SHAWN STEVENSON: Welcome to the Model Health Show. This is fitness and nutrition expert, Shawn Stevenson, and I'm so grateful for you tuning in with me today. Consumption of various teas dates back thousands of years from locations all over the globe. For centuries the benefits of drinking tea has been documented. Today, modern science is affirming some remarkable benefits from a variety of teas and that's what we'll be covering today. We're going to start off with a tea that has some astonishing connections to longevity, residing in the mountainous regions of Gaisu in southern China. Famous for its sheer amount of centenarians’ people living to be a hundred years old and beyond, this tea commonly called Gynostemma, but it's also known as Jiaogulan in Chinese or sometimes referred to as southern ginseng. This tea has mountains of peer-reviewed data affirming its benefits on our metabolic health and more. A randomized double-blind placebo controlled clinical trial published in the Journal of Obesity, tracked the metabolic changes of 80 obese test subjects for 12 weeks.

Versus the group who received the placebo, the study participants who incorporated Gynostemma tea lost significantly more abdominal fat, lost more overall body fat, lost more weight and had a greater reduction in their body mass index with no other change except implementing Gynostemma tea into their regimen. Another peer-reviewed study. This one found that Gynostemma can actually improve the activity of AMP-activated protein kinase or AMPK if you're nasty. Demonstrating its muscle protective effects. One of the things most noted in peer-reviewed data when we set out on a conventional calorie restriction aka weight loss protocol is a loss of our lean body mass aka losing muscle. And when we're losing our muscle, our muscle is really our body's metabolic furnace, and it has the capacity to actually burn more caloric energy just by having more of it. Muscle is really expensive for our bodies to carry and so losing our muscle as we're trying to lose weight, we're going to inherently be reducing our metabolic rate overall and that's something we don't want to do.

So Gynostemma has been found to protect our muscle through the process of weight loss and so that's what we really want and going back to the study published in the Journal of Obesity. We're actually losing more body fat by utilizing Gynostemma versus losing our valuable lean muscle tissue and yet another randomized blinded controlled clinical trial published in the Journal of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine found that Gynostemma can actually improve our insulin sensitivity and reduce levels of hepatic fat aka liver fat. You don't want to be walking around with them fat livers. All right non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has absolutely skyrocketed in our society today. It's one of the leading causes of death and dysfunction today and it's not really being talked about. And this particular tea and again it's been utilized for centuries Has a notable effect on supporting the health of our liver reducing hepatic fat and also improving overall insulin sensitivity and Insulin resistance is one of the leading drivers of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease where our bodies are just trying to do what it can do to adapt to inordinate amounts of sugar exposure, glucose roaming around in our bloodstreams.

And so, our liver is really taking on the weight of that situation and so being able to support insulin sensitivity and liver health overall is just going to dramatically improve our health outcomes. There's even a paper featured on the American Diabetes Association website that again, most people have no idea about. This is again one of the premier organizations dedicated to our epidemics of diabetes in our society today. On Their website the paper is titled Major Anti-diabetic Effect of Gynostemma Tea in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes, it's in the title. But how often do you hear about Gynostemma tea having anti-diabetic benefits, as a matter of fact, this is another randomized double-blind placebo-controlled 12-week clinical trial, gold standard measuring a huge array of biomarkers for these diabetic patients.

Notably the researchers stated, "Fasting glucose promptly decreased after just one week of treatment with Gynostemma." At the end of the 12-week study period the researchers concluded, "The results of the study show a prompt improvement of glycemia and insulin sensitivity and thereby provide a basis for a novel, effective and safe approach to treat type 2 diabetic patients." Come on. It's been around for thousands of years, utilized so much efficacy and now we have mountains of peer-reviewed data to affirm this but you're not going to hear this promoted through major media outlets. You're not going to hear this promoted through conventional, "Standard of care treatments." But this is something that we all have access to. And so Gynostemma tea. This is a beautiful green tea leaf that has been prized for it's health supportive benefits and it's natural hints of light sweetness. This is actually a delicious tea now for myself personally...

I grew up, I only knew about one kind of tea. I knew about sweet tea. That was it. Sweet tea. And when Lipton Brisk hit the scene, so this was like, you can buy it in a can. The tea actually, it had so much sugar in it, it was almost frosted. It was like a frosted tea. And so, to learn about these different teas over the years, I've had 20 years now of experience in the field of health and fitness, and I'm so grateful for staying curious and asking questions, and most importantly, experimenting and utilizing these things. So Gynostemma has been something that I've been a fan of for about 15 years now, and I'm glad that I get an opportunity to talk about this in a masterclass really revolving around the storied traditions of tea utilization from cultures all over the world. And also looking at the latest peer reviewed, published clinical trial data. So that's just number one here. We're going to go through 10 remarkable teas, again, from places all over the world. And we're starting off with Gynostemma.

Next up we're going to go into one of my all-time favorite teas. This one is called pu'er. Pu'er is a fermented tea with a long history of use within regions in and around China. Today, pu'er is well-respected for its profound benefits on metabolism and overall health. According to a study published in the Journal of Phytonutrient Research, pu'er is one of the rare nutrient sources that has a direct significant influence on the enzyme that actually unlocks our fat cells to be able to utilize their contents for energy. This hormone is called hormone sensitive lipase. So, this is one of the few things ever discovered pu'er that acts upon that enzyme to get your fat cells to let go of its goodies. All right, so pu'er is an effective adjunct to protocols today that have become more popular, like intermittent fasting because of its ability to support fat loss while protecting our muscle mass at the same time.

