England, specific flavours of tea are considered as best for consumption and many citizens end up prioritizing them without considering coffee. There are specific times when people take tea and due to various reasons (Filimon, 2013). Some people find tea as the easiest drink to make, that helps one live longer, among many other advantages. Others do not take tea due to its disadvantages especially in terms of health maintenance. They find tea as the major reason as to why people suffer from gastric cancer and kidney diseases among other numerous disadvantages. Tea therefore has its side effects and solutions. These effects mostly affect women who are expectant. Tea is believed not to be the best for pregnant women as it may act as cause for miscarriages. This among others is a side effect of drinking tea as much as it has its benefits to human beings. Every drug has its effects and should not be misused or even abused. Being a drug therefore, tea is not left behind though many people do not put this to consideration. Research shows that many are the people who have forgotten to handle tea as a drug like any other. Addictions are possible in the case of tea and if not well taken care of, may lead to the addiction effect. It is the way through which many people fail to take control over the amount of tea they consume daily and end up over using tea. If well consumed, without over usage, tea could be more helpful than harmful. In England, the normal times for drinking tea are during breakfast, after lunch and in the evening, maybe after work or after dinner, just any time before going to bed. Many workers however, are offered tea at their places of work, at 10:00am in the morning, after taking lunch and 3:00pm in the afternoon (Matsumiya, n.d). If one combines the schedule for drinking tea at work and at home, it may become excess consumption of tea. Such cases end up bringing about addiction (Lemm, n.d). There are only four types of tea. Naturally, tea is one and the same thing. The difference comes in from how the plant is processed by human beings. This brings out the distinction in tea flavours making it a choice for their customers to make. Therefore, different people take different types of tea depending on the taste and preferences. These four types include the black tea, the green tea, the oolong tea and the white tea all made from one plant called the Camellia Sinensis. These different types have differences in their chemical compositions which bring about differences in how they taste. This difference occurs in the last stage of processing, which is the oxidation stage. They are all oxidized differently and mixed with chemicals. The most oxidized is the black tea which undergoes oxidation for up to four hours. Its chemical composition is thus relatively higher than that of the other types. This makes it tasty compared to the other types. The more it has a unique taste the more it attracts people as their favourite type. For this reason, the black tea is most popular in England (Parker). Tea has its numerous advantages especially in terms of health. One of these advantages is the fact that as compared to its substitutes such as coffee, tea has less caffeine in it. Caffeine is a harmful substance found in such drugs as tea and coffee that brings about insomnia, jittery and nervous feelings, making it unhealthy for consumption. Tea therefore is considered as safer to take than other drinks like coffee as this substance is less concentrated in it. Consumption of tea is also considered advantageous as it has a soothing effect which helps to reduce stress in one’s emotions. Reduction of stress sequentially leads to reduction of diseases that are related to stress. It can be concluded therefore that tea can act as a protective measure from illnesses such as cancer and heart diseases. Tea contains various antioxidants that help in cleansing away various unwanted substances from the human body. These substances are harmful to the body in that they may bring about infections. Therefore, with the quality of wiping them off, tea is what people need to sustain upright health stratus. With this quality, tea also helps to prevent people from aging. It physically keeps one young and bright (Haigh, n.d). Tea helps to prevent the arteries from holding unwanted blood clots which are formed from the platelets. This helps to reduce the risk of one suffering from stroke and serious heart diseases. This therefore shows that those who take tea are much safer from these kinds of diseases as compared to non-drinkers. Research has shown that those who take a lot of tea have stronger bones than those who do not. Doctors have gone ahead and explained that it is not only the milk that is added to tea that helps to create this strength in bones, but also the presence of tea. Even after attaining the age when one becomes naturally weak, tea drinkers remain advantaged with stronger bones as compared