Hi everybody this is Monica Reinagal and you're listening to the nutrition

diva quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous. Today's show is

about tea and why it's supposed to be so good for you.

I've accumulated a small stack of listener questions about tea and green tea in particular.

Tori wants to know about the antioxidants it contains.

Garrison wants to know if it can help you lose weight.

And Martin is wondering whether it matters if the tea is loose leaf,

in teabags, pre-made in bottles, or in pale form.

We commonly refer to any beverage that's made by steeping leaves, flowers, roots, or bark in water

as tea.

There are literally thousands of things you can brew this way,

everything from camamile to licorice root to rose hips to mint leaves,

but strictly speaking, it's only tea if it's made from the leaves of a plant

known as Camellia synenses.

Everything else is properly called a Tisane.

Now, herbal Tisanes have a wide range of health benefits,

but today we'll focus on the benefits of the Camellia

synenses, or tea plant. Tea is actually a type of evergreen shrub or tree

that grows in tropical and subtropical climates.

When the leaves or the needles are very young and immature,

they can be collected and dried as white tea.

Later in the season, once they've greened up a bit,

...