If you have high cholesterol, you may have been prescribed medication. As with all medications, they don't necessarily solve the problem at the source and may have other side effects. We have found that customers have been able to get off pills by carefully controlling their diet and infusing their liquid intake with tea. But what teas are the most effective and how much should you drink?
Green Tea for Cholesterol
Green tea comes from the same plant as black tea, white tea, and oolong tea. The only difference between the various teas is the process they go through, specifically oxidation. Green tea is not allowed to oxidize, which gives it it's green appearance and also has some unique health properties.
Green tea is loaded with antioxidants. One antioxidant group, catechins - is proving to be effective at reducing cholesterol.Basically, catenins stop dietary cholesterol from being absorbed into your body via your intestines, stop your body from demanding the production of more LDL cholesterol, reduce the overall levels of LDL cholesterol in your body, and raise the good HDL cholesterol - which in turn gets rid of the bad LDL cholesterol.
Pu-Erh Tea for Cholesterol
Pu-Erh tea is another one that can help to lower cholesterol levels, because of it's unique secondary fermentation. Pu-erh undergoes an aging period where bacteria are allowed to change the teas chemical properties, effectively turning it into a new type of tea. A study conducted on rats, comparing a control group and a group fed pu-erh tea leaves found that the pu’er tea-fed rats gained less weight, and had lower levels of triglycerides and total cholesterol than the control group. This is because pu-erh tea suppresses fatty acid synthase expression in the rat’s liver.
How much tea do I need to drink?
Studies vary between 1 cup to 10 cups a day. We've found that the sweet spot is about 6 cups a day. In tea terms 1 cup = 6 ounces. A small pot in the morning and in the afternoon it all you need. There are even Pu-erhs with coffee blended in! You can even add a shot of espresso to Pu-erh tea. Green tea is lighter, and ideal as an afternoon quencher. Either hot, or iced - you'll still get the same benefits. Both teas contain caffeine and boost metabolism, so they are not recommended before bed.
References
Oncology Research Featuring Preclinical and Clinical Cancer Therapeutics.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20641056
http://cholesterol.about.com/od/cholesterolloweringfoods/a/tea.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/026747_tea_Pu-erh_cholesterol.html