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Turmeric Tea vs. Green Tea (Which is Better for You?)

Tea is a great source of antioxidants, phytochemicals, and other micronutrients that make them one of a kind. They taste awesome, have amazing aromas, and are packed with special properties, which is why they are considered among the top beverages for overall health.

Teas can assist in digestion, relieve constipation, reduce blood pressure, and alleviate hypertension. They make for a refreshing way to start your day, or a great digestive aid to sip on after a meal. (1) Asian culture has long since relied on the power of herbal teas and their digestive properties.

There has been research into this practice reducing inflammation in the GI tract, improving gut biome activity and longevity. Two natural superfoods, turmeric and green tea, offer a host of biological benefits that can boost bodily functions and wellbeing.

Let’s take a look at each of their properties and benefits to see which one comes out on top as the best tea for improved health, metabolism, and biological function.

Turmeric – Nature’s Anti-Inflammatory

Chronically high levels of inflammation in the body, especially in the GI tract and the blood can lead to a lot of health issues. These include a lowered immune response, exposing you to pathogens as well as neural and cardiovascular disease. Regular consumption of turmeric blocks COX-2, an enzyme produced by your body that’s responsible for inflammation response. (2)

The anti-inflammatory properties in turmeric have the ability to help reduce inflammation in the cartilage and joints of people suffering from arthritis. Turmeric also assists the body in healing disorders and injuries such as cuts and skin sores, while reducing the risk of infection. (3)

Turmeric for Digestive and Liver Health

Reducing inflammation in your GI tract has mostly to do with fixing your diet. Fibrous vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains are the foundations of an anti-inflammatory diet.

By reducing the inflammation in your gut, you increase the good micro-bacteria in your gut, known as biomes. These biomes are responsible for the assimilation of your food and keeping your metabolic function at optimum levels.

When you consume a diet high in processed foods and refined sugar, this creates a massive inflammatory response in your gut and kills off the good bacteria, resulting in negative health consequences such as bowel disease and blood sugar problems that lead to diabetes. (4)

Turmeric also assists the gallbladder, reducing the impact of heartburn and indigestion. It has preventative properties for keeping stomach ulcers and gall stones from forming.

The detoxifying power of turmeric has also been shown to support liver health, removing impurities and toxins and improving its efficiency to clear bile.

These benefits may sound like everything that you have been looking for in a tea, but before you brew your first batch, make sure you check in with your doctor to see if it will interact with any medications you may currently be taking. If you use any blood thinners or blood sugar management medication, turmeric may enhance its efficacy, leaving you with either limited clotting ability, or hypoglycaemia. (5)

Turmeric Tea for Healthy Brain Function

A build-up of plaque in the brain, called amyloids, has been linked to Alzheimer’s Disease.

Turmeric contains enzyme blockers that prevent the production of beta-amyloid. While this not be a complete cure for Alzheimer’s, it can help reduce the rate at which it develops in the brain. Turmeric may also contain properties that assist in preventing other neural diseases and disorders such as Parkinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis. (6)

Why Use Turmeric Tea?

As previously stated, turmeric tea is an inflammation fighter with remarkable antioxidant potential. It provides benefits to the GI Tract, the bloodstream, the joints and even in the brain.

There are plenty of other ingredients that you can add to your turmeric tea to enhance its taste and bioavailability. Let’s take a look at a few recipes for turmeric tea.

How to Make Turmeric Tea

Turmeric is a tasty spice to add to almost any dish, It amplifies the taste of your food and adds to the nutrition profile of your meal with its anti-inflammatory properties.

Not only is it great with food, it makes for a fantastic tea. To make your own turmeric tea, you can either buy you own teabags, or use a teapot with a filter.

Ingredients

Turmeric has a unique flavor and while it is quite tasty, we recommend you add to its taste and aroma by adding in a few enhancers.

Orange peel, lemongrass and cinnamon would make great additions to your homemade, healthy turmeric tea. (7)

A Note on Absorption

There is only one drawback about using turmeric. It isn’t absorbed very well by your body. Studies have shown that turmeric has incredibly poor absorption rates.

