During the dreaded smoggy days, many Tea enthusiasts wonder whether Drinking Tea can protect the skin and help fight against smog. We commonly know that drinking tea is good for health, but we often overlook the many other uses of tea.
Attentive tea lovers might notice: on supermarket shelves, there are skincare products like Green Tea facial cleansers, whitening creams, shampoos, white tea face masks, and so on. What does this indicate? The use of tea in skincare, beauty, and cosmetics, where some components are directly absorbed by the skin.
Which components in tea are so effective for the skin?
What are some clever tips?
⊙Tea Contains Natural Skincare Components
Tea can be made into skincare and beauty products that give a rosy complexion and delay aging. Extracting polyphenols from tea can prevent UV damage to the skin, and these polyphenols also reduce the formation of melanin, thus having a skin-whitening effect.
The antioxidant and free-radical scavenging properties of tea polyphenols further enhance the function of delaying skin aging and reducing wrinkle formation. Therefore, the antioxidants in tea can effectively combat skin cell oxidation, thereby slowing down the aging process and improving overall health and appearance.
Tea is rich in vitamins, amino acids, and tea polyphenols, which are effective in clearing free radicals, delaying aging, and aiding weight loss. These components, when applied to the skin, act as natural beautifying agents. In the rainy and verdant spring and summer seasons, young tea shoots contain abundant epidermal growth factors that can accelerate basal layer metabolism and promote new cell growth.
⊙Highly Effective Cleansing and Oil Balancing
Cosmetics containing green tea extracts can efficiently remove impurities from the skin, restoring its radiance. For those with oily skin, when sebaceous glands become overstimulated, they can block pores with excess oil, which then oxidizes and turns black. The antioxidant properties of tea polyphenols in green tea can better address issues related to excess oil.
Additionally, the amino acids, minerals, and especially the moisturizing and hydrating theanine found in green tea significantly improve skin hydration. Choosing sunscreens containing green tea extracts during the summer is refreshing and non-greasy, helping to soothe and regulate the skin. The plant-based molecules are lightweight and skin-friendly.
⊙Antibacterial, Anti-inflammatory, and Metabolism Boosting
Tea itself has cooling, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial effects. Tea extracts can resist radiation, reduce pigment deposition, and keep the skin naturally healthy.
Tea tree oil can be used in soaps, face creams, and moisturizers! It effectively controls oil secretion, unclogs pores, and prevents acne recurrence. Applying tea tree oil in a face mask is suitable for treating oily and enlarged-pore skin.
⊙Antioxidants, Anti-wrinkle Properties, and Impressive Nutrients in Tea
Today, we particularly emphasize catechins and theaflavins, which are abundant in green and Black Tea and have significant anti-aging effects.
In 1950, Japanese scholar Yajiro Sakato isolated this magical substance from green tea and named it theanine. Besides giving tea its fresh taste, theanine has many physiological functions, the most notable being the elimination of free radicals, antioxidation, and anti-aging.
The core component of tea polyphenols, catechin, contains a substance called EGCG, which can clear free radicals. Its antioxidant capacity is 25 times that of vitamin E and over 100 times that of vitamin C. Its antioxidant and anti-aging effects far exceed those of these vitamins.
Research shows that the content of tea polyphenols in green tea is significantly higher than in other types of tea, making green tea more effective in combating aging. An interesting scientific experiment demonstrated that drinking two cups (300 ml) of green tea has an antioxidant effect equivalent to 12 cups of white wine, five onions, four apples, seven cups of orange juice, 525 grams of blackcurrants, and one and a half cups of red wine.
The main culprit behind aging is free radicals, and the nutrients in tea can help us eliminate them, reducing their various harmful effects on the body, achieving the effect of delaying aging.
Scientific research has also discovered that flavonoids in tea, especially in black tea, have significant anti-wrinkle effects. So, if you want smoother skin and fewer wrinkles, choose to drink more tea!
⊙Mental Enjoyment and Eternal Youth
Drinking tea is not just about its benefits; more importantly, it's about calming the mind, reflecting, and contemplating life. Today's world is too prosperous, and people are often restless. When faced with minor annoyances, it's difficult to remain calm. In such situations, brewing a pot of good tea and quietly savoring its essence can help. As the tea fragrance enters your mouth, the originally agitated heart gradually becomes calm, pure, and stable, and thoughts become clearer.
Through the baptism of tea, people gain mental enjoyment, have a better temperament, and while youthful looks cannot last forever, the elegance gained through life's experiences is truly valuable and beautiful.
⊙Using Tea Aroma to Replace Body Toxins
The aroma of tea is clean. When we inhale the tea fragrance deeply, we can use it to replace toxins within our bodies.
The harm caused by smog to the human body mainly includes: inducing respiratory diseases, triggering cardiovascular diseases, increasing cancer risk, causing various bacterial diseases, and inducing excessive negative emotions.
In addition to wearing masks outdoors, eating light meals, consuming more vegetables, and eating pears during smoggy weather, drinking tea can also mitigate the harm caused by smog. Drinking tea can improve and regulate the negative impact of different climatic factors on human health. Specifically, see:
“Compendium of Materia Medica” records
“Tea is bitter and cold, entering the lungs. Drinking it warm allows heat to descend due to the coldness, while drinking it hot uses the warmth to disperse the heat. It has the effects of soothing the throat and moistening the lungs!”
Because tea is