Green Tea- The Elixir of Life
I know the health benefits of green tea are quite widely known but I thought I would post this anyway especially for those who might not be aware of just how amazingly beneficial this simple and delicious addition to your diet can be. Please take the time to read this extensive and easy to understand article on the subject:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=146
I have pretty much been a lifelong coffee drinker. One afternoon a few weeks ago I felt like having a little caffeine in the afternoon but it was too late to brew a pot of coffee, I would have been up all night. So I rummaged around in the kitchen and found a tin of gunpowder green tea. I brewed a cup and sat down with my iPad to enjoy it. I decided to look up the health benefits of green tea and found the article in the above link.
I was totally blown away. I haven't had a cup of coffee since. I have been drinking a variety of loose leaf green teas both hot and iced and have been enjoying them immensely. I find them to be absolutely delicious.
I am not aware of any other single food that brings so many health benefits to a person in such a simple and easy package. I have also found that the caffeine lift from green tea is much more pleasant than that from coffee. I've seen literature talking about various beneficial effects compounds in the tea have on brain function and apparently these combined with the lower dose of caffeine in the tea combine to make a more relaxed but alert state of mind and body.
There is also considerable evidence that the antioxidants in green tea are more readily absorbed when you add a little lemon to it. Something to do with the additional acidity.
I hope you find this article informative and that it will encourage you to incorporate green tea into your daily life.
I used to drink a lot of green tea until I realised that me, personally, it makes me retain water like mad. During that summer I commented to a friend how thirsty I was, all the time. I remember saying, "It's like the more water I drink the thirstier I am." She suggested I look at what dietary changes I had made in the last months. The only difference was green tea. I was only drinking 1 or 2 cups a day, but she suggested I stop for a week and see what happened.
I spent a lot of time peeing after about day 2, lost 5 lbs of retained water and the constant harrassing thirst went away.
I don't doubt GT is good for many things. I like the way it tastes, it just doesn't like me.
And I wish I understood why.
At that time I belonged to a Yahoo! weightloss group and the list manager always recommended 4 cups a day of GT. When I told the group of my experience, with the liquid-retention issue resolved and resultant weight loss, a few other members of the group tried the same and discovered they too had been retaining water which they lost when they stopped drinking GT.
I don't know why it has that effect on some people, and I wish it didn't have it on me. I miss it.
i love green tea. what's cool is the younger teas (like the ones used in matcha or sencha) apparently have more caffeine, but it is more slowly/poorly absorbed because of the other compounds it's complexed with. my mom's sensitive to caffeine (she gets arrhythmias, not just from that), but she can drink those variety of teas, perhaps for that reason.
do these benefits not apply to black tea? i'm not sure if the "processing" would really affect things, or which things. it's interesting that with most other foods, people prefer fermented varieties for nutritional/health reasons, and this is the one exception. Hm?
(not that i'm advocating black tea. green tea tastes better!)
I believe that a lot of exotic "cash crops" like tea are way over-hyped. A lot more money is spent researching and promoting their benefits than cheaper local foods, like legumes and leafy greens. Drying a plant, transporting it half-way around the world, scolding it with hot water, and then filtering it out doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. What does that one little tea bag have that a big bowl of fresh, raw, still-living greens and herbs don't?
Furthermore, tea and coffee add caffeine and other substances that put a stress on your digestive system. What your body really needs is lots of clean water that it doesn't have to expand all that much energy to filter.
And, worst of all - those beverages make you crave sweets.
I drink green tea daily and wish I didn't drink so much coffee. No ill effects like fluid retention, in fact I've slowly lost weight the last couple of years, and don't crave sweets.
When I was in a relationship and more disposable income than I do now I used to get a good quality loose green tea from Japan (not very green is it?). The Japanese make excellent quality green tea that is smooth and declicious. It must be brewed in water that isn't boiled, but almost boiled to make it properly.
Green tea has never made me crave sweets. Nor has coffee or black tea, really. I don't even sweeten my GT when I drink it, I like it as is. It cleanses the palate and is very refreshing.
I have a friend who mixes cold GT with apricot nectar...which to me is just...ugh.
I switched over to Rooibos as my night cuppa and maintain Plain Green Tea from Darjiling .Cylon .
There is no better thing to drink than this combo.
I find that when I drink large amounts of green tea (3+ cups a day) it makes me retain fluid as well, YG. However, if I only drink it from time to time it's fine. Yerba maté is my morning go-to.
From Green Tea in Day time, now I drink Rooibos green and traditional Rooibos.
I used to get very disturbed sleep. Now I do not get up in nights. I have become much calmer person.
got it from
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gandhi-Bazar/175914182492295#!/pages/Gandhi-Bazar/175914182492295?sk=info
That's so strange Yabbit! I've never heard of that, although it sounds like you're not alone. I want to love green tea but sadly just can't stand the taste one bit.
I understand this. I drink a good bit of green tea but I know what brands I like and which I avoid. I have not found any at the regular grocery stores that I find palatable. The first I really liked was a jasmine green tea at a Chinese take out place. I found that I could see into the kitchen if I stood right and saw the can it was coming out of and then found it at an Asian grocery store. One thing I noticed is I like Japanese green tea but not Chinese. The temp of the water used to brew it is important. If the tea leaves are in the water too long, it gets bitter. Making good green tea is more of an art than most people think.
I usually drink a cup of plain green tea first thing in the morning, a cup of flavored green tea after that and usually herbal the rest of the day.
favorite flavors of green tea (not in order) Jasmine, brown rice, sweet sakura (cherry blossom), roasted
I love green tea. I don't drink it all the time but I like it once in awhile. I try to do decaf tea when possible so the caffeine doesn't bother me since I tend to be sensitive to caffeine (especially if I drink it too late in the day). I also like it when I find organic and/or fair trade green tea.