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Chai Tea Benefits
There is no doubt that ‘chai tea’ has created a buzz in the west, especially in the health industry. Everyone from health experts and gurus onwards are raving about the health benefits that come from drinking chai tea on a regular basis. In fact, it is toasted as a beverage much healthier than coffee and more and more people are switching to this drink. So, how much of the hoo-ha about chai tea is true?
The fact of the matter is that chai tea is a drink that dates back over 4000 years. While it may be a recent discovery in the west, it has been a favored drink in the Indian subcontinent for over 4 millennia. It was first mentioned in Ayurveda, the ancient medicinal text and has come to be referred as the ‘National drink’ of the country. What’s more is that all the benefits claimed in the ancient medicinal treatise are now proven my modern science.
Chai tea is essentially a combination of black tea leaves and a number of herbs and spices like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, black pepper, nutmeg, Chinese star anise, ginger and fennel. A little milk and sweetener is then added to it to dilute it, cut down the strong flavor of the spices and to sweeten it. The chai tea provides not just the benefits of tea, which re by now very well known, it also of all the herbs and spices that are added to it. The combination provides more health benefits than you can imagine.
To begin with, tea provides antioxidants to fight free radical activity in the body. It also helps to revitalize and refresh you. Cinnamon helps blood circulation and better breathing. Cardamom is a known to be a mood elevator and it also benefits the heart, the kidneys and the lungs. Cloves help relieve pain and have antiseptic properties. Black pepper helps fight cold, while Chinese star anise helps fight cough. Nutmeg improves digestion while ginger improves the immunity system. Fennel helps treat kidney and ocular problems as well as laryngitis. Cinnamon and cardamom are also considered to be aphrodisiacs.