Beneficial effects
Besides being a very delicious beverage to drink, tea also contains healthy benefits for your body. For this reason for centuries after its discovery in China tea has been a beverage to calm down the stomach after a meal. Also when introduced in the Western world tea has always been considered a drink that would have beneficial effects on health. This is also emphasized in almost all seventeenth century travel logs and other publications regarding the trade with China and Japan.

History
Doctor Jacobus Bontius (physician and physicist in Batavia) tried to explain the medicinal values of tea in a more scientific way in a book published by Piso in 1658 in Amsterdam. In those days it was already determined that the warm infusion of tea leaves would miraculously strengthen the stomach and intestines. But even during the seventeenth and eighteenth century the medical qualities of tea were challenged by many experts. Partly because some publications defined the “medicinal values” rather broadly. For instance the pamphlet “Virtues of Tea” (around 1680) summed up a whopping twenty six virtues, like: “….’Cleansens the rough Blood’… ‘Expels the heavy Dreams’… ‘Drives out Stupidity’… ‘Disappears Fears’… and ‘Sharpens Ingenuity.’

Research 
Throughout centuries scientists have gratefully used tea as a product of examination. Tea is a natural product which can be used without toxic additives and doesn’t need preservatives. It has been determined that tea contains a number of virtues. It will calm down your stomach after a meal or during illness. Furthermore it helps to increase the level of concentration (because the leaves naturally contain caffeine/theine). Tea leaves also contain a number of minerals, like fluor, calcium, potassium and magnesium. These minerals are beneficiary to oral hygiene. Tea leaves also contain vitamins B-(complexes) and C., which are needed by the human body. In particular green teas are well-known for their high level of anti-oxidants, which are good for your skin and other organs. Furthermore there has been thorough research on the detoxifying effects assigned to (especially) green teas and the substance ECGC (contained in the leaves) which could support the burning of bodily fat.

Tea: a healthy choice!
For this reason by the end of 2015 the Dutch Health Council gave tea a prominent place in its newest guidelines for healthy food. Drinking five cups of black tea or three cups of green tea will help lower your systolic blood pressure by 2 mmg Hg. Furthermore drinking three cups of green tea will help lower the LDL-cholesterol by 0.05 mmol/l. More than ever tea is a healthy choice!