And this was documented in a recent study, featured in the Journal of Clinical Interventions and Aging. So again, looking at the phenomenon of aging and also sarcopenia related and the loss of muscle over time and finding again, this is what this science, this journal is dedicated to, is talking about these subjects and finding something in pu'er, again, thousands of years of documented use to be able to be protective and help to prevent muscle loss over time. Really remarkable. And to take this another step further, in that same vein as protection against the onset of some of the things we attribute to aging, pu'er has also been found to be a very, very effective, free radical scavenger, aka antioxidant rich substance as well in helping to eliminate cellular waste products that build up the bioaccumulation of waste products.

That's another thing attributed to abnormal aging. In particular, if we're looking at conditions like Alzheimer's disease and the inability of the brain to eliminate waste over time. Also has some really profound benefits for our gut microbiome. And the gut microbiome is having a moment right now in health and wellness, and I'm very grateful for that. But oftentimes, we're getting an incomplete picture about what we can actually do to improve the health of our microbiome. Now obviously, our food choices play a huge role because it is the substrate, it is the input. It is the prebiotic that is going to determine which bacteria are going to be able to proliferate in our gut and also just remain around, period. Which one are you feeding?

What are you feeding? And when I say which one, I'm talking about this story of the two wolves that reside within all of us, and it's really, there's the bad wolf, and then there's the good wolf. And this is being very simplistic in this. There's so much more to this, even this whole good and bad thing this, there's analogies of that in every culture as well, even the Yin and Yang paradigm, there's good within the... What's considered to be the bad and there's bad with what's seen to be considered the good. And so, we don't want to get too black or white in our thinking, but truly we do get to choose with our attention and intention what we're feeding, right?

Whether it's with our psychology or whether it's with our microbiome. There are thousands of different species of microbes and many, many more that have yet to be discovered. And we know that our food quality, the choice in what we're eating has a huge influence. And so, the biggest key here with our microbiome health is diversity. Diversity is the hallmark of a healthy microbiome. And the number one driver of diversity is diversity in food substrates. It's a diversity in food inputs from a variety of different foods.

Diversity from our microbiome is going to come from diversity in the foods that we're eating. And even if we're eating healthy or what we determine to be healthy for ourselves in our society today, it tends to be on repeat. We start eating the same things we've distinguished to be healthy over and over and over again, versus adding in new foods like our ancestors would eat, depending upon what nature was providing during various seasons. And so that aspect and also convenience aspect. Today we're losing the diversity in food inputs, but also in our beverages.

And the reason that I wanted to do this masterclass today was because coming in a liquid form, it is delivered to our cells far more efficiently and far faster because it's in this liquid medium. The same holds true with things like soda. Negative liquid mediums hitting our system and creating disruption. And so, using this medium for our good, using this medium for our benefit, is something I really want to inspire in everyone today. And so, when it comes to the microbiome adding in something like this, in addition to improving our food quality, a recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Nature Communications uncovered that a unique compound called Theabrownin found in fermented pu'er...

Has some remarkable effects on our microbiome. The researchers found that Theabrownin positively alters gut microbiota that directly reduces excessive hepatic fat. Again, we're talking about liver fats again and reduces lipogenesis. Lipo meaning fat, genesis meaning creation, by reducing the creation of fat. Pretty cool. Now, again, this study is affirming that it's creating positive shifts in our microbiome that helps to support liver function and metabolic health. Another study, this was published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, found that pu'er may be able to reverse gut dysbiosis by dramatically reducing ratios of potentially harmful bacteria and increasing ratios of beneficial bacteria. So really creating a shift, a positive alteration in our overall microbiome makeup. Right? So gut dysbiosis has been on the rise for the last couple of decades as well, and just people dealing with all manner of digestive issues today in the United States.

And this is according to data, even cited by the NIH, for example, affirming that about 70 million Americans now have some form of a digestive disorder, right? This is a huge chunk of our population, and this is not normal. This is something that is only recently becoming more and more prevalent. And so, these are some simple solutions to add to the mix. But as with anything that we're going to talk about today, we don't want to just run out like pu'er pu'er, we gotta find that pu'er on the streets. Gynostemma, let me get that. Quality matters, and at the end of the episode, we're going to talk about some of the truly scary things, and a lot of these teas out here on store shelves that you need to know about. And so, making sure that you're getting these from high quality sources who obviously care about the quality of the tea itself, but taking it a step further to help you to avoid many of the toxicants that are found in tea.

Something that can be so healthy really gets screwed up in the process, in the deliverables of it by some of the things we're going to talk about at the end of the episode. But for pu'er, this is again one of my favorite teas. The pu'er that I utilize is from a cold extraction process to really retain the nutrients and the polyphenols in it, and also, they're utilizing wild harvested pu'er. So, the concentration of these micronutrients is just remarkable. It's so resilient. It's really an adaptogen. In addition to that, it's triple toxin screened for purity, ensuring that we're not getting pesticides, heavy metals, toxic molds that are commonly found in teas today, and I'm talking about the pu'er from Pique Life. Go and check them out for sure.

