Adding honey to your green tea

brn_deveney

I recently added one tablespoon of honey to my green tea. It contains 16 g of sugar and 17 g of carbs. Is this OK for me to do so or should I refrain from it due to the high sugar content?

Old_Cat_Lady

I never thought of adding any kind of sugar to wonderfully tasting green tea.

French_Peasant

Do you have a medical reason to restrict sugar under the counsel of a doctor? Can you fit 64 additional calories into your day? Does the drink keep you from reaching for a 150 calorie soda? Does it fit in with your overall nutritional goals? If the answer to the first question is NO and the other three YES, some honey should be fine.

I love honey and will sometimes have it with black tea (never green or jasmine--they stand on their own) and will generally have it with 0% plain greek yogurt. I do try to scale it back more to the half-tablespoon range. Honey has all kinds of properties and micronutrients that are just being studied and are not fully understood, both nutritionally and medically, and there is some fascinating peer-reviewed medical research available on it. I don't think a tiny amount of honey will have any sort of nutritional impact beyond regular sugar, I just think it's a really cool and amazing substance--one of the little miracles of nature created by your friendly neighborhood bees.

Old_Cat_Lady

Could you be "burning" your green tea? Green Tea is very delicate. I do not let the water boil fully. You could also be squeezing the bag. Google: How to make green tea the right way.
You could be making it bitter by mistake. I also buy Bigelow and not the cheap stuff.

rheddmobile

Unless you need to restrict sugar, there's nothing technically wrong with it, but it seems like a waste of good tea... green tea should not need sweetener.

To put one tablespoon of honey in context, the American Diabetic Association counts carbs by "points" with one carb point being 12 - 15g net carbs. They recommend no more than 3 "points" at a sitting. For me, a fairly well controlled diabetic not on glucose lowering medication, 15g of straight sugar will raise my blood glucose between 15 and 30 points, depending on how high it was when I started, from 70 (getting to be low) to 100 (top end of normal), or if it was normal to begin with to about 115 (within normal levels for post meals.) Eaten by itself, this is a modest amount of sugar equivalent to one piece of fruit. However, if you were to eat it with a meal containing other foods often eaten with green tea such as rice, you could easily find yourself going over the 45g limit for diabetics.

If you aren't a diabetic, you can safely eat more than 45g at a time - it's only something you need to be concerned about in the context of a diet high in sugar overall. Since you are asking the question, I'm guessing the rest of your diet is pretty healthy, so relax.

CMNVA

I put sugar in my tea all the time. I've tried to do without and can wean myself out of sugar for most anything, but not with tea for some reason. I buy wonderful tea, cheap tea, any kind and it's all the same. No matter how I brew it, there is a harsh edge to it (TO ME) that a small amount of sugar takes care of.

I actually don't drink green tea because I can't find one I'll like and I've paid $$$ trying all sorts of expensive ones. Even lived in Japan for awhile. I can choke it down, but it is better to me with a little sweetener. I do envy folks who can drink/enjoy it as is. I can't and I stopped beating myself up about it.

Hamsibian

Green tea and honey is what I look forward to every evening. I used to put a tablespoon's worth, but reduced it to a teaspoon since I am watching my carbs. I still have have some nights where i drink an extra cup or two. If it fits in your diet, go for it! Got to love the honey!

Ready2Rock206

Just be sure you're logging the calories for it. There's no reason to fear sugar unless you have a medical reason or it prevents you from obtaining your other goals.

kikicooks

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

Just be sure you're logging the calories for it. There's no reason to fear sugar unless you have a medical reason or it prevents you from obtaining your other goals.

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