Introduction
Health is one of the major concerns of people all over the world. Individuals and governments dedicate a significant portion of resources to preventing and fighting diseases that threaten to mitigate the health and well being of a person. What if there was a way to increase the chances of achieving positive health outcome while at the same time enjoying yourself? Such a proposition is appealing to many people who wish to enjoy good health without dedicating too much time or financial resources to the project.
Some of the solutions for achieving good health include sticking to diets designed to optimize health or consuming exotic products that are said to have health benefits. These solutions require a lot of effort from the individual and they may be expensive. Luckily, there is an option that promises to deliver health benefits to a person at a minimal cost and without any special effort. This solution is tea.
Humans have known about the health effects of tea for thousands of years. Yongping and Fenwick reveal that as early as 3000BC, the Chinese were using tea as a medicinal drink (193). It is well established that tea contains some chemicals that give it medicinal values. The drink has an attractive aroma and a good taste making it popular all over the world. From personal experience with family and friends, I understand that regular consumption of tea can play a curative and preventative health role.
Recently, many cafes and tea shops all over the country have started promoting tea as a beverage with medicinal value. However, most of the claims made by the tea promoters are unsubstantiated by research and often false. For example, there are instances where tea is promoted as a weight loss product or an alternative to conventional medicine.
As a tea enthusiast, I am aware of the various health benefits and limitations of tea consumption. This is therefore an appropriate research topic for my paper because it I have a personal interest in the beverage and it is popular all over the world. In addition to this, there is an abundance of information on the topic making it easy to determine the truth of the health effects of tea.
Personal Significance
I have a strong interest in the topic because there is a history of cardiovascular diseases in my family. Naturally, I would like to look for ways to prevent these life threatening diseases from afflicting me or the people that I love. I am motivated to discover solutions that are not only low cost but can be easily integrated into the daily life of an individual. My research will help me better understand the effects that consumption of tea has in mitigating the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases.
There are many different types of tea available in the market today. Yongping and Fenwick reveal that there are hundreds of teas in production and they fall under different categories (193). The composition of the different teas varies significantly according to species, season, age of the leaf and climate. This suggests that the health effects of tea will vary depending on the particular type of tea being consumed. As a tea enthusiast, I have been exposed to a wide variety of teas.
It would be beneficial for me to discover the particular teas that have the greatest health benefits. Through my research, I will be able to review the properties of the different teas and therefore positively identify the most health beneficial tea. I will be able to share this information with my family and friends therefore ensuring that they are able to derive the most benefit from tea consumption.
Another reason why this topic interests me is because I would like to discover ways of reduce the financial burden of diseases in the country. Many people agree that part of the reason why health care costs are high is because most people rely on curative health care services instead of working to prevent diseases.
However, research shows that preventative care is cheaper and more beneficial. Studying research on the health benefits of tea is therefore important to me because I believe that preventative healthcare is better than curative health care services. Preventative strategies have the potential to significantly reduce the mortality and costs associated with the healthcare industry. Some of the diseases that tea protects the individual against are life threatening and very expensive to cure.
By adopting preventative care, people can mitigate the occurrence of these illnesses which include cardiovascular diseases and cancers. By doing this, the enormous costs needed to treat the individual in hospital after succumbing to the disease and the consequential outpatient costs can be avoided. This will lead to significant financial savings by the person.
Finally, this topic best suits me since I am something of a tea enthusiast. While coffee is the drink of choice for many of my peers, I prefer tea. Even before I know of the pharmaceutical activities of tea, I enjoyed this drink due to its attractive aroma and good taste. Over the years, I have sampled many flavors of tea cultivated from different regions of the world including Southeast Asia, Central Africa and South America.
Once I became aware of the health benefits of tea, I was even more drawn to it. Carrying out research on a beverage that interests me will be a hugely satisfying activity. I will be passionate about my work and will find real life applications for the information that my research produces. In addition to this, the research will provide me with solid facts which I will use to convince more people to start consuming tea.
Broader Significance
This topic’s significance goes far beyond my personal interest. The subject of tea and health is of importance to the global community. The demand for health care services is on the rise and more people are afflicted by diseases that can be prevented or cured by tea each year. As it currently stands, tea is already a very popular drink. Yashin and Boris declare that more than 4 billion people in the world drink tea today (226).
However, most of these consumers are unaware of the health benefits of specific types of tea. They therefore miss out on the opportunity to improve their health by consuming their beverage of choice. By being aware of the potency of specific tea varieties, consumers can benefit from tea consumption. Yashin and Boris confirm that among the different types of tea, green tea has the most potent health improving effects (226).
Studies confirm that green tea catechins reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancers due to their high antioxidant activities (Ruxton 287). This topic will have broad significance by bringing about greater awareness of the health effects of various tea species. It will help dispense of the wrong information given to people by unscrupulous tea merchants.
This is a very opportune time to engage in an in-depth research on the health benefits of tea for a number of reasons. To begin with, the cost of healthcare services is very high making it unaffordable to many people. Diseases are imposing a significant financial burden on individuals and the nation as a whole. A solution that promises to prevent or even cure certain illnesses at a reduced cost is welcome.
Through its medicinal properties, tea proposes to do this hence having a positive impact on the nation by reducing the financial cost of diseases. This is also a good time to increase the popularity of tea among US citizens.
While tea is a popular drink all over the world, its consumption levels in the US are not impressive. Coffee, which does not have medicinal values, is a far more popular beverage among Americans. This research will help popularize tea to a population that does not currently appreciate the many benefits that this drink has on health.
Researchability
Before delving into a topic, it is important to ensure that there is adequate information available for an in-depth analysis of the subject to be undertaken. I have taken care to ensure that there is a wide range of information on my topic from credible sources. Even before I carried out a preliminary search on the topic, I was confident that I would find good sources since the topic of tea and health has been popular for years. Typing in “tea and health” in a search engine produced millions of hits.
This confirmed my previous premise that this subject is popular and a lot has been written on the topic. There were entire books dedicated to the subject of tea and its many health benefits. The book “Phytochemicals in Health and Disease” by Yongping Bao and Roger Fenwick provided a good preliminary review of tea and its health impacts. The authors highlighted the various chemicals available in tea and how they react to bring about pharmaceutical effects.
In addition to this, I found Journal articles that discuss the beneficial effects of tea on human health. These articles expound on the studies that have been carried out to discover the bioactive compounds found in tea and how they react to being about health benefits (Ruxton 287). I have collected a number of journal articles and I am sure that they will be of invaluable use when coming up with the final research paper on the topic.
Conclusion
I am very excited about the prospects of carrying out research on the health benefits of tea. In addition to being a tea enthusiast, I have a vested interest in acquiring in-depth knowledge on the health benefits of tea. I have already confirmed that there is adequate and credible information available to make it possible for me to write a good research paper.
Going though these sources as I work on the assignment will be a very fulfilling endeavor for me. I have some knowledge gaps on the subject and I am convinced that this assignment will ensure that I am not only fully informed but that I can pass on the information to others. I look forward to beginning my research on this topic and I am convinced that it is the best topic for this assignment.
Works Cited
Ruxton, Charles. “Emerging evidence for tea benefits.” Nutrition Bulletin 38.3 (2013): 287-301.
Yashin, Aleksander and Nemzer Boris. “Beneficial Effect of Tea on Human Health.” American Journal of Biomedical Sciences 5.4 (2013): 226-241. Web.
Yongping, Bao and Roger Fenwick. Phytochemicals in Health and Disease. NY: CRC Press, 2004. Print.