Drinking Green Tea May Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Stroke

A large study that was recently completed in Japan indicates that drinking large quantities of green tea may reduce your risk of suffering a stroke.

The study was sponsored by the Japanese government and accepted for publication by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

More than 4,000 Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 79 were tracked over an 11-year period. The key findings were as follows:

• People who drank five or more cups of green tea per day were 16 percent less likely to die from any cause than those who drank less than five cups per day
• People who drank five or more cups of green tea per day were 26 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease than people who drank fewer than one cup per day
• Japanese women who drank green tea regularly were 62 percent less likely to die from a clot-related stroke
• Japanese men who drank green tea regularly were 42 percent less likely to die from a clot-related stroke

Green tea is a health promoting beverage for many people because of its high antioxidant content. Most antioxidants found in food are not destroyed when they are heated.

Still, there's no question that foods that have not been heated provide more overall nutritional benefit than their heated forms due to the presence of naturally occurring enzymes in non-heated foods. This is why freshly pressed green vegetable juices are even healthier for you than green tea is.

If you just don't have easy access to freshly pressed green vegetable juices, green tea is a good alternative choice for a regular beverage. Just do your best to ensure that your green tea leaves do not come with fluoride, which is the case with many conventional brands.

Fluoride can cause your bones and teeth to become brittle and can also contribute to a wide variety of problems with your joints and ligaments.

Yet another excellent alternative to freshly pressed green vegetable juices is a high quality green food powder that you can mix with water.