The Green Tea Diet

By Nicole Kwan

The varieties of tea are endless. Our guide recommends the best tea for you.

We know you love tea. But are you drinking it right? For the definitive word on tea-ology, we have to go back 13 centuries to a tract written by a Chinese scholar named Lu Yu. There's nothing in there about flavonoids or antioxidants, but one thing Lu Yu talked about, which has held true through the ensuing centuries, is that tea-drinking is, well, a state of mind.

Tranquility is central to the experience, Lu Yu insisted. Although few people have access to a slow-flowing mountain stream (his recommended source for water to brew the stuff) or use the 24 implements deemed necessary for the brewing process (Lu Yu might have had a little too much time on his hands), if you want to do tea right, you have to make the time: It's a sit-down-and-sip thing, not a grab-and-gulp thing. "There is a vast culture associated with tea. The Japanese tea ceremony, tea time in Britain. It's a calming moment," says Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., director of the antioxidants research laboratory at Tufts University in Boston.

It's a healthy thing, too. A February 2006 study from National Taiwan University in Taipei shows that tea can help people lose weight. Tea also has been shown to lower risk of heart disease, breast cancer, increase insulin activity, and slow the development of abnormal blood vessels on which tumors feed. But which types work best for what? Here's the right stuff to steep in your cup.  

White
Picked early, usually in spring, and air-dried. Uber-high levels of antioxidants. Might even be healthier than green tea: A 2004 study by biologists at Pace University showed that this variety inhibits bacteria that cause everything from staph infections to pneumonia to cavities.

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