Go to piquelife.com/model. They're actually going to provide you with 15% off in free shipping on their pu'er bundles. Plus, for a limited time, you're also going to get a free quiver little satchel of 12 tea samples, so you can actually try out some of their other delicious award-winning teas as well. Now, these tea bundles have never been discounted before, so definitely take advantage of it. Go to piquelife.com/model. That's P-I-Q-U-E-L-I-F-E.com/model. Again, 15% off and free shipping for life on their pu'er bundles. Plus, for a limited time, get a sample pack with 12 samples. Now, as noted, pu'er has some remarkable benefits for our overall metabolic health, but also the health of our microbiome and so much more.

We're going to move on to number three here on our list of top 10 teas. Now, this is tough to make this list. I could shift this list around many times, as it gets into this debate about what's best. And these aren't in any particular order, but these are teas with a variety of benefits, but also looking at moving from teas that have caffeine, for example, to teas that are not caffeinated, that are more kind of family friendly. That are utilized by people who might have issues going on with their nervous system, for example. And so, I want to make sure that everybody's invited to this tea party. And so, we're going to add in now a tea that is caffeine free that has roots native to Southern Africa. And this tea is called rooibos. Rooibos tea has been utilized for centuries as a health-giving drink, and unlike many other teas that sometimes have an acquired taste to them, rooibos tea has a slightly sweet flavor with subtle hints of vanilla.

This caffeine-free fermented tea has been found to improve our insulin sensitivity and even block the creation of new fat cells. And this is detailed in a recent study published in the journal, Vital Medicine. Rooibos is also protective of our muscle tissue. Scientists at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology discovered that a compound in rooibos called aspalathin, stimulates glucose uptake into our muscle cells and positively influences glucose homeostasis in the body. Our muscle cells can be like a sponge to sop up excess glucose in our bloodstream rather than it getting stored as fat, right? But we need our muscle. We need to have muscle in our frame, absolutely, but also to essentially increase the sensitivity of the muscles to glucose...

Versus that sensitivity for our fat cells to try to sop up the glucose in our bloodstreams. So, it's pretty remarkable that it's creating this kind of preferential guidance system for our muscles to utilize glucose over our fat cells. And to top it off some varieties of rooibos have the potential to be great for your brain and mental health as well. A 2022 study cited in the journal Food and Function demonstrates the potential for rooibos to reduce anxiety and provide neuroprotection against stress.

All right, now we're going to move on to number four here. Next up we've got you know 'em you love them. Green tea. We're going to take a look at green tea in a way that you have never seen before. Consumption of green tea dates back 6000 years in China but it wasn't consumed in the way that we know today. It was actually eaten more like a vegetable. People were chewing on tea leaves. They were mixing 'em in to like grain bowls and concoctions like that. The shift from utilizing this particular plant as food over to it being consumed as a beverage happened about 1500 years ago. The Camellia sinensis plant has thousands of years of documented history but our peer viewed data today is showing so many different benefits on a variety of different systems in the human body. A study published in the Journal of Health Science uncovered that antioxidants in green tea called catechins are able to increase the rate at which our body uses fat for fuel. Another study and this one was reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that study participants who had a green tea extract before exercise burned 17% more fat than those who didn't. The researchers noted a greater improvement in insulin sensitivity for the test subjects as well utilizing the green tea extract.

And this highlights the fact that green tea and exercise go hand in hand. They really, really work synergistically together. An additional study, this was published in the Journal of Physiology and Behavior sought to find out the results when green tea is utilized in obese volunteers. At the end of the 12-week study participants having green tea each day lost 7.3 more pounds and burned 183 more calories per day, than test subjects who did not utilize green tea. This one intervention adding this into the mix. And here's what's most impressive about the study is that all the test subjects receive three meals a day from the hospital facilitating the study.

They're eating the same thing, but one group is utilizing green tea and one isn't. Every test subject received meals that were calorically equal yet those who included green tea lost more weight. The sweet spot indicated in these clinical trials is about two to four cups a day for optimal benefits. Yes, green tea has some phenomenal benefits for our metabolic health but something that makes it truly outstanding are its anti-cancer benefits. A study published in the Journal of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment found that women who drank the most green tea had an approximately 20 to 30% lower risk of developing breast cancer. Now this is an observational study, but they did a great job of addressing confounding factors and found that green tea consumption really stood out for its potential in reducing the risk of cancer. Now a meta-analysis of 29 studies published in the peer reviewed journal Oncotarget, an oncology focused journal from the people who drink green tea daily were around 42% less likely to develop colorectal cancer.

This is one of the fastest growing cancers in our society. And green tea has something to say about that. It's interesting that when we have these problems occur, nature has a solution for us, and it presents itself. There can't be a problem without a solution. It's two sides of the same coin. The problem inherently brings up the... It births the solution along with it, but we often have to change our way of thinking in order to access or to acknowledge that the solution exists. And this goes back to Einstein.

