Not Your Average Matcha — This One’s Pure, Smooth, and Glow-Boosting 🍵💫
Matcha is popular in health stores and coffee shops, available as matcha shots, lattes, teas, and desserts.
Like green tea, matcha comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. However, it’s grown differently and has a unique nutrient profile.
Farmers shade the plants used for matcha for most of the growth period. This lack of direct sunlight increases chlorophyll production, boosts the amino acid content, and gives the plant a darker green hue .
After harvesting the leaves, producers remove the stems and veins and grind the leaves into a fine powder. This is matcha.
Matcha contains the nutrients from the entire tea leaf and contains more caffeine and antioxidants than are typically present in green tea.
Studies of matcha and its components have unearthed a variety of benefits, showing that it can help protect the liver, promote heart health, and even aid in weight loss.
Here are 4 possible health benefits and advantages of consuming matcha.
atcha is rich in catechins, a class of plant compounds in tea that act as natural antioxidants.
Antioxidants help stabilize harmful free radicals, compounds that can damage cells and cause chronic disease.
Matcha is grown in the shade. When the leaves are harvested, the catechin content is lower than in other types of green tea. However, when you dissolved in water, it produces 3 times more .
One study showed that giving mice matcha supplements reduced damage caused by free radicals and enhanced antioxidant activity .
Including matcha in your diet could increase your antioxidant intake, which may help prevent cell damage and lower your risk of several chronic diseases .
The liver is vital to health and plays a central role in flushing out toxins, metabolizing drugs, and processing nutrients.
Some studies have found that matcha may help protect the health of your liver.
A 2015 review of 15 studies found that drinking green tea was associated with a decreased risk of liver disease .
However, in 2023, some experts noted that while matcha may benefit people with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) by reducing liver enzymes, it may increase liver enzymes in people without NAFLD .
Some research shows that several of the components in matcha could help enhance brain function.
One study in 23 people looked at how people performed on a series of tasks designed to measure brain performance.
Some participants consumed either matcha tea or a bar containing 4 grams of matcha, while the control group consumed a placebo tea or bar.
Those that consumed matcha showed improvements in attention, reaction time, and memory compared with those consuming the placebo .
Another small study showed that consuming 2 grams of green tea powder daily for 2 months helped improve brain function in older people .
Matcha contains some compounds that have been linked to cancer prevention in test tubes and animal studies.
For instance, matcha is high in epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a type of catechin that may have powerful anti-cancer properties.
Some laboratory and animal studies have suggested it may help prevent some types of cancer, although more research is needed .
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