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For some time now there has been an ongoing debate about the merits, or otherwise, of drinking Green Tea. Chinese and Japanese cultures have put great faith in the healing, protective and life-lengthening powers of the various versions of Green Tea, and many recent western scientific studies have come to the same conclusions about the health giving properties of the brew.

I do, however, believe that the Western World misses the point when it comes to its health requirements and Green Tea.

Our modern civilisation calls for instant answers to its problems. It needs a pill for everything. The benefits derived from Green Tea, however, are got by long term usage where the various health giving properties can build up over a period of time and become a great asset to the body and its defence mechanisms.

The benefit of Green Tea is typically felt in those who drink upwards of five cups per day to subsequently build a level of antioxidants in their body to defend it against free radicals. Free radicals damage cells in the body by interfering with their atomic structure so the cells cannot replicate in a healthy manner. We are unable to get away from these free radicals as they are everywhere around us. In sunlight in food and in the air we breathe. It therefore makes good sense to try and build up a natural immunity to their effects.

A minor effect of free radicals at work is skin ageing, a major effect of free radicals at work is cancer.

The point I make is that if you drink Green Tea daily you will, no doubt, go a long way towards protecting yourself from a whole range of ailments, but the process is one of time and consistency.

For Green Tea to be of benefit to the body it needs to be ingested in amounts of at least the aforementioned 5 cups daily, and this needs to happen over a period of many years. Nobody is going to be diagnosed with a serious illness today, drink a few cups of Green Tea tonight and be cured tomorrow.

Our society needs to look at the overall picture when it comes to the culture of tea drinking. The slow brewing of the tea, the regular stopping to taste the tea, the social gathering around the brewing which means quality time spent together, and then just look at how all of this compares with the frenzy in which we live our lives today.

Green Tea is just one of natures' helping hands which will give us the chance to live fuller, healthier, happier lives if we give it a chance, and just as nature took a long time to develop these marvellous remedies, we need to give them the time and space to do their work.

Mike Linder