Recently I have been researching some alternative crops to trial at Daramalan to try and diversify a little. We don’t have enough land or the perfect climate to plant wheat or barley commercially so have been looking in left field as it were. We will plant Lucerne in the River paddock for finishing the sheep and will continue with Graza oats and turnips in the eastern boundary paddocks.
One obvious contender is garlic and more on that later. Others are in the alternative grains – amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa, particularly if they are grown organically. Finally, the drink of many nations - tea. We are perhaps too far south for commercial production yields but at 800 metres above sea level it is possible to grow enough for ourselves and some left over. There are viable producers on the NSW Central coast where conditions are similar to the Shizuoka region in Japan.
Tea, Camellia sinensis, is full of antioxidants, cancer busting polyphenols and metabolism boosting agents. Tea can help to promote health, fight stress, lose weight and prevent ageing.
Daily cups of tea can help you recover more quickly from the stresses of everyday life, according to a study by UCL (University College London) researchers, which found that people who drank tea were able to de-stress more quickly than those who drank a fake tea substitute. The tea drinkers were found to have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood after a stressful event, compared with a control group who drank the fake or placebo tea for the same period of time.
Both groups were subjected to challenging tasks, while their cortisol, blood pressure, blood platelet and self-rated levels of stress were measured. In one task, volunteers were exposed to one of three stressful situations (threat of unemployment, a shop lifting accusation or an incident in a nursing home), where they had to prepare a verbal response and argue their case in front of a camera.
The tasks triggered substantial increases in blood pressure, heart rate and subjective stress ratings in both of the groups. In other words, similar stress levels were induced in both groups. However, 50 minutes after the task, cortisol levels had dropped by an average of 47 per cent in the tea-drinking group compared with 27 per cent in the fake tea group.
UCL researchers also found that blood platelet activation – linked to blood clotting and the risk of heart attacks – was lower in the tea drinkers, and that this group reported a greater degree of relaxation in the recovery period after the task.
Professor Andrew Steptoe, UCL Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, says: “We do not know what ingredients of tea were responsible for these effects on stress recovery and relaxation. Tea is chemically very complex, with many different ingredients. Ingredients such as catechins, polyphenols, flavonoids and amino acids have been found to have effects on neurotransmitters in the brain, but we cannot tell from this research which ones produced the differences.
“Nevertheless, our study suggests that drinking black tea may speed up our recovery from the daily stresses in life. Although it does not appear to reduce the actual levels of stress we experience, tea does seem to have a greater effect in bringing stress hormone levels back to normal. This has important health implications, because slow recovery following acute stress has been associated with a greater risk of chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease.”
Black tea is good, green tea better and white tea best of all. A Chinese herb, jiao gu lau, is also said to promote longevity and help lose weight. Another Chinese brew, kombochu, made from fermented sweetened black and green tea is packed with antioxidants and is a great detox tea. Herbal teas like chamomile, lemon balm, dandelion, peppermint, rosehip, ginseng and rooibos can all help distress and enhance sleep.
Whatever your brew a regular intake will help. I’ll just go and pick some leaves from the house paddock while you put the kettle on..
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