What are the benefits of butter tea? We all know that butter tea is nutritious, but what are the specific benefits of butter tea? Today, I will talk about the benefits and effects of butter tea.
From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine, butter tea has many benefits for human health. Due to the harsh environment in which the Tibetan people live, they have invented the miraculous butter tea as a healthy diet. When the weather is cold, drinking a bowl of steaming butter tea can resist the cold, maintain body temperature, and provide us with various essential nutrients.
【Benefits of Butter Tea】
Butter tea has many effects, such as refreshing the mind, quenching thirst, preventing arteriosclerosis, anti-aging, and anti-cancer. The aromatic substances in tea can also dissolve excess fat in the body and aid digestion, especially for Tibetans living in high-altitude pastoral areas who lack fresh vegetables and fruits and rely on beef and mutton as their main food. Due to the lack of oxygen, people in cold and high-altitude areas have a urine output twice as much as those in plain areas. Therefore, they can only rely on drinking tea to maintain the balance of body fluids and normal metabolism, and moderate tea drinking can also supplement the lack of vitamins.
We all know that beef and mutton are acidic foods. After digestion, they produce a certain amount of hydrogen ions, which make the blood acidic and cause symptoms such as constipation, excessive gastric acid, and fatigue. However, drinking a large amount of butter tea can produce a certain amount of hydroxide ions in the body, which can maintain the acid-base balance in the body. Therefore, Tibetan people combine butter with tea to provide themselves with a simple and effective disease prevention and health care method.
Drinking butter tea has many benefits for high-altitude people, but it also depends on the actual situation. For example, in cold seasons or when engaging in strenuous physical labor, it is recommended to drink more butter tea; for patients or those with poor appetite during the recovery period, drinking more butter tea can improve immunity and recover strength. It is also recommended to drink butter tea regularly and in moderation to fully enjoy its benefits.
Butter tea has many benefits, but it has a high fat content and contains a certain proportion of salt, tannin, caffeine, and other substances. Drinking butter tea in large quantities for a long time can reduce appetite, cause poor appetite, and result in a low intake of carbohydrates, leading to a deficiency of other nutrients and essential amino acids, ultimately causing metabolic disorders.
In addition, the diet of high-altitude residents mainly consists of beef, mutton, and dairy products, resulting in a higher fat content and a lower intake of vegetables and fruits. This leads to a diet characterized by high salt, high fat, high cholesterol, and low vitamin C.
Drinking butter tea for a long time and ingesting a large amount of salt daily can easily lead to high blood pressure and increased blood cholesterol in middle-aged and elderly people. In addition, low oxygen levels can cause fat metabolism disorders and increase blood lipid levels, ultimately leading to other diseases such as arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease.
Tibetans have the following rules when drinking butter tea:
1. When guests are invited to a Tibetan-style table, the host will bring a wooden bowl or teacup and place it in front of the guest.
2. The host will shake the butter tea pot a few times and pour a full bowl of butter tea for the guest. When pouring tea, the teapot should be gently shaken a few times to evenly distribute the tea oil. The bottom of the pot should not exceed the table surface to show respect for the guest. The guest should not drink the freshly poured butter tea immediately but engage in conversation with the host first.
3. When the host stands in front of the guest with the butter tea pot again, the guest should pick up the bowl, dip a little tea with the ring finger, sprinkle it three times as an offering to the gods, dragons, and land spirits. Gently blow a circle on the butter tea in the bowl to disperse the oil flowers floating on the tea surface, then take a sip and praise, "This butter tea is well-made, and the butter and tea cannot be separated." When drinking tea, it should not be too hasty or fast, and the bowl should be left half full. After the host adds tea, the guest can continue drinking.
4. The guest puts the bowl back on the table, and the host refills it. This process continues, and it is considered auspicious to drink three sips of tea. The bowl should not be emptied in one sip.
It is important to note that a hospitable host will fill the guest's bowl. If the guest does not want to drink anymore, they should not touch the bowl. If the guest does not want to drink after drinking half of it, the host can refill the bowl and leave it on the table. When the guest is ready to leave, they can take a few more sips, but they should not drink it all and leave some tea with floating oil flowers at the bottom of the bowl.
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