Asian Spicy Recipes - Value of tea

If you are looking forward to spice up your life........then you have come to the right place!

Tea fights colds. Tea fights the flu. Tea fights cancer. Maybe it's time to switch from coffee to tea.

Drink five to six cups of tea a day--green or black, hot or iced--and you'll get a significant boost to your immune system that

will allow you to better fight off diseases from viruses to tumors, according to a new research study presented to the American

Chemical Society.

HealthDayNews reports that scientists from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital have conducted the

first study to link immunity with tea. A molecule that is in tea, as well as bacteria and parasites, activates certain components of the

immune system called gamma deltaT ymphocytes, which are very important as the first line of defense against infection and tumors.

The study: Dr. Jack F. Bukowski and his team assembled a group of volunteers who did not drink tea or coffee. They were

told to drink five to six cups of black tea infusion or instant coffee for either two weeks or four weeks. Blood samples were taken

to test the activity of the immune system against bacteria.

The results: The blood samples of the tea drinkers were five times better able to react against bacteria than the coffee drinkers by

making the protein interferon gamma, a molecule that fights bacteria, viruses, and tumors. Bukowski's next study will go one step further

and try to show how drinking tea can actually protect you from getting sick.

Bukowski cautions that tea can't be seen as a cure, but it could be viewed as a vitamin for the immune system.