Starting My Day With Black Tea

//Early Starts and Struggles//

Healthy living hasn’t been the easiest to achieve over the last few weeks. My sleeping pattern has slowly shifted but it has also been a great opportunity to build self-discipline while developing new lifestyle changes. One of the biggest concerns I’ve been trying to address is kick starting my day to boost productivity early on in the day. Waking up earlier has been a huge challenge and I’ve slowly been gravitating towards something similar to Mark Walberg’s 4am club. It’s not easy but when life is filled with opportunity, these lifestyle changes start to yield great benefits. Aside from the exercise journey, waking up and starting the day right has been key to building consistency. I’ve been slowly breaking down what helps me to feel healthier and productive and the introduction of various teas has been great boost over the last few weeks.

//Natural Boost//

Starting the day with elevated energy levels is highly beneficial for staying on task. I’ve yet to master the break of dawn exercise routine but a healthy beverage in the morning has made a world of difference. I am not a coffee person and try to steer away from copious amounts of caffeine in general. A friend of mine recommended trying out various teas to help things along. Aside from being a flavoursome way to hydrate, both black tea and green tea carry great health benefits. Black tea has great antioxidant properties and some caffeine to get the early boost in the morning that I need. Caffeine content in black tea is generally on the lower side in comparison to coffee while green teas sit in the middle on the caffeine scales.

//A Little Tea Chemistry//

Black tea contains micronutrients called polyphenols, these are a group of phytochemicals that are found in various fruits and plant based foods. Research shows that they have a strong link to prevention of degenerative health conditions, a great way to prevent heart related diseases, cancers and other neurodegenerative issues. There are numerous groupings of polyphenols that researchers have identified over the years, each with varying chemical properties and effects. A plethora of chemical identification techniques such as spectrometry and others have been used over the years. Antioxidant properties within black teas are an inherent result of plants trying to protect themselves from other living life forms. Polyphenols limit the production of free radicals in the body, thus reducing cell damage. Starting the day with a tea has been a great lifestyle change and digging into its science has been interesting, there is much more to talk about in the way of nutrition and science. Expect more as I learn along the way.

Sources
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257627/
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/black-tea-uses-and-risks