6 Benefits of Drinking Green Tea in the Morning
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Green tea – is it just a fad or are there really health benefits of drinking green tea?
The answer is: It can be really healthy for you, but isn’t a magic cure for everything like some myths may lead you to believe.
However, the health benefits of green tea have been touted for decades, despite only recently becoming really popular in the United States.
Green tea is used in traditional Chinese and Indian medicine and can help with several health problems.
However, there is still more scientific research to come, so while there are a lot of potential health benefits, this drink isn’t going to magically fix all of your problems.
This post is going to give you the low down on the health benefits of drinking green tea.
What makes green tea different from other tea?
While green tea has been becoming more popular, most of the tea consumption throughout the world is black tea.
Green tea is different from other teas because it is made from unoxidized tea leaves and is less processed than most other teas.
Because of that, green tea has more antioxidants and polyphenols than any other tea, which means it’s packed with tons of micronutrients.
1. Can help you manage caffeine addiction
For those of you – like me – who love a delicious cup of coffee to wake up each morning, you may have developed a caffeine addiction.
Caffeine, while healthy in small doses, can be disruptive to your mental health. Drinking caffeine can make you feel jittery and experience a racing heart rate.
These symptoms mirror common anxiety symptoms, so you’re body may interpret it’s response to caffeine as anxiety causing you to feel more anxious overall.
While green tea does contain caffeine, it contains less caffeine than coffee. Therefore, it can be a good substitute if you are looking to reduce your overall caffeine intake.
2. Can help you fight disease and potential health problems
Scientific studies have shown that green tea can help reduce risk of several health problems including cancer, cardiovascular disease, strokes, and type 2 diabetes.
However, research is still mixed and on-going, so again this drink will not be a cure all for your potential health issues.
But, research does collectively acknowledge that green tea is a really healthy beverage and the health benefits are vast.
3. Can lower cholesterol
Green tea has shown that can lower levels of bad cholesterol in adults.
Like all of these benefits, in order to see this in effect green tea must be consistently consumed over time.
4. Can improve brain functioning
Green tea can also help improve brain functioning. Because it contains some caffeine, but not enough to make you feel jittery, green tea impacts the brain in a positive way.
Caffeine blocks a neurotransmitter called adenosine and in turn promotes the concentration of neurotransmitters like dopamine.
5. Can be calming and reduce anxiety
Green tea can be really calming and can even help reduce anxiety.
Green tea contains the amino acid called L-theanine which enhances the activity of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. This leads to anti-anxiety effects.
Additionally, just sitting with a cup of warm tea and taking a minute for yourself can be relaxing just on it’s own!
Set aside a small amount of time in your morning routine to sit down on the couch or outside with a cup of green tea.
Reflect on your day ahead or focus on some mindful breathing as you enjoy your warm cup of green tea.
6. Can help you replace unhealthy beverages
Green tea is the healthiest beverage behind water.
Green tea on it’s own is a zero calorie beverage. That means green tea is a great substitute for any sugary beverages you are consuming regularly.
Replace your soda or sugary coffee drinks with green tea instead!
Not only is it a healthy beverage, but it can be a great drink replacement to help you reduce overall calorie and sugar intake.
If you are looking to use green tea as a healthy substitute for other sugary or high calorie beverages beware of certain pre-packaged green teas.
If you buy pre-bottled green tea be sure to check the label for any added sugar or ingredients that may make it unhealthier than just pure green tea.
Those are the six health benefits of drinking green tea in the morning.
Now, that leads us to an important question…
How much green tea do you need to drink to make see the health benefits?
In order to reap the full health benefits experts recommend drinking 3-5 cups per day.
However, if that doesn’t seem manageable, one cup of green tea a day is still healthy for you.
Where can you buy green tea?
You can purchase green tea in any major grocery store or you can order it online.
I usually just purchase it from Amazon and have it delivered right to my door.
However, I also like to hit up a local tea store to try new and different teas as well.
Here are some of my favorite green tea brands and varieties…
How should you drink green tea?
Green tea can be enjoyed in several different forms. You can use a tea bag in hot water to make traditional, warm green tea.
You can also brew the green tea and add it to ice to make iced green tea.
While adding sugar or cream can negate the health benefits of drinking green tea, there are other add-ins that you can use if you don’t favor the flavor of green tea on it’s own.
I like to add lemon slices or lemon juice to my green tea to enhance the flavor. You can also add some honey to your tea as well.
A final word on the health benefits of green tea…
There is tons of information out there on green tea and it’s potential health benefits – which is why it’s always important to do research.
The good news is that I did a lot of research for this post to sort through health benefits vs. myths to provide you with information which to the best of my knowledge and ability is accurate.
Some articles claim that green tea can be anti-aging and a weight loss miracle, but unfortunately these claims are not completely backed by scientific research.
While some studies have found that green tea can reduce risk of certain age-related conditions like Alzheimer’s, it is not necessarily a magical anti-aging potion.
Additionally, it’s not a miracle weight-loss fix. However, if you use it to substitute high-calorie or high-sugar beverages as discussed previously, you can reduce overall calorie intake and lose weight as a result.
That’s the low down on green tea health benefits.
Comment below with your favorite benefits of green tea.
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