Questions about green tea
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Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:42 pm

1. Will you get the same benefits from the pre-sweetened stuff (i.e. the type they sell in bottles/cans...sometimes is flavored with honey, etc) as opposed to the type you brew yourself?

2. I sometimes use green tea as a sub for water, i.e. when I'm thirsty I'll just pour myself a glass of tea INSTEAD of water. Probably drink 4 glasses of green tea a day, and 2 glasses water. Is this a problem?

3. All I really know about green tea is that "it's good for you"? Should I see any tangible results, beauty/skin wise?

Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:49 pm

Just my personal preference is that I'd rather brew my own tea than to get something commercially prepared. Less likely to get too much sugar or preservatives or something.

I don't know for sure if we should limit how much we consume - since green tea (unless you get decaffeinated) does have some caffeine in it. I did hear a nutrionist say to limit caffeine intake to 2 cups a day. Might be better to switch to decaffeinated green tea if you're going to consume a lot of it.

I don't have an answer to your last question. Maybe someone else can help you out.

Thu Apr 13, 2006 4:46 pm

Bridget wrote:

2. I sometimes use green tea as a sub for water, i.e. when I'm thirsty I'll just pour myself a glass of tea INSTEAD of water. Probably drink 4 glasses of green tea a day, and 2 glasses water. Is this a problem?

Yes, I think it is given that green tea also contains caffeine (about 25% of caffeine in coffee if I remember correctly). So please take that into account.

free skin care · Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:09 pm

Hi there! Unfortunately, the sweetened bottled stuff is going to have very few of the benefits, so while drinking that stuff won't kill you, if you are drinking green tea because of health concerns, the bottled sweet stuff won't help you. To get maximum health benefits, brew it fresh from green tea leaves or matcha powder.

As for what kind of benefits to look for, that varies from person to person, but for starters, green tea is anti-inflammatory, so if you've been dealing with acne, etc, it will help with that. It's also a powerful anti-oxidant, so it will help your body and skin fight damage from sun and pollution. I've also read studies that showed that green tea strengthens your immune system, making you less vulnerable to infections. I drink it every day and it makes me feel great!^-^

free skin care · Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:09 pm

I think I can help with the last question-- green tea is full of antioxidants, which will boost your immune system and make you more resistant to infections (if I feel like I'm getting sick, I start drinking a lot of green tea). It's also an appetite suppressant and metabolism booster. If I start getting the munchies but know I shouldn't eat, I just drink a mug of green tea and I'm not hungry anymore. I wouldn't recommend drinking the bottled green teas they have out now on a regular basis because they can have sugar and unhealthy sweetners. The only thing I ever put in my tea is Splenda, and only then when I drink it iced.

I'm not so sure if your skin will look better, but drinking green tea will definitely make your insides happier. (BTW, drinking decaffienated is probably a good idea, but the amount of caffiene in green tea is negligible, no where near the amount in soda or coffee, or even black tea.)

Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:36 pm

violetanne wrote:

....but the amount of caffiene in green tea is negligible, no where near the amount in soda or coffee, or even black tea.)

I used to think that too until I looked it up one day and found that it had a quarter of the caffeine that coffee has (and half of what black tea has). That's pretty substantial if you drink many cups a day (instead of water) and also considering that caffeine is a diuretic (i.e. it dehydrates). I still drink lots of green tea (not recently due to sleeping problems, but in general) as I like it plus it's good for you, but I try to drink lots of water as well.

free skin care · Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:57 pm

Green tea is yes very healthy as mentioned in all of the above comments.
First of all, it is very diuretic, so if you drink more tea than water you may become dehydrated. As we all know dehydration does not help our skin!!!
Also consider the source of water they use in the bottled kind, as well as the quality of green tea.
To get all the "benefits" it really depends on the qualtiy of the tea. As with most herbal products the grade of product is SO important in determining the level and amount of thoes beneficial phyto chemicals. How do you know what good quality is? In almost all cases it is reflected in the price, the more expensive is always (in most cases) a higher grade.

If you are suspicious of what is high grade or not the better quality tea will be less bitter (considering you are brewing it with water around 90 degrees - not boiling and only steeping it 30-40seconds).