Most of it doesn’t bypass the liver, where it is used by the gut biomes and shuttled to your bloodstream to fuel metabolic function and reduce inflammation.

Fortunately, nature has provided a way. Black peppercorns are another spice with a powerful ingredient called piperine. Piperine has been studied and proven to assist turmeric absorption by up to 2000%.

Directions

Take a small mixing bowl and blend together 2 heaped teaspoons of turmeric powder with;

• A tablespoon of cinnamon powder, or three crushed sticks.
• 4 tablespoons of lemongrass tea.
• 15 ground peppercorns.
• A sprig of clove and a pinch of nutmeg for an added zing.

One tablespoon will equal one serving of turmeric tea, packed with powerful inflation beating compounds.

You can either make your own teabags, or simply use a filter strainer in a teapot to brew your tea, whatever is more convenient for you.

This tea should be best enjoyed with a moment to yourself to reflect on your body’s current state of well-being and your future health goals ahead.

Regular use of this tea in the mornings and the evenings can help with improved health from reduced inflammation and free radical damage on your system.

Take advantage of one of the most nutritious superfoods in existence with the power of turmeric tea in your diet. (8)

Green Tea – The Healthiest Beverage on Earth

Depending on your taste buds, green tea may or may not be the best flavored tea you have ever had the pleasure of drinking.

Western palettes do not seem to be accommodating to this powerful anti-oxidant tea but after a few cups, you may find yourself beginning to appreciate the refined flavors of authentic green tea.

We say authentic, because not all green tea is equal. Turmeric may be fairly well standardized but green tea is quite the opposite.

The best green tea is grown in Asian countries. China, Japan and Taiwan are all well known for their green tea production, the quality of the teas flavor, and the levels of its beneficial health properties.In Asian culture, green tea has ceremonial value and is a key centerpiece of cultural rituals. (9)

The point we are trying to make with all of this is this: green tea that you buy in vacuum sealed bags of loose tea leaves, with Mandarin characters and pretty colors emblazoned on their packaged is the way to go.

Green teabags in boxes that look highly commercialized are far from the quality of green tea that you should be taking if you want to reap the benefits of this amazing beverage. Their products and farming methods are a far cry from those found in Asian countries.

Invest in some quality green tea that can give you the health boost that you have been searching for, or find some in specialty health food stores.

Green Tea Catechins

The secret of green teas powerful antioxidant properties are the polyphenols EGCG, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, a catechin that has been studied relentlessly by science for its advantages in a wide range of areas in human health. (10)

Green tea is not fermented, so the polyphenols and active enzymes in them are more readily bioavailable and easily absorbed by your system.

For best results, have a cup in the morning before you break your fasted state and another cup in the afternoon and evening with lunch and dinner to aid digestion.

Although green tea may contain a natural source of caffeine, they polyphenols aid in a sustained release that does not have the sharp energy boost that coffee drinkers would usually expect. With this in mind, we still wouldn’t recommend you drinking it too close to your bedtime if you are sensitive to caffeine stimulants.

Green Tea for Diabetes and Weight Management

If you are already eating a clean diet that is rich in quality nutrients and reduced inflammatory effects, then green tea can be just the thing you need to enhance fat-burning. (11)

The polyphenol EGCG assists in fat mobilization and oxidation, which can contribute to long-term weight management.

The same polyphenols that lower your blood sugar levels and scavenge free radicals from your body can also enhance insulin resistance. This is important for pre-diabetic and diabetic patients who are on blood sugar maintenance medications.

Green Tea for Cardiovascular Health

ECGC works to improve the lining of the blood cells, making them resistant to changes in blood pressure and preventing the formation of clots in the arteries. Green tea keeps the arteries and blood vessels supple even as you get older, which will reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke when combined with a healthy diet and exercise.

Green Tea for Cancer Prevention

Studies in patients with esophageal cancer have shown that EGCG polyphenols also go to work in minimizing the spread of cancer cells and targeting cancer cells for cell death without damaging healthy cells. (12)

In the human diet, tea is said to be the single best source of catechins. Green tea is superior to other forms of tea such as oolong tea or black tea because it contains almost three times more catechins, which can slow the rate of development of certain cancers in the prostate, breast, liver, and colon. Regular consumption of green tea has also been linked to lower risk of pancreatic, bladder, liver, colon, and stomach cancers in Asian countries.

