People have been drinking some version of green tea for more than 500,000 years, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Green tea remains a popular beverage today, both for its mild, pleasant flavor and its many purported health benefits. To get maximum health benefits from your green tea, the Harvard Women's Health Watch recommends drinking two or three cups a day and adding a little milk or lemon to your tea if you drink it with a meal so that the tea doesn't interfere with your body's ability to absorb nutrients.
Improved Cholesterol
Drinking green tea can lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. The medical center reports that men who drank green tea had lower total cholesterol than men who didn't consume green tea, possibly because the polyphenols in green tea help move cholesterol more quickly out of the body so that less of it is absorbed. Because of the limited number of human studies, Medline Plus, the health information resource maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, reports that more research is needed before green tea can be recommended as a treatment for high cholesterol.
Better Cardiovascular Health
Medline Plus reports that early research suggests green tea may reduce your risk of heart disease, but the benefits can't be stated conclusively until further studies are conducted. Because green tea is rich in antioxidants, it may improve artery health and reduce your risk for atherosclerosis. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, your risk of heart attack may be reduced by as much as 11 percent if you drink three or more cups of tea -- green or black -- every day.
Protection Against Cancer
The Harvard Women's Health Watch reports that consumption of green tea is associated with reduced risk for several different kinds of cancer, including bladder cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, colorectal cancer, esophageal cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer and skin cancer. Most of the existing studies on the benefits of green tea in cancer prevention have been population-based rather than clinically based, so more research is needed to determine what the benefits of green tea for cancer prevention really are. The University of Maryland Medical Center theorizes that the polyphenols in green tea may help block and fight the cells that cause cancer.
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