As for the caffeine, it is a time released drug, so when you steep your various infusions (you can re-steep your 1tsp per cup - 3 times) 30-40 seconds you get very little caffeine. Ofcourse if you are sensitive to caffeine you can feel it after one cup.Due to all the phyto chemicals such as polyphenols (main one) it will have a counter balancing affect and the caffeine will not be as affective as say black tea (same plant, yet the leaves are fermented 80% - 100% so there is almost zero antioxidant nuntrient).
I hope this sheds a little more light on your question!!

Feliz

free skin care · Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:34 pm

the bottle stuff I assume will have some sort of preservatives?
big no no...

Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:45 pm

Oh, so really -- I have to stay away from the bottled stuff? That makes me sad. I love drinking that and I was under the illusion that it was healthy for me. Crying or Very sad

To be honest I'll probably keep drinking it. For work, it's just easier to be sipping out of a bottle. And before I was drinking soda and other bad stuff, so this has to be better.

Wonder if anyone's heard of this brand of tea/juices, "Fuze," http://www.drinkfuze.com/. I drink their green tea and white tea all the time and they have a ton of vitamins listed on the back of the bottles. I'm sure this is just a clever marketing scheme, but it makes me feel like I'm being healthy.

free skin care · Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:00 pm

what brands of brew it yourself green tea are the best tasting and most nutritious?

free skin care · Thu Apr 13, 2006 8:56 pm

how ironic...im sitting here with a cup of hot green tea sipping away and i scroll to this topic. hehe.

free skin care · Thu Apr 13, 2006 8:57 pm

My favorite is Trader Joe's organic decaf green chai. It's inexpensive too- $1.99 for a box of 20 tea bags.
Ingredients: Organic decaffeinated green tea leaves, organic cinnamon, organic cardamom, organic ginger root, organic star anise, organic cloves.
I add a tiny bit of stevia and a splash of milk or soy milk. I have read though that the caffeine in green tea helps the body absorb the antioxidants, so if you don't drink much tea and it's early enough in the day, and if you're not particularly sensitive to caffeine, regular caffeinated green tea might still be more beneficial.

free skin care · Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:24 pm

Quote:

I used to think that too until I looked it up one day and found that it had a quarter of the caffeine that coffee has (and half of what black tea has). That's pretty substantial if you drink many cups a day (instead of water)

I just meant, comparatively, it's negligible. Considering one cup of coffee has 140mg of caffiene (black tea has 70mg), and a cup of green tea has 35mg-- that's pretty scant. Yes, of course, one should always drink plenty of water. I've heard to get the benefits from green tea, about 3 servings a day is ideal. And, if I'm drinking tea in the late evening, I drink decaf, though I've also read that taking out the caffiene can decrease the antioxidant level... so who knows!

free skin care · Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:51 pm

Hello fellow green tea mavens - The best quality green teas are quite pricey, unfortunately. It could be a rather expensive habit to drink several cups a day. I currently drink sencha, and Feliz has given great advice about brewing, water temperature, etc., all of which are important considerations and add to getting optimal benefits. But I'd like to find some matcha/macha that's good quality and not too too expensive, since I understand it has the highest level of antioxidants. I could be wrong -- any comments from green tea experts are welcomed!

If anyone knows a reliable internet site/seller that ofers matcha, I'd be very interested!!!

free skin care · Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:38 pm

m.april wrote:

Hello fellow green tea mavens - The best quality green teas are quite pricey, unfortunately.... If anyone knows a reliable internet site/seller that ofers matcha, I'd be very interested!!!

ditto! there's supposedly a place here in paris that has the creme de la creme of matchas, but when i saw the price i almost spit up fur balls! Shock

then again, i could be on to something -- the matcha diet. wouldn't be able to afford to eat anything else....

Bridget -- you can always make your own and put them in used bottles to take to work. it's much cheaper in the long run and quite a bit better for you -- and it's just as convenient.

free skin care · Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:39 am

For a bigger rundown on green tea have a look down on this post from yonks ago. I put a fairly good guide to quality green tea on it.

http://www.essentialdayspa.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=3497&highlight=shizuoka

I cannot begin to imaging drinking green tea with sweetener.. ewww. I never buy commercial either, just brew my own. I also drink it as a caffeine substitute when I am sick of coffee (which I cannot drink without milk) and never drink it after 5pm.

I would say 2 large cups a day is more than enough, but you would still need 1.5 liters of water ...

Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:45 am

Feliz wrote:

As for the caffeine, it is a time released drug, so when you steep your various infusions (you can re-steep your 1tsp per cup - 3 times) 30-40 seconds you get very little caffeine. Ofcourse if you are sensitive to caffeine you can feel it after one cup.Due to all the phyto chemicals such as polyphenols (main one) it will have a counter balancing affect and the caffeine will not be as affective as say black tea (same plant, yet the leaves are fermented 80% - 100% so there is almost zero antioxidant nuntrient).
I hope this sheds a little more light on your question!!

Thank you for the great explanation Feliz! That would explain why, despite the published amounts, I don't feel like I drank a few coffees once I had several cups of green tea! I should really steep my tea for a shorter amount of time anyway though....

Btw, for those of you based in Australia, The Tea Centre and TLicious are both really good places to get high quality tea:
http://www.theteacentre.com.au/
http://www.tlicious.com.au/

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be able to ship overseas though as their tea is loose and not commercially packaged.

free skin care · Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:52 am

Re MACHA... there is no need to DRINK it!! For the ULTIMATE healthful breakfast, take a small bowl of non-fat, unsweetened yoghurt (one full of all those great bacteria is best) and add to this: 1tsp ground black sesame seeds, 1/2 tsp macha powder, 1-2 teaspoons of Kinako (powdered soy beans). You can sweeten this with a high-grade honey (go for something very dark in color - try a Manuka honey!)

Black Sesame Seeds
Black sesame seeds are known for health benefits especially for the kidney and liver, and are a good source of calcium; one gram of seeds contains approximately 85 milligrams of calcium, (twice as much as white sesame seeds). Black sesame seeds also have high amounts of protein, iron, magnesium and are also a good source of essential fatty acids (EFA).

For more info about "black" foods: http://www.npicenter.com/anm/templates/newsATemp.aspx?articleid=13068&zoneid=45

free skin care · Fri Apr 14, 2006 8:36 am

Bridget wrote:

Oh, so really -- I have to stay away from the bottled stuff? That makes me sad. I love drinking that and I was under the illusion that it was healthy for me. Crying or Very sad

To be honest I'll probably keep drinking it. For work, it's just easier to be sipping out of a bottle. And before I was drinking soda and other bad stuff, so this has to be better.

Wonder if anyone's heard of this brand of tea/juices, "Fuze," http://www.drinkfuze.com/. I drink their green tea and white tea all the time and they have a ton of vitamins listed on the back of the bottles. I'm sure this is just a clever marketing scheme, but it makes me feel like I'm being healthy.

Hi there.... can you maybe brew the green tea in large batch for say 3 days, put it in the fridge, and bring a little bit to work (ie in a juice box)?
I do that all the time with green tea and corn tea. I would assume this is prob better than the bottle stuff. And also, you can control what you want in it.

free skin care · Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:09 pm

I add a bag of green tea to my iced tea when I brew it. In the south, especially Texas, we drink iced tea so sweet it's like molasses so nobody seems to notice the flavor difference by adding a extra bag to my brew. I also take green tea supplements and will sometimes drink a cup of hot celestial seasonings green tea with different flavors for an afternoon treat. It isn't very strong caffeine-wise to me.

free skin care · Fri Apr 14, 2006 5:07 pm

HI m.april and Tiger Tim! Tiger Tim, thanks for mentioning my old stomping grounds Shizuoka. I used to live there and I can tell you that they absolutely have the best tea in the world. m.april, you asked about ordering matcha online. My favorite place to get it is japanesegreenteaonline.com. They ship fresh from Japan, and you can get lots of good matcha and green tea, from Shizuoka no less! They also sell an herbal tea called "hyakunencha" (hundred year tea) on this site. It's expensive, but I swear by it--- it makes my skin look great, and tastes really good, too!^-^

free skin care · Fri Apr 14, 2006 5:25 pm

If you buy de-caf find out how it is decaffeinated. It makes a huge difference in the anti-oxidants.

"Green tea decaffeinated using Ethyl Acetate retains only about thirty percent of EGCG and other catechins thought to be responsible for most of green tea's health benefits. However, green tea decaffeinated with
carbon dioxide - water and effervescence retains about 95% of the original catechins."