Lots of people have heard variations of this but doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is one of his tenets that has been popularized. But another one is trying to solve a problem from the same level of thinking that created the problem is insanity as well. We have to change the way that we're thinking and so often we have a problem we try to bang away at it with the same blunt instrument. And through our standard of care today it's a cut, burn, poison paradigm and not many tools of real health affirming, health supportive nature to create a body that is more resilient, to create a body that has more intelligent functional cellular communication and informing people, empowering people with understanding what cancer actually is, because oftentimes in our world today it's considered to be something that's idiopathic. Like we don't... There's no cause we don't know how this happened. And that's abandoning basic tenets of physics which just in the way that our universe is constructed maybe you pop over to another universe. It's different.

Okay. But in this universe, we have principles of causality, cause and effect. Everything has a cause. We see the effects, but then we're like, ah, idiopathic, we don't know, has no effect. It's just happened. How disempowering is that, today we know that there are lists of pages and pages and pages of hundreds of verified carcinogens newly invented in our society that the average person is exposed to on a daily basis. What do you think's going to happen? It's a carcinogen cancer-causing agent stacking conditions against our cellular communication and seeing a cancer cell manifest that process of cellular replication and reaching the Hayflick limit where that process is supposed to stop, program cell death, apoptosis. But the cancer cell, this mutation takes place where it's just like, you know what? I'm not going to listen to you. I'm not going to listen. I want to live. I want to live forever. And developing angiogenesis, a nutrient supply to keep itself going. This kind of zombie cell phenomenon. We had wonderful conversations with the president of the Angiogenesis Foundation, for example, out of Harvard, Dr. William Li, and studying anti-angiogenesis therapies primarily through food.

And these remarkable compounds found in food that have selective intelligence to cut off the nutrient supply to cancer cells. We're going to talk about one of those today, actually. One of those proven sources of anti-angiogenesis properties and communication and therapy for our cells. All right, now moving on, we looked at green tea's benefit for our metabolic health for its anti-cancer properties. But I would be remiss if I didn't talk about green tea in relationship to our brain health and cognitive function. Green tea contains a unique amino acid called L-theanine. It's one of the rare nutrients that's actually able to gracefully waltz its way past the blood-brain barrier and enter the brain and influence activity. And L-theanine is able to increase the activity of the neurotransmitter GABA, which helps to reduce anxiety and make you feel more centered and relaxed. Now, another way that L-theanine works to improve our focus is noted in the peer reviewed journal, Brain Topography. The researchers observe that L-theanine intake increases the frequency of our alpha brain waves indicating reduced stress, enhanced focus, and even increased creativity by being in that alpha brain wave state that's more attributed to being in a state of flow.

We can have stress going on in the world and we can interact with that stress, but we are more calm. We are more focused and better able to interact with that stress to really bring our best selves to the table. And so green tea really has this kind of remarkable interaction with our brain in helping to incite these alpha brain waves. Now, the same thing holds true, especially with green tea, all right? Because it's one of the most accessible of the teas that we're going to cover today. Quality matters. And yes, green tea is remarkable. In particular if we're talking about L-theanine. But there are certain types of green tea that are even more effective. We're talking about, for example, with the influence on our brain health. One of those would be Matcha green tea. And Matcha green tea is actually shaded 35% longer, which increases its L-theanine content to support our brain health. And again, I'm going to direct you to Pique Life for their Matcha green Tea, is amazing. It is so amazing. It's actually crafted by a Japanese tea master, and there's only like a dozen of these folks in the entire world. All right, so this is special. This is special in the Japanese tea ceremony. So, they go above and beyond, and it's the only Matcha that is quadruple toxin screened for purity.

There's no preservatives, no added sugar, no artificial whatever. No artificial sweeteners, just the highest quality Matcha on the planet. Alright? Piquelife.com/model, you get access to all their teas. The Pu'er is there, of course, but just drop-down box, check out their Matcha, and I think you're absolutely going to be in love once you have it.

Now moving on, we're going to look at one of the other most popular teas in the entire world. And this tea actually comes from the same place as green tea, the same plant Camellia sinensis plant. But the way that it is crafted makes all the difference in the world in its appearance and also some of its influence on our health. Black tea, again, it actually comes from the same plant as green tea and like green tea, black tea has been prized for thousands of years in cultures throughout the world. What makes the two teas different in their appearance and benefits is due to fermentation. To make black tea, the leaves are first rolled and then exposed to air to trigger the fermentation process. This reaction causes the leaves to turn dark brown and allows the flavors to heighten and intensify. Plus, it creates a change in the micronutrient profile as well.

A group of polyphenols found in higher concentration in black tea called theaflavins appeared to have some remarkable benefits on our metabolism. Research cited in the Journal of Functional Foods revealed that black tea theaflavins have the ability to literally shift human gene expression through a profile that favors lipolysis, which is the release of fatty acids from our fat cells, and beta oxidation, meaning that fat actually gets burned for fuel. We can release fat all day from the fat cells, but it can get reabsorbed. Most fat does. Or you might release a little bit from your belly, and it winds up on your booty. All right? We want the fat cell to release the contents, but also use it for fuel. That's beta oxidation. So black tea has been found to shift our gene expression to a profile. Resuscitate epigenetic influence that changes the way that our body operates as a whole to a state that is more efficient at unlocking our fat cells to release their contents and to actually burn that fat.

