[photo source and place to order gourmet Flavored Rooibos Teas]
A year ago, after I “deep dived” into Rooibos (a.k.a., South African Red Tea), Green Tea was immediately “fired” from my regiment, to make way for “The New Superfood Kid on the Block”.
Not only because Green Tea has caffeine and Rooibos is caffeine free, but when comparing the nutrient profiles of Rooibos vs. Green Tea, I found that Rooibos blows green tea away……
Rooibos Tea: The Quick, nutrition science, Bla-Bla-Bla….
Rooibos Tea is unique in that, it does not come from the plant Camelia sinensis like most teas, but from the plant of botanical name Aspalathus linearis, which grows primarily in South Africa.
Rooibos tea contains flavonoids which act as antioxidants, similar to the flavonoids in green tea. In fact, one laboratory study found that aspalathin, a flavonoid in rooibos, is even more effective at scavenging damaging free radicals than epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) from green tea.
Rooibos Tea: A little more, nutrition science, Bla-Bla-Bla….
An animal study also showed that rats given rooibos tea had higher superoxide dismutase (SOD—a protein that neutralizes free radicals) levels in their blood than those not fed the tea, and they also had less DNA damage.
The study also indicated that rooibos tea had an anti-inflammatory effect. Another plus to Rooibos Tea is that, unlike Green Tea, Rooibos is Caffeine free!!!.
[photo source and more Rooibos Tea benefits info]
Rooibos Tea: Beauty and Brains…
Rooibos is “slowly” starting to gain traction as an EXTREMELY nutrient dense “Brain Food”. So far as beauty, because of its high flavonoid content, rooibos is a powerful anti-aging ingredient for
Rooibos DIY Beauty Recipes and formulas.
Since much of skin aging is caused by environmental stressors, rooibos’ abilities help to protect skin and maintain a more youthful look. Rooibos is also known to be helpful for sensitive skin. Rooibos is a source of vitamin D and zinc, and has been shown to be skin protective.
50X the Antioxidant Power of Green Tea?
I have to be careful with these type of statements, because so much web information is cut-and-pasted, and no one knows the source, and sometimes information is spread on the web to get a “buzz” going on a new product, to cash in on the lucrative American Market.
But, I have been running across this claim that Rooibos has up 50X the antioxidant power of Green Tea (like in the Info-Graphic above), and I have at least seen several scientific studies where they are at least on par. I think the 50X claims pertains to the EFFECTIVENESS of scavenging and cleaning up free radicals in the body as pertains to Rooibos vs. Green Tea, due to the extensive nutrient profile in Rooibos, combined with the antioxidant content of Rooibos.
Rooibos simply makes me “feel good” ….
I realized after I made my Superfood Power Rankings lists, I take in over 30 superfoods. Thus, it’s actually hard to tell when a specific superfood stands out. There can be 10+ in my daily smoothies.
But after I started taking Rooibos as the liquid base for my smoothies, and 2-3 hot cups a day, I had a noticeably increased sense of well being, positively bizarre. I was hearing my music with more clarity, dancing around the house, laughing more……REALLY BIZARRE!!!
My funny Rooibos addiction story…
….a Sunday afternoon, I opened the cupboard to make my daily Rooibos and was shocked to realize I took my last box to work. Praying I had a spare box in the cupboard under the kitchen sink, I found nothing. So I started crawling around the kitchen looking in my lower cupboards frantically trying to find some Rooibos.
That’s how addictively good Rooibos is to my biochemistry. My whole Sunday was ruined because I could not have my “fix” of 2 cups of Rooibos tea, and was gonna miss that “Groovy Sunday Mood” Rooibos always gives me. I was really looking and acting like a fool crawling around on the kitchen floor like a healthy Crack Addict!!! (….OK I’m glad I got that off my chest 🙂 ).
[photo source and more Rooibos Tea benefits info]
[Next 4 Photos Below]
Four of 8 Rooibos Power Smoothie Recipes from the “South African Country Life” Website
[below] My own, easiest, healthiest, tastiest, most addictive drink ever!!!
I brew my Rooibos and keep it in a glass container in the fridge. Then I mix with the INSANELY GOOD Taste Nirvana Coconut Water. Theeeeeeeeeeee best summertime drink!!!
(…this is also my hot tea drink, I add warm coconut water to my hot Rooibos tea to sweeten it up, no other sweetener needed!!!)
Once you get creative…..
…you’ll develop your own AMAZINGLY tasty-healthy drinks with Rooibos.
It’s “woodsy” deep cherry flavor will allow for some amazing great cold drinks in the summer, so even if you are not a true tea drinker, you can get this nutrition powerhouse into your diet very easily.
There are many brands of Rooibos Red Tea available on Amazon
Interesting reads, and additional information on Rooibos Tea
Benefits of Rooibos Tea from the “Wellness Mama” Website
What is Rooibos Tea, and why should I be drinking it
Thirteen Amazing Benefits of Rooibos Tea
Beauty Recipes for the skin using Rooibos Tea
Nine Established Health Benefits of Rooibos Tea
Rooibos Tea, the Flavanoid Rich, Antioxidant Powerhouse
[photo source and more Rooibos Tea benefits info]
~stay healthy~
you might also like….
The New [Superfood] Kids on the Block (Part 7)
Black Seeds (….and Black Seed Oil)
The New [Superfood] Kids on the Block (Part 2)
The Moringa Tree
The New [Superfood] Kids on the Block (Part 9)
Sea Buckthorn
The New [Superfood] Kids on the Block (Part 4)
Camu Camu Fruit
The New [Superfood] Kids on the Block (Part 1)
The Baobab Fruit
The New [Superfood] Kids on the Block (Part 3)
The Maqui Berry
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2 Responses
I am seeking the truth about a new antioxidant know as carbon 60, or bucky balls, or the buckminster fullerine. Would like to know if you have heard of it. It is a perfectly spherical and teeny, tiny, even in the world of molecules – it has 60 molecules of carbon arranged in the sphere and is reported to be over 170 times as effective an antioxidant as vitamin C due to it’s almost magnetic attraction of oxidants. If the reports are to be believed it also expels the oxidants uber-effectively which allegedly leaves the body’s immune system free to work on cell-regeneration much once the oxidants don’t need to use up all the body’s immune system resources. Lab Rats have lived over twice as long as expected while being heavily dosed in an experiment designed to discover how much of the C60 it would take to kill them, and while the control batch of rats died at the usual 20 to 24 months, they were riddled with tumours, the rats taking C60 lived to 36, 40 months and even longer. BUT when they were disected after death they had no tumours, zero, nada. I want to know why we are not hearing more about this. It’s selling out all over the web at high prices naturally, but it has not been tested officially by US or UK, or as far as I can see, any health authorities.
Are you aware of it? I have no idea where to go to find real info about this. I have started taking it in olive oil which is how it was given to the rats. livelongerlabs.com, a group of scientists, some ex-NASA apparently claim to have been involved in it’s discovery and now sell it but I don’t know if they are what / who they claim to be. Clif High another you-tuber, crazy-clever data guy also swears by it. But how do we know any of it is true?
Hi Harvey,
I have never heard of it, but that is the great thing about having a blog or website. So many people mention to me nutrition stuff that I somehow ending up getting into myself, although sometimes it can be years down the road.
Rooibos Tea was actually one of those things.
I’ll keep an ear out for it in the future, because when it seems like I hear about something several times, it’s probably a message for me to look into it more seriously.
Doug at GAIA Health Blog