You can also decaff it yourself buy pouring out the first brew and then brewing it again. 80% of the caffeine is released in the first brew. Although I wonder how much of the other good stuff is released in the first brew too that would be weakened that way.

If you really want the anti-oxidants without the caffeine drink Roobios (Red Tea) which has all the anti-oxidants but is naturally caffeine free.

Also, white tea is less processed then green tea and also has less caffeine then green tea has. It's health benefits are probably superior as well since it is less processed then green tea. Not as popular though....

Green tea doesn't have the negative effects of coffee and other caffeine foods because the L-theanine counteracts the caffeine. So Green tea is calming rather then exciting or jittery.

"At least two beneficial components in green tea—its catechins and the amino acid L-theanine—lessen the impact of its caffeine. When green tea is brewed, its caffeine combines with catechins in the water, reducing the caffeine's activity compared to coffee or cocoa. In addition, L-theanine, which is only found in tea plants and some mushrooms, directly stimulates the production of alpha brain waves, calming the body while promoting a state of relaxed awareness."

As far as duretic effects, I'm sure it's really small. And there are some positive effects of duretics anyways like reducing fluid retention and lowering blood pressure. Many foods have durectic effects like celery, garlic, onion, eggplant, asparagus and watermelon, and parsley. I don't think normal consumption of any of these things is going to dehydrate anyone. As long as your fluid intake is adequate. We lose water from all kinds of things like sweating, breathing, hot weather etc. Just drink more if you drink caffeine teas, like you would if you started exercising harder or in hot weather. I think the effect is negligable compared to those things though.

"DIURETIC DRINK MYTHS

The idea that drinking beverages containing natural diuretic substances, such as caffeine, actually drain fluid out of the body (i.e., creates a net loss in body water content) is simply a misunderstanding of the diuretic action. Mild diuretics found in ordinary foods and beverages may slightly hasten the removal of water from the body, but the mechanisms (osmogregulatory system) that maintain proper body balance of water, electrolytes, and other components prevent excreting more water than is taken in from all sources. The exception would be where there has been an unhealthy water build-up (edema): one could lose some of the excess without coming up against the natural barriers to dehydration. But for most people, drinking naturally caffeinated tea all day is not different than drinking water all day in terms of water balance, and this is the historical experience in China where drinking plain water was not a routine practice. People who avoid natural diuretic substances (such as caffeine) over an extended period of time may experience a water loss upon encountering these diuretics for the first day. The water balance will be restored again almost immediately with continued ingestion of the mild diuretics or with return to avoidance of them. While the original concerns about drinking beverages other than water were not based on actual data, more recent studies following up on this issue have been conducted to evaluate the potential role of natural diuretics, and, as Valtin relays, they show no significant effects (5). In a recent study, AC Grandjean and his colleagues observed the effects of different beverages on body hydration (6), in the discussion, they noted:

The purpose of this study was to measure, in healthy, sedentary individuals, the effect on hydration of two regimens, one that included drinking water as part of the dietary beverages and one that did not….In summary, the results herein are preliminary, but suggest that inclusion of plain drinking water compared to exclusion of plain drinking water in the diet for three days did not affect the measures of hydration used in this study."

One thing though is that Teas have tannins in them which interfere with the absorption of non-heme iron. So I make sure to drink my teas between meals and not with meals for that reason. Only herbal teas with meals.

As far as my favorite brand, I really like Numi Teas. I usually go for the flavored stuff like Jasmine Green Tea, or Lemon Myrtle Green Tea, Ginger etc. And I sweeten it with Agave Syrup which has a GI of 11.

free skin care · Fri Apr 14, 2006 7:40 pm

Thanks to all of you for sharing your knowledge and resources. Manslayerliz, I am new to green tea. Do you have a recommendation for a matcha or sencha from the web site you suggested that provides excellent health benefits and is easy? Do higher prices necessarily mean better quality? And is the Uji region as good as the Shizuoka region? TIA.

free skin care · Fri Apr 14, 2006 7:55 pm

Keep in mind that caffeine causes your body to excrete calcium (I think this has to do with it being a diuretic.) So, make sure you get extra calcium in your diet if you drink a lot green tea.

free skin care · Fri Apr 14, 2006 8:12 pm

Recently, I have switched from drinking coffee to green tea. I drink cup after cup each day and have noticed that it gave me more energy and I even lost some weight!

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