Trusted Health Products
Written By Nina Stankova / Reviewed By Ray Spotts
Green tea contains all sorts of vitamins and minerals, and drinking it is a fantastic way to ensure you’re giving your body all the nourishment it needs. Below you will find a quick overview of the main components in green tea, and how they affect you.
- Caffeine: It increases alertness and stamina.
- Carotene: It is converted into vitamin A by the liver, and promotes healthy sight.
- Catechins: They are also known as tannins, and they’re the main astringency component in green tea.
- Folic Acid: It helps prevent arteriosclerosis.
- Saponins: They lower blood pressure.
- Theanine: Is an amino acid which helps to produce a relaxing effect.
- Vitamin B2: Is necessary for development, and the proper working of enzymes in the body.
- Vitamin C: It aids production of collagen, as well as ensuring that our bodies heal quickly and effectively.
- Vitamin E: Is an antioxidant which stops lipids from oxidizing in the body.
Green tea is incredibly rich in vitamins and other nutrients, which makes it the perfect drink to keep your body performing properly. Even one cup a day has been proven to aid your bodily processes. So why settle for something less?
What time should I drink my green tea?
When you decide to drink green tea depends completely on what primary effects you want to experience. Green tea can help prepare you for the day, aid weight loss, and help rejuvenate your body. Whatever your reasoning to drink green tea, make sure you are doing it at the best time to help you.
Prepare for the Day with green tea
If you decide to drink tea to set you up for the day, you’ll want to have a nice hot cup in the morning. Green tea contains both caffeine and the amino acid L-theanine. This helps to prevent all the caffeine affecting you at once, and then causing you to crash later in the day.
What happens instead is the benefits of a nice hot cup of green tea can help you feel awake throughout the entire day. The best type of green tea to drink in the morning is Gyokuro or Sencha.
Aid Weight Loss with green tea
Green tea can be very effective at helping you lose weight - and the best time to have it is before exercise. The combination of EGCg and caffeine found in green tea, taken 90 minutes prior to a workout increases the rate at which fat is burned, significantly.
The best way to extract as much EGCg and caffeine from your green tea as possible is by using hot water, and letting it steep for longer. Be prepared though, because this will make your tea taste more bitter.
If you still want the weight loss benefits, but don’t enjoy the bitter taste, then adding small amounts of honey to your tea is a fantastic way of naturally sweetening it.
Rejuvenate Your Skin with green tea
If you want to help revitalize your skin, then drinking green tea is a fantastic choice. The water used will provide hydration to the surface of your skin, helping it to seem softer, whereas the nutrients in the tea can help alleviate wrinkles, dark circles, and help clear acne.
I would suggest drinking a hot cup of tea at night, just before getting ready for bed. This way, you can experience the full effects of the tea without having your skin dried out during the day by the wind.
You can also expect to experience some additional benefits of drinking green tea at night. The sleep-inducing compound Theanine makes it easy to drop off, and its stress-reducing properties help to provide a more restful night’s sleep.
Do I have to drink green tea hot?
Not at all! You can easily prepare cold green tea for yourself with these three easy steps:
- Mix three to four teaspoons of green tea with 30 ounces of cold water.
- Let it steep in the fridge for at least three hours - but preferably overnight.
- Finally, strain it and enjoy!
You can also use cold-brew bottles, which help do most of the hard work for you. Most of these have filters on the top to allow you to infuse your tea for a long time, without the risk of swallowing any when you want to drink from it.
Why do I have to cold-brew the tea for so long?
Cold water isn’t very effective at releasing all the vitamins and antioxidants from tea. Whereas hot water can help release them between three to five minutes, cold water doesn’t have the same energy and takes a lot longer.
Usually, the longer you leave it to steep, the better. The water can absorb more nutrients from the tea over eight hours instead of three. That’s why I would suggest always leaving it to cold-brew overnight.
Which way is better for me - hot or cold?
Both are equally good. If left to brew long enough, either hot or cold tea can provide you with the same health benefits.
Hot green tea usually has more caffeine in it than cold tea, so it depends if you want or need any caffeine when you drink it.
Can I get enough vitamin C from green tea?
Yes, vitamin C can be found in different types of green tea - but what is it? Vitamin C is a vital nutrient we need to maintain the growth and repair of our muscles, bones, and even teeth.