In addition to this, scientists at the University of Oslo in Norway conducted a double-blind placebo-controlled study. They gave participants either three cups of black tea each day, or three cups of a caffeine match control beverage. At the end of the three months, the participants drinking the black tea lost significantly more weight and had a greater reduction in waist circumference. So, it's not just about the caffeine. Caffeine does incite the release of catecholamines that can then go and cleave off these fatty acids from our fat cells. Absolutely. But is that going to mean that they're going to get utilized? And is that the only mode of action with something like black tea and green tea? Is it just the caffeine? No, it's something else going on there, and it has to do with their inherent micronutrients as well and antioxidants especially. Now, another fascinating thing about black tea is that even though it has caffeine that temporarily stimulates catecholamines, which are stress related hormones, overall, black tea has been found to actually reduce stress levels.

A study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Psychopharmacology, found that drinking four cups of black tea each day for six weeks directly lowered cortisol levels in test subjects versus those drinking a placebo beverage. In the study, volunteers who drank black tea had 20% lower blood levels of cortisol after a stressful event compared with the control group. It made them more adaptable. It made them more resilient by utilizing black tea in their regimen. That's what we really want because we're not going to be able to avoid stress in our world today. We want to be more resilient. We want to be able to bounce back. We want to be more adaptable to said stress, to really, not just to survive, but to thrive, to find an opportunity to get better.

Now, moving on, and so this is number six we're going to touch on. Now, there's another tea that I want to mention because it doesn't get as much attention as it's green and black tea leaf-mates. This tea comes from Camellia sinensis as well, from the same tea leaves. And this tea is called oolong tea. On the spectrum of fermentation/oxidation between green tea and black tea, you'll find another traditional tea sitting in the middle. Again, this is called oolong tea. Not only does oolong tea have the most fun name to say, I dare you say it, say it, and try not to giggle or smile or just say, just say it, say oolong. Put some smile in your heart. Even if it doesn't throw one on your face, it's going to hit you in that heart button. Now, it also has some impressive benefits and not just a fun name to say. Research published in the Journal of Nutrition, put test subjects on a calorie equivalent diet and had them include either five cups of oolong tea or a control beverage. This was for the three-day study period.

After measuring their metabolic rates, participants drinking oolong tea increased their energy expenditure by 2.9% compared to those drinking the controlled beverage, which was just water. And shout out to water. Water makes everything work better. But there's something going on with oolong tea that increased their metabolic rate. They increased their energy expenditure by about 3%, drinking the same amount of liquid. This was the equivalent of burning an additional 281 calories per day on average. Now, that's really remarkable because we're drinking something that is very, very, very low calorie. We're talking maybe five calories, and it's helping the body to burn a substantial amount more calories, almost 300 calories a day. So, whether it's black, green, or somewhere in between, incorporating a couple cups of green tea, black tea, or oolong tea to your daily regiment can definitely be supportive of your metabolism.

Now, whichever one you feel attracted to or compelled or interested in to try out, that's awesome. But most importantly, it's doing something that feels good and giving yourself permission to experiment with things, to try things out, to see what resonates with you. That's what this life is really all about. But we get kind of trapped in these silos. We get trapped in our sameness, and it's because we're reaching for certainty today.

And so whatever ways we can keep things certain and consistent, if we find any kind of peace and solace, we tend to get lash to those things, and it keeps us small. We want to be able to be expansive, to grow. This planet is so vast and beautiful, and it has so much.

So much to offer us by us getting our ticket punch to be here right now in human history, in this human experience. We don't want to cut ourselves off from that. And so hopefully this inspires you to try one of these teas out or a couple of these teas and just see what feels good. See what resonates, see what you enjoy. Maybe you might find something that is really activating something in your psychology, in your health that has been dormant.

All right, we're going to move on to yet another tea that is surprisingly from the Camellia sinensis family, and this one is white tea. All right. White tea is gaining in popularity the last few years, but again, it's been utilized for quite some time in other traditions. Now, white tea is actually harvested from the young tea leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant when the young buds are still covered in this fine white fuzz, giving it, thus the name white tea. Now listen to these benefits.

A study published in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism revealed that white tea supports a healthy body composition in two ways. One, it was found to have lipo-lytic activity that triggers the release of fatty acids from fat cells. Two, it was also found to inhibit adipogenesis or reducing the creation of new fat cells themselves. That's pretty incredible. So those two modes of action for our metabolic health. Now White tea could also help address a growing issue in our society today.

According to a meta-analysis published in the Journal of Human Reproduction Update, scientists revealed that the average Western male sperm count has declined by 50% in just 40 years. It's shocking. It's shocking. But fertility overall has dropped by about that same amount of time in that same amount of time, it's just one of the pieces that's leading to this equation outcome of reduced fertility as a species. We've talked about this in previous episodes because we have an outer appearance of a large population, and this is because at this point where we have more people who are sticking around, but the birthing of new humans, that is starting to trend downward. And over the next 30, 40, 50 years, we can see some really dramatic drops in our ability to procreate as a species. And so, it's scary stuff and we need to really take this more seriously. Again, this is one of our most prestigious journals addressing human reproduction, meta-analysis, looking at multiple studies revealing the average Western male sperm count has declined by about 50% in just 40 years.

