Is Herbal Tea Really Beneficial for Cancer ?

There has been a lot of talk regarding herbal tea being a potential source of preventing and even treating cancer. Are these claims true or exaggerated? Let’s try to find out.

The first and foremost compounds that have been proved to prevent cancer are called ‘anti-oxidants’. These antioxidants can counter the free radicals that are produced in our body as a by-product of food absorption and assimilation. The free radicals need to be countered as they can interfere with our cells and cause damage. What’s more troubling is the fact that these free radicals are known to damage even the DNA of our cells and this often leads to cancer. Antioxidants are the most potent force against free radicals.

Now, you may ask as to why only herbal tea is linked to the treatment of cancer and not normal tea. The answer lies in the difference in the processing of these types of teas. Normal tea is fermented and processed a lot. This changes the healing capacity of the antioxidants as they get changed in form and structure. Herbal tea on the other hand is not much fermented and undergoes a minimal amount of processing so as not to alter the nature of antioxidants present in it.

Another question may arise in your mind as to whether antioxidants are really effective in case of cancer. The answer to this question has been given by many scientific studies that have been undertaken with this purpose. You would be surprised to know that when mice (who were made prone to cancer) were given antioxidants, these antioxidants automatically reached those parts of mice where cancerous cells were growing. Not only this, they even had a healing effect on the cancerous cells.

Even in the case of humans, especially in the case of women who suffer from breast cancer, herbal tea has been proven to be linked to less reappearance of cancer as compared to ladies who didn’t take herbal tea. Similarly positive results are seen in men prostate cancer. This effect was visible in the first and second stages of cancer and very high quantity of herbal tea seemed to make a difference.

Another proof is the low frequency of cancer in some Asian countries and in those countries of the world where herbal tea is consumed as a routine. For example in China and Japan, people consume a lot of quantity of herbal tea daily, ranging from 3-4 cups in China to 8-9 cups in Japan. There are many types of natural herbal tea recipes. These countries consume herbal tea in hot as well as cold form and it has become a very popular beverage there. No wonder, these people are saved from cancer to a large extent.

So, keeping in view the information given above, you should make it a habit to drink 2-3 cups of herbal tea daily. Many varieties are readily available in the market. A word of caution here. In order to avoid high intake of sugar, you should sweeten your tea with natural sweeteners, which are also easily available in the market.