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To finish up with it, you might consider the joke you are going to read quite
enjoyable.
I didn’t realize the impact our new computer was having on our children until
one evening when we were gathered around a campfire. As a slight breeze made
the glowing coals shimmer and change colors, my son walked in circles to watch
them from all angles. “Wow, Dad,” he said. “Neat graphics!”
What is your attitude towards tea? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Can you do
without it? And what do you know about tea? I suggest you read the following
article and possibly you will clear up your point of view on it.
TEA - IT’S JUST THE CURE
A Chinese sage once observed,” Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world.” It
is true, because tea is the world’s most widely consumed beverage, next to
water, with an estimated one billion cups drunk daily.
In countless cultures throughout history tea has been regarded as a
medical wonder. Over a thousand years ago Buddhist monks drank tea for
religious reasons – to help them stay awake during the meditation. This effect
we now know is caused by caffeine; tea has roughly half the caffeine of coffee.
The monks also believed tea had curative powers, and as Buddhism
spread, so did tea – and the claims for it. The Dutch brought tea from China to
Europe in the 17
th
century, where it was sold at apothecary shops, the
forerunners of today’s pharmacies. Tea drinkers are “exempt from all maladies
and reach an extreme old age,” enthused Dutch physician Nikolas Tulp in his
book in 1641.
There were detractors: a German physician claimed that tea hastened the
death of those over 40. In England the physician to George III warned that tea
drove people crazy. In the 18
th
century fashion triumphed over medical debate
when England’s Queen Ann chose tea over ale as her regular breakfast drink. Its
popularity with women was boosted by the fact that tea shops admitted women
while coffee houses did not.
For a time tea drinking was abandoned in Colonial America. When the
British imposed taxes on tea Colonists protested by requiring a permit to buy tea
– even for medical purposes – in some communities.
How Tea helps. One way the brew saved lives in the past is that boiling
water kills disease-carrying bacteria. Now researchers are investigating what’s
behind the other health-giving properties as well. It appears that the components
in tea help reduce the risk of a number of major chronic diseases, such as stroke,
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