There's obviously numerous reasons that are leading to this outcome, and this has a lot to do with our now largely sedentary population and its sedentary behavior. This has to do with endocrine disruptors that are rampant in our food supply, in our personal care products, largely xenoestrogen compounds that are fitting into estrogen receptor sites in our bodies and triggering more estrogen-related processes. And even processes like aromatization, for example, due to our rampant consumption of sugar and aromatization is essentially a robbing of our testosterone and getting it converted into estrogen, putting it down a different pathway.

And so, the list goes on and on and on. But one of those reasons tying in with that is our dramatic increase in rates of type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes. Here in the United States right now, about 130 million of our citizens are now type 2 diabetic or pre-diabetic, all right and it's trending upward. And so, the connection between insulin resistance, diabetes in particular, and abnormalities with our sperm and sperm count, this is proven in multiple clinical trials. And so, what are some of the things that we can do? Obviously, we want to stack conditions in our favor with our movement practices, our sleep quality, management of stress, high-quality food, all those things. Yes, but there are also, again, nature has been presenting solutions to us, and now more than ever, these are things for us to get educated about and to access.

A study published in Reproductive Biomedicine looked at an animal model in this particular study to see how swiftly science-backed beverages like white tea can influence sperm count. The study titled White tea consumption restores sperm quality in pre-diabetic rats, preventing testicular oxidative damage. Found these results after just two months. White tea consumption improved sperm concentration and sperm quality, I.e. Motility, viability and reduced abnormalities. Overall, white tea consumption significantly improved reproductive health of the pre-diabetic rodents. The researchers stated, "Based on the study results, white tea consumption appears to be a natural, economical, and effective strategy to counteract the deleterious effects of pre-diabetes on male reproductive health."

Pretty profound, pretty profound. And this, again, it's just a simple thing. It's been done for centuries and having this influence over reproductive health. Now, while doing this research, I couldn't help but think how are they collecting this semen for these rats. How are they getting the jizz from the rats? I was very curious, and it sent me down a rabbit hole that I hope no one else ever goes down. And eventually, I happened upon a study, and this was published in the Journal of Theriogenology, and the study is titled, High Efficient and Non-invasive Collection of Ejaculates from Rats using Penile Vibratory Stimulation. All right, so using the vibes to get these rats to get the...

To get them there. All right, so vibrators, apparently, they're using vibratory stimulation. And these research were saying, Hey, this is the best way to do it. I know you were doing it another way. This is the best way. You using little tools. Your little... Using your little hands, I'm sorry, using various... There's invasive methods as well where they go into their bodies and collect stuff. It's not as good. You're not getting the quality. So, it's the mature release that actually has the best viability in clinical trials. So, I hope you don't ever go down that rabbit hole I went down, but just... If you were curious how they getting the... How they getting it from the rats. That's how they're doing it. Vibratory stimulation. Now, an additional benefit noted with white tea is its protective effect on our dental health. A 2016 study titled The Anti Plaque Efficacy of White Tea Extract Mouth Rinse found that a white tea-based mouthwash outperformed a placebo mouthwash in inhibiting plaque formation and reducing the proliferation of detrimental mouth bacteria strains.

How cool is that? Like all of these benefits for all these different organs and organ systems, that's what's different about utilizing a blunt instrument in the form of a synthetic pharmacological intervention versus real food, versus real earth grown beverages and things that have storied tradition. And we're now proving their efficacy with modern science. And also, another really interesting thing I thought about was, the doctrine of signatures in nature and the way that a plant looks, how it functions, it can inform us about what it is good for with our bodies. And so being that it's a white tea and influencing our teeth, something that we... Essentially, we view our teeth as being white, being healthy. A white tea relating to these pearls that we have in our mouths. And also, semen is white, the benefits for semen. White stuff, right? Isn't that interesting? White tea and having these benefits for these things that we attribute to be white. Now if there's any aliens listening, you're like, my jizz is purple, man. No disrespect.

All right, shout out to all the aliens listening. All right. Okay, now moving on. So, we've covered Gynostemma tea, we've covered Pu'er, we've covered Rooibos, we've covered Green tea, we've covered Black tea, we've covered Oolong tea. We've covered White tea. And now we're at number eight on our list. And this Tea is going to be new for a lot of people. It's called Chanca Piedra, right? Chanca Piedra tea. Now this is a tea that I was introduced to maybe about 16 years ago, 17 years ago. And the translation loosely Chanca Piedra, stone breaker, stone breaker tea, and there's a lot of anecdotal evidence around Chanca Piedra being effective at reducing the expression of kidney stones. Which is a very... Again, something that's trending up in our society today for some strange reason, but also very painful, very difficult thing to deal with. And I wanted to look beyond the anecdotal data and look at what is seen in clinical trials. Well, a clinical trial published in 2018, peer reviewed journal, utilizing Chanca Piedra as a treatment and ultrasound to measure the size of kidney stones, as well as a vast array of other biomarkers retract the test subjects in this study.

The study of 56 people with kidney stones who took one cup of Chanca Piedra containing about 4.5 grams of Chanca Piedra, twice daily. The researchers found that the kidney stones for these test subjects utilizing Chanca Piedra decreased in size and number in about two thirds of the participants. Not perfect, but pretty, pretty damn good. Pretty damn good. And if somebody's struggling with kidney stones, they probably want to know about this. And so that's just one study. Another study, and this was a randomized controlled trial published in the Journal of Urology. This is the jour... This is the major journal looking at this issue, but people don't hear about Chanca Piedra. These researchers analyze the effect of patients drinking Chanca Piedra along with shockwave lithotripsy for kidney stones.