Green Tea for Good Cholesterol and Blood Pressure Regulation

There are two kinds of cholesterol profiles floating around in your blood stream. These lipids are HDL and LDL.

LDL is the ‘bad’ cholesterol that we have all heard is responsible for heart disease such as arthrosclerosis, a scaring of the artery walls which can lead to heart attacks. Green tea polyphenols do not allow these lipids to attach to the walls of the artery, keeping everything running smoothly.

On the other hand, regular consumption of the polyphenols in green tea helps to regulate your blood pressure and keep it at a healthy level.

Hypertension has been linked to enlargement of the left ventricle of the heart, which exposes the heart to cardiac myopathy, otherwise known as heart attack. Green tea helps to alleviate hypertension and keep your stress levels in check.

How to Make Green Tea

To get the most out of your green tea consumption, we recommend that you try and stomach as strong a brew as you can handle, in order to get the most benefit from the polyphenols.

Drinking the tea also has a cleansing effect on your liver and kidneys, flushing them out and keeping them healthy. If you are someone that cannot handle drinking a lot of fluids, then try out a green tea extract supplement.

If the taste really does bother you when you start drinking it, try blending it with some peppermint leaves or adding in some fresh squeezed lemon juice the assist your taste buds in coping with the bitter flavor.

The way that you brew your green tea determines its strength and taste. If you have ever tried green tea and found it to be bitter, then you might just need to try a better brew!

Choosing the Right Green Tea Leaves

Green tea comes in varieties that have different tastes and colors, each with their own unique strength of polyphenols.

The darker the tea, the richer and stronger the flavour. These darker green teas are also said to hold more polyphenols. There are also lighter colored teas which have a refreshing taste. These teas are easy to drink and great for newbies finding their taste buds with green tea.

Ask your local tea merchant for their opinions and speak to them about your tastes, finding the right leaves for the brew is the most important part of the brewing process.

As a general guide for dosage, we suggest 3 grams of crushed leaf per 200ml of water for best results.

The Water

The water that you use in your brew is as important as the tea. Try to avoid tap water, as it contains heavy metals and minerals that can make water ‘hard’. Hard water has negative health benefits and should be avoided. Instead, use filtered water that has preferably been through the process of preparation through reverse osmosis.

The temperature of the water is also a critical component of the perfect brew. Water that is heated too low will not pull all of the flavors into the tea. If it is to hot, it may taste bitter and burned.

Directions

The optimal temperature for green tea brewing is 160 to 170 Fahrenheit. Adding fresh boiled water to your tea leaves will actually harm the polyphenols and prevent their effective absorption by the body.

Steep the leaves for 1-2 minutes. Have a small taste after two or three minutes. Remove the leaves and drink the tea. If you find that you can handle the flavor, steep the leaves longer.

The longer you leave the leaves to steep, the darker and more bitter the tea will become. The exact amount of time will depend on the particular tea and personal preference. Small leaves generally infuse more quickly than large leaves. You may wish to taste the tea at the one-minute mark and then every 30 seconds thereafter.

For best results in making the perfect cup of green tea, make sure that you use a infuser or strainer for the steeping process. This stops any leaf dust from getting into the tea and keeps your tea clear and clean from debris.

Which is Better for You, Turmeric Tea or Green Tea?

Now that we have thoroughly laid out the benefits of both of these types of tea, you should have a better idea of which is better for you.

With both being advantageous for fighting inflammation and free radical damage, the best course of action would be to include them both into your daily or weekly regimen. If you had to choose only one, green tea has a slight edge over turmeric since it is less processed. Turmeric on the other hand, is rarely found in its root form, so you would still have to find piperine or black peppercorns to boost its bioavailability.

Try It Out!

For best results, try them both out and log your physical results. Take note of your measurements, feelings, and mood. Also, take note of the price since you want to sustain good lifestyle practices in the long-term. Finding a product that fits your budget is important so that you can maintain your routine to reap the benefits of whichever tea you choose.