Tea - after water - is the most widely consumed drink in the world, making the leaves and buds the most consumed herb in the world. It has a long and fascinating history, is deeply infused into the cultures within which it is drunk, and - numerous studies have shown in recent years - has remarkable health benefits.
The leaves and leaf buds of the Camellia Sinensis plant are considered one of the seven necessities of Chinese life. In the millennia since tea was discovered in China, much of the world has come to think the same way. After water, tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world - its consumption equaling all other manufactured drinks (including coffee, soft drinks and alcohol) combined.
In the last decade or two there has been an explosion in the tea health research that has so clearly demonstrated the benefits of tea drinking that it seems fair to call it the single healthiest drink availbale to us.
Recent studies have shown that drinking tea regularly can reduce the risk of coronary heart diesease by almost a third, protect the brain against Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, protect the eyes against oxidative stress, reduce the carcinogenic effect of smoking, reduce depression, promote healthy bones, gums and teeth, reduce the risk of breast cancer in younger women, reduce type 2 diabetes, increase arterial dilation and so on. These extraordinary health benefits are all thought to derive from the antioxidants tea contains. | 
