Green Tea

ellentravis

Hi, ladies,

I've seen a lot of talk about Green Tea on here -- how it's got antioxidants, speeds up your metabolism and is generally gonna make your healthy eating habits and workouts do more for you. That's AWESOME! But which Green Tea? Store brand? Trader Joe's? Or the real stuff from tea leaves? Anyone have the answer? I'd love to add this weapon to my arsenal, but I'd hate to be caffeinating in vain!

Thank you so much!

ILoveToRobot

I used to drink off the shelf green tea. It's not "bad" for you but it's not the best either. If you're looking for the best option possible it will also be brewing your own leaves. As I understand it there are tannins in shelf tea but not in home brewed. Tannins have been linked to cancers (but hey what isn't).

If you're going to drink a liter of tea a day I'd suggest brewing your own but if you're going to have a couple cups I don't see anything wrong with using shelf tea.

I'd suggest looking up some of the side effects of green tea as well. It can cause diarrhea, headaches etc. So depending on your caffeine intake and tea tolerance I'd start out slow and work your way up. One thing about green tea that I experienced was nausea and vomiting if I didn't have a meal before drinking it. But I do know there are people out there who drink it on an empty stomach with no problems.

ellentravis

ILoveToRobot (Great name, btw), thank you for this. Very good advice. I get nauseated on Green tea, too. It's potent stuff. I was just thinking about drinking a cup four days a week or so. I'm not really rigid about anything except losing these last 4 pounds. If a little bit of brewing the leaves is in order, well, I guess I've got another project on my hands...

THANKS!

ginny814

I looooove Teavana's Moroccan Mint green tea. 

http://www.teavana.com/the-teas/green-teas/p/moroccan-mint-green-tea

It's loose-leaf tea so you need to get your own tea bags for them but it's super good and super good for you!  Lots of antioxiants!  Supposedly drinking a cup of day significantly reduces your risk of getting cancer??  I don't drink it every day, but I do a few times a week.  It's great warm drink for this cold weather!

I bought a HUGE cannister of the Teavana tea and it lasts forever!  I do have a few store-bought bags from the shelves but I think the overall taste and quality of something like Teavana is much better.

J&K10910

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_getting-shape_green-tea-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:238Discussion:6f07a364-c8b8-4841-b8e5-6025aaef1ad9Post:4d898da5-c40b-437d-9ddb-760745673b4c">Re: Green Tea</a>:
[QUOTE]ILoveToRobot (Great name, btw), thank you for this. Very good advice. I get nauseated on Green tea, too. It's potent stuff. I was just thinking about drinking a cup four days a week or so. I'm not really rigid about anything except losing these last 4 pounds. If a little bit of brewing the leaves is in order, well, I guess I've got another project on my hands... THANKS!
Posted by ellentravis[/QUOTE]

Drinking that much isn't really going to do much of anything for you, except get you a few extra antioxidants.  The people who lose fat on it are drinking about 4-5 cups a DAY or taking it in supplement form.  And as far as revving the metabolism, it's a temporary effect caused by caffeine in general.  So you don't have to drink green tea to get the effect, but it's really very minimal.