So, this is utilizing sound to break down the stones. This is a very common treatment. It's non-invasive and very effective. You just think about that for a moment, using sound as a therapy. Ultrasound is a therapy utilizing sound, vibrations, vibes to have therapeutic effects. So, utilizing Chanca Piedra and this shockwave therapy, the researchers determined that drinking Chanca Piedra, along with the sound shockwave treatment, resulted in a higher stone free rate for study participants versus the shockwave treatment alone. The results were just better, the results were better. Shockwave treatment did its thing, but it was better in various... They had studied different arms, different biomarkers, and I read through all of it, and it just kept on making things, if not a little bit, a lot better, as far as the outcomes for people who are struggling with kidney stones. Other peer reviewed studies indicate that Chanca Piedra is effective in improving liver function and improving fasting blood sugar as well. So, this is another storied tea backed up by peer reviewed evidence to have in your superhero utility belt for when you or somebody that you cares about needs it. The data exists. We have solutions out here, very safe. That's another thing the researchers kept pointing back to, safe, safe profile versus some of the other stuff that we do. So again, adding this to your superhero utility belt.

Going to move on to number nine. And this tea is rapidly growing in popularity today. It's been utilized for thousands of years yet again, but in this particular form, utilizing it as a tea, is a lot newer for a lot of people. And this tea is actually in the ginger family, which ginger tea in of itself is a powerhouse. But within the ginger family, you'll find Turmeric. A study published in the European Journal of Nutrition uncovered that compounds in turmeric can down-regulate inflammatory cytokines and upregulate the activity of adiponectin and other satiety related hormones. And adiponectin is a satiety hormone that has this unique ability to shift stored body fat from the viscera, more dangerous region, belly fat region, to the subcutaneous area where it's more protective, where it's more safe for the body to kind of store and utilize whenever it's called for.

So that's one of the interesting things about adiponectin. In addition, scientists at the Department of Neurology at USC found that one of the active ingredients in turmeric, curcumin is able to help eliminate amyloid plaque from the brain, slow down the aging of our neurons, and excavate heavy metals from our system as well. And in addition, reduce inflammation in the brain. Pretty remarkable stuff. Again, this is going to be new for some people utilizing turmeric in the form of a tea. But turmeric lattes are on the streets. Turmeric lattes are one of the most popular things growing in popularity right now in utilizing turmeric as a beverage. Now, earlier I mentioned, the remarkable angiogenesis phenomenon when talking about the development of cancer cells, basically developing their own blood supply, creating new blood vessels as angiogenesis to pull in nutrients to help them to grow. And there are foods and herbs that are clinically proven to work as an anti-angiogenesis functioning nutrient source.

So, cutting off the nutrient supply for cancer cells selectively, intelligently. And one of those is turmeric. It's one of the most remarkable things that, again, discussing this with the president of the Angiogenesis Foundation out of Harvard, Dr. William Li, a good friend. And turmeric is in that top three, its anti-angiogenesis property. So, if we're talking about anti-cancer, yeah, yeah. Turmeric has also been found to improve insulin sensitivity, which is anti-cancer, reduce blood fats, another anti-cancer profile, and directly act upon fat cells themselves. So, it has the ability to actually target fat cells and get them to empty their contents to reduce in size. Plus, research published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology points to turmeric's potential in reducing severity of both anxiety and depression. Wow. Whole system, whole body wellness. One of my favorite sources at home, always keep this on my shelf for a turmeric latte you can make at home, is from Organifi Gold, so Organifi's Gold blend.

The highlighted ingredient, of course, is turmeric, but also it has ginger, also it has cinnamon. And both of those have remarkable influence on our blood sugar levels, on insulin sensitivity, on brain health. But in addition, it also has some rishi, as well medicinal mushroom which rishi is well noted, again in peer reviewed data to be effective as an immunomodulator and also to improve our sleep quality. So definitely check out, the Organifi Gold. Go to organifi.com/model. That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com/model. You get 20% off, 20% off their gold product, but also the organified green blend. Their red juice blend is all based on earth grown nutrients, low temperature processed, organic ingredients. They're doing stuff the right way. And so, to utilize some of these benefits from turmeric and, a lot of folks who utilize Organifi gold, it's become a habit for folks to kind of drink it in the evening as they're winding down. You know that, for a lot of folks they'll share that it improves their sleep quality. And so definitely check them out. Organifi.com/model, for 20% off.

And now we've reached our final tea and, in this masterclass, looking at some of the most remarkable benefits of a variety of teas from various places around the world, and the peer reviewed data to affirm their efficacy, but also the long tradition of these teas. And the next one is one of my favorites, been utilized for many years is called yerba mate. All right, yerba mate. Now, right out of the gate, researchers sought out to compare the antioxidant capacity of yerba mate versus green tea and found their antioxidant power to be similar. Their findings were published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, and it also revealed that the majority of polyphenols in yerba mate were not catechins like green tea, but other robust antioxidants as well as xanthine’s and micronutrients.

