(Professor Zhao Lin, Nutrition Researcher, PLA General Hospital)
Tea is one of the three natural drinks in the world today. At present, the most popular drinks in the world include tea, coffee, cocoa, beer, wine and fruit juice. China is the hometown of tea, and green tea is the healthiest drink for human beings! The earliest wild tea tree in the world grew in the mountainous areas of Yunnan Province, and then spread to the mainland through Sichuan and Qinling Mountains, and then spread to all parts of the world through India.
More than 4700 years ago, there was a legend that "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, and when he encountered 72 poisons every day, he got tea (tea) to solve it". It shows that the sages of the Chinese nation knew the detoxification function of tea at that time. From this, we can see that the ancients in China have attached importance to the health care function of food.
Looking back on the history of tea development in China, we can find that China, as the earliest country in the world, has a very long history of drinking tea. "Tea is a drink, which originated in Shennong and was heard in Duke Zhou of Lu" is an ancient portrayal of the history of Chinese tea drinking. The book Huainanzi records: "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, and the water spring was sweet and bitter, which made the people know and avoid it. If you encounter 72 poisons a day, you can get tea (tea) to solve it. " It can be seen that the medicinal properties of tea are outstanding. Because of the record that "ancient Shennong tasted a hundred herbs", everyone had a lot of awe of tea, so tea did not enter the homes of ordinary people at that time, but was included in Shennong Herbal Classic.
There are as many as 500 kinds of tea in China. It is the most complete in the world, divided into six categories: green tea, yellow tea, black tea, green tea (oolong tea), black tea and white tea. Among them, oolong tea, white tea, yellow tea and black tea are unique to China.
As a kind of herbal medicine, green tea was recorded in the first Pharmacopoeia of China and Shennong Herbal Classic of Han Dynasty. Chen Zangqi, a great doctor in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in the book Herbal Supplement (6 18-907): "All kinds of medicines are the medicine for all diseases, and tea is the medicine for all diseases", which shows the outstanding medicinal effect of tea. After that, Lu Yu wrote the Book of Tea, and tea gradually became a natural drink widely consumed by the Chinese nation-one of the "seven things to open the door" in China people's home life.
Tea Classic is the earliest pharmaceutical monograph of mankind. The Book of Tea Classics has 3 volumes and more than 7,000 words. The origin, characteristics, name, quality, planting method and health care effect of tea are all described in the book One Source. "The second tool" introduces the tools for picking and making tea. "San Chuang" discusses the processing methods and types of tea; This volume is called "Four Appliances" and lists about 20 kinds of cooking and drinking utensils. Tea brewing methods and water quality grades are discussed under the "Five Boiling" volume. Liuyin introduces the customs and ways of drinking tea. "Seven Things" narrates anecdotes about tea in ancient literature; "Eight Fruits" explains the real estate tea areas in China (at that time, there were 8 tea-producing 33 states in China 10) and the quality of tea; The "Nine Outline" points out under what circumstances tea sets and tea sets can be omitted; Ten pictures teach people how to copy the contents of the Tea Classic in silk to facilitate hanging, display and publicity. And "a cup of tea, make great efforts" has become an idiom to encourage people to work hard.
Li Shizhen, a great medical master in Ming Dynasty, highly summarized the health care function of dietary nutrition. He said: "dieters are the lifeblood of people."
Green tea is a high-quality alkaline drink. As we all know, the pH value of our human body is 7.35 ~ 7.45. During the SARS period in Beijing, there was a "poison king", that is, his pH value deviated to 7.2, which became a good culture medium for viruses, so he could spread the SARS virus to others. Why did it say in ancient times that "you often ascend to the throne and gradually enter the ancestral temple"? That is to say, eating enough and eating chicken, duck and fish will lead to acidic constitution and terminal illness. Because tea is an alkaline drink, it can naturally help you keep healthy.
At the same time, drinking tea has obvious hangover relieving effect. The content of vitamin C in tea is the highest, especially in high-quality green tea, which is mostly above 200 mg/ 100 g tea. According to the daily vitamin C requirement of 60 mg for adults, a person can meet his physiological needs by drinking 3 ~ 4 cups of tea every day under a normal diet. Vitamin B2 is the most easily deficient in diet, but the content in tea is quite rich, which is 20 times higher than that in rice and melons. Tea contains more than 40 kinds of minerals, among which the content of potassium is the highest, which is roughly equivalent to that of seafood-kelp and laver. Adults drink five cups of tea every day, and the intake of manganese, potassium, tin and zinc is equivalent to 45%, 25%, 25% and 10% of the human body's requirements respectively.
"Healthy drinking" is very important. Eating and drinking is human survival instinct. Nowadays, people with a little common sense know that they should adjust their diet according to their own situation. "Eating healthily" has become common sense. From nutrition experts to housewives, they all pay attention to matching various healthy recipes-lowering blood pressure, regulating blood lipid, preventing obesity and nourishing qi and blood. But "healthy drinking" has not attracted people's attention. As we all know, Americans drink fat, so we should know that the calories in drinks will also increase weight. If we ignore this, we will pay the price of sacrificing our health!