to non-drinkers (Top Health Benefits Drinking Tea, 2005). Tea also helps to create healthier and stronger teeth and gums. Many blame tea for poor dental care and claim that it causes harm to an individual’s teeth. This is all not true as tea in itself contains fluoride and tannins that help to keep one healthy in terms of teeth and germs. Any damages to a person’s teeth and gums may be brought about by additional of substances such as sugar (Hira, 2012). The immune systems for human beings are said to be boosted by tea. As discussed earlier, tea protects one from several diseases. It therefore has a quality of being protective, which means it boosts the defence system for our bodies. Tea is also important to body systems in that it helps in hydrating the body. After exercises and other activities, even when the sun is hot, it is advisable to take tea, whether hot or cold, as it helps in taking care the body’s need for fluids. It helps in compensation of the fluid lost through maybe sweating and other excretions. Tea also helps people in losing weight through metabolism. The stimulation of this process by tea helps to take care of the worries many have in losing weight. If one is too lazy or cannot simply find time for other methods of losing weight, tea is there for them as a better option. These and many more advantages are the reasons as to why many people prefer tea to coffee. However, even with the above numerous benefits, tea still has got several disadvantages. Tea may limit the body access to irons that are acquired from plant foods. This is due to presence of the antioxidants called flavonoids which were correctly stated to have benefits to the body system. However, these flavonoids react and combine with iron from vegetables and the body is not able access them. As a solution to this therefore, it is advisable to limit the rate of consuming tea with those foods that contain iron (Teja, 2015). Though it was stated as an advantage that tea contains little amount of caffeine as compared to coffee, it still has got some element of it meaning it could still lead to dangers related with caffeine. These include irregular heartbeats and insomnia which may bring about heart diseases and other related illnesses. Though plain tea has nothing to do with sugar, many bottled iced teas in the market have lots of sugar and calories. Many people also put a lot of sugar in tea when preparing it. This makes them exposed to sugar related illness with tea acting as an agent. Unfortunately, sugar has no nutritional value and only brings about effects to health status. As a recommendation, it is good to limitedly add sugar to tea for consumption (Andrew, n.d). As much as tea has good colour before the eyes of human beings, it may cause tinting to their teeth if taken excessively. To keep off from this issue, it recommended that people should brush their teeth often especially after taking tea, or at least drink water to rinse away the stains that may cause such an effect to the individual’s teeth (Nina, 2015). In conclusion therefore, taking tea is quite helpful and well embraced in England, but again it has its side effects. If one feels they must take tea to utilize its advantages, it is healthy to keep in mind the side effects and try to practise the recommendations on how to curb these effects. Tea stimulates and boosts the body’s immune system but again can lead to illnesses if not drunk responsibly. Many people in England prefer tea to coffee due to the fact that tea has many advantages and few disadvantages as compared to coffee which seems to have more disadvantages than its advantages. The different types of tea are from one and the same plant but are processed differently, leading to distinctions in the way they taste and the way they are chemically composed. Addition of these chemicals is what determines how harmful tea may be. Otherwise plain tea is very much healthy and has many health benefits. References Andrew, J. n.d, Black Tea Disadvantages. [Online] Available at [Accesed 29 Apr. 2015]. Filimon, T. 2013, British people and the tea. [Online] Available at [Accesed 29 Apr. 2015]. Haigh, C. n.d, 10 Benefits of Drinking Tea over Coffee. [Online] Available at [Accesed 29 Apr. 2015]. Hira. 2012, Advantages And Disadvantages Of Drinking Tea. [Online] Available at [Accesed 29 Apr. 2015]. Lemm, E. n.d, Teas - Tea in Britain. [Online] Available at [Accesed 29 Apr. 2015]. Motsumiya, Y. n.d, When do British people drink tea? Do young people drink tea? [Online] Available at [Accesed 29 Apr. 2015]. Teja, R. 2015, 6 Side Effects Of Green Tea You Should Be Aware Of. [Online] Available at [Accesed 29 Apr. 2015]. Nina, K. 2015, The Disadvantages of Tea. [Online] Available at [Accesed 29 Apr. 2015]. Parker, L. n.d, The Most Popular Flavors of Teas. [Online] Available at [Accesed 29 Apr. 2015]. Top 10 health benefits of drinking tea. 2005, [Online] Available at [Accesed 29 Apr. 2015]. Read More