Now, yerba mate finds its home based in South America. And again, we're looking at teas from all over the globe. And each one of these teas is going to have a different nutrient profile, different flavor profile. But I have a friend who's from Argentina, and I was doing a talk one day, and I mentioned yerba mate. This was years ago, maybe over 10 years ago. And then I just saw her light up, and I'm just like, what's up? What's up, Debbie? What's going on? What's going on in your mind? She told me later that yerba mate, like, they drink it, they have a gourd. It's like a whole thing. And I was like, ooh, like I got a touchpoint here, for the authenticity. Like, let me get this real traditional experience. And so, it's something that's really integrated in her culture, being from Argentina. Shout out to Debbie. Shout out to Debbie.

All right. Now moving on, we got a randomized crossover study. So, this is where study participants are utilizing both the intervention and also the placebo experience. So, a randomized crossover study cited in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism found that giving one-gram capsules of ground yerba mate to healthy men and women right before exercise led to significantly increased fatty acid oxidation and energy expenditure that's pulled from actual fat. The test subjects burned up to 24% more fat during moderate intensity exercise with the mate supplement. Pretty cool. Another three-month study conducted with type 2 diabetics and featured in the Journal of the American College on Nutrition demonstrated that test subjects who consumed 11 ounces of yerba mate three times a day had significantly lower levels of fasting blood sugar and hemoglobin A1C at the end of the study period. Now, hemoglobin A1C is one of the best markers we have for looking at our blood sugar management over time. All right. So, seeing short-term and long-term influence on improving blood glucose levels for people with type 2 diabetes, this is so remarkable. So remarkable.

Now mate also appears to be a mate, spelled the same. Got a little accent on the end, but a mate for your heart. Studies featured in the journal, Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism and in the journal, Hospital Nutrition revealed that regularly drinking yerba mate significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. So powerful. So powerful. So, there's a plethora of other benefits, a plethora of other teas, and this masterclass is really targeting 10 of the most clinically proven and also the most accessible. Like we live at such a cool time where we have access to these wonderful tea varieties. But a couple of important tips that I want you to know in the tea sphere is that many of the popular teas on store shelves have very notable levels of heavy metals and pesticides and in particular. Even if they're organic, they're still notable levels of heavy metals in a lot of teas. So, I want you to be mindful of that.

And pesticides should not even be a part of this conversation. If you're not getting organic or wildcrafted teas, just don't do it because you're getting a piping hot cup of problems in addition to the benefits that you're trying to get. So quality matters, right? Quality matters. And also, one of the most important things I want you to know about, so you don't make this tea mistake. A study published in the journal, Environmental Science and Technology titled Plastic Teabags Release Billions of Microparticles and Nanoparticles into Tea found that those fancy pants, bags of teas like the little sack that it comes in when you're sipping your teas is putting microplastics into your tea. Not okay, we got to be done with that. All right? So, there are technologies that are using different types of mesh, but traditionally we're going to see processes where there are strainers, for example. Even I remember making the yerba mate early on.

I had the loose tea leaves, and I had this like tea ball that it goes into, and also the teas from Pique. They're utilizing this crystallization; this patented technology to make these tea crystals. And you just pour in, and you can easily stir. And so, they're already kind of brewed for you in a sense and the nutrient profile is really locked in. And so, there's so many different ways to go about this to avoid these microplastics. It's not cool. It's not okay. So, we want to upgrade our awareness around microplastics in our teas. And another thing is being mindful. When we're drinking these teas, be mindful of the temperature because some of these teas have a delicate profile and high heat can damage some of the benefits that you're trying to get from them.

And so, if you can, be more aware of the temperature that you're using, you know, boiling hot water into a lot of these teas is not the ideal way to go. And I know my wife, being from Kenya, she wants, she wants to feel some pain. She wants that tea to be so hot. It's just a thing. It could be 90 degrees in Kenya. They've been an outside, it's hot, they're sweating, hot tea. It is integrated into the culture. So, she likes stuff to be hot. But over time I've helped to really modulate and manage just how hot stuff is getting. And actually, we got this really cool tea kettle that share... It has a temperature on it. And so, she's the one who actually picked it out. I was like, we don't need all that. But she was like, no, it's got this fancy thing. And so... But I love it because I can actually see the temperature at which I'm utilizing for teas and coffees and things like that.

So, all right, I hope that you've got a lot of value out of this. Please share this out with your friends and family. This is important information that a lot of people would love to have access to. You can send this directly from the podcast app that you're listening on. And, of course, make sure that you send this on social media as well. Take a screenshot of the episode, share it out there. I'm @ShawnModel on Instagram if you want to tag me. And I'm on Twitter as well @ShawnModel. S-H-A-W-N M-O-D-E-L. We've got some epic; I mean epic guests coming your way. And also, some more powerful masterclasses done in the way that only we can and to continue to empower you. And remember, sharing is caring. Utilize this information for yourself. Take action on the thing. If something inspired you, take action and also share. Share this information. Truly, again, sharing is caring. When we share what we learn, we are keeping this chain of intelligence going and it matters today more than ever. I appreciate you so much for tuning into the show today. Have a wonderful day ahead. Take care. I'll talk with you soon.

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