Humans have been steeping leaves in hot water for 500,000 years. Us Americans drank 79 billion servings of tea last year, amounting to 3.6 billions gallons in total.
So clearly, we're quite invested in the hot stuff--as is the freshly tea-pushing Starbucks--but what does it invest in us? New research into the relationship between nutrition and the brain is helping us to understand why tea time is such an essential part of the day--for the components of tea help us be more alert, more relaxed, and healthier over the long term.
Image Courtesy of zirconicusso / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