Vitamin C also boosts our immune system, helping to fend off illnesses more quickly. It can be found in varying concentrations in many different types of tea, with Sencha being the highest - containing roughly 50 percent more than red peppers, the highest among vegetables.
Can I use green tea without drinking it?
There are several ways to feel the benefits of green tea without having to drink it. The most common way is to apply it to your skin, though you can also ingest it as either a pill or a candy.
Depending on your circumstances, drinking green tea often may not be possible. If you still want to reap the health benefits provided though, then these are adequate methods to increase your green tea consumption without needing to actually drink it.
Face Mask with green tea
There are several dermatological benefits to green tea, and the vitamins and nutrients inside the leaves can benefit you in multiple ways. They can fight against skin cancer, skin aging, irritation, acne, and can even moisturize your skin.
You don’t need to spend lots of money on pre-made face masks either, because Healthline has created a useful 6-step walkthrough to make your own with natural, everyday household ingredients.
This easy-to-follow recipe will have you benefitting from everything green tea has to offer, and you’ll be able to rest assured that you are doing everything possible to protect your skin.
There’s also a low risk of side effects, so you shouldn’t have to worry about rashes or reactions though it may be safer to trial the mask on a small section of skin first.
If you suffer from sensitive skin, or are allergic to green tea in any way, it is thoroughly recommended that you speak to your doctor prior to using this mask.
Green Tea Pills
You can also take green tea in the form of capsules or pills. These pills are commonly used to promote weight loss, detoxify the body, and support your health.
You may be wondering how the natural weight loss pills work. The catechins in green tea actually increase your metabolic rate, which releases fatty acids, allowing your body to turn it into energy. This is the reason green tea works so well with exercise, because the physical exertion helps to burn these fatty deposits for energy at a faster rate.
It is the antioxidants found in green tea extract which are responsible for detoxifying your body. These antioxidants help to cleanse you of free radicals. These molecules are responsible for wreaking havoc on your body. Antioxidants are extremely effective at stopping them completely, enabling your body to remain fit and healthy.
Of course, consuming concentrated green tea extract in this form should not be done excessively. In high doses, green tea extract can be fatal so if you are consuming pills then you should make sure you stick to the guidelines to ensure no damage is done.
Green Tea Candy
Made from Benifuuki green tea, this candy owes its increasing popularity to the allergen relief properties it possesses. Benifuuki green tea candy contains high levels of Methylated Catechins, which are able to inhibit mast cell responses and reduce your hayfever.
Typically, Methylated Catechins have a bitter taste. However, since Benifuuki is grown in a specialized sugarcane soil, the sweetness has infused into the taste much more. This is an incredibly handy form of consuming green tea, because you can always keep some either in your bag or pocket.
They’re not too sweet, which makes them perfect to carry around with you. Simply pop one in your mouth when you feel any hay fever symptoms - or other allergies - and you should start to feel better.
How much green tea should I drink?
The optimal amount of green tea varies from person to person - but studies have shown that the more green tea you drink, the better. While studies suggest that people who drink 10 cups of green tea a day receive the biggest health benefits, this isn’t viable for most of us.
Instead, if you’re drinking green tea for its beneficial effects, I would suggest aiming to drink between three and five cups a day. If you’re drinking green tea for enjoyment though, then feel free to drink as much as you want to.
Looking for a 100% all-natural liquid tooth oil and mouth rinse? Check out OraMD Original Strength and OraMD Extra Strength. Subscribe to our Trusted Health Club newsletter for more information about natural living tips, natural health, oral health and skincare. If you are looking for more health resources make sure to check out the Trusted Health Resources list.
Written By:
Nina Stankova is a writer for Vita C. In her spare time, she likes to read books, go for long walks, hikes and cook. Nina is also an SEO executive for Breakline UK.
Reviewed By:
Founder Ray Spotts has a passion for all things natural and has made a life study of nature as it relates to health and well-being. Ray became a forerunner bringing products to market that are extraordinarily effective and free from potentially harmful chemicals and additives. For this reason Ray formed Trusted Health Products, a company you can trust for clean, effective, and healthy products. Ray is an organic gardener, likes fishing, hiking, and teaching and mentoring people to start new businesses. You can get his book for free, “How To Succeed In Business Based On God’s Word,” at www.rayspotts.com.
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