GREEN TEA

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  • faithyang
    faithyang Posts: 297 Member
    edited June 2015
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    I drink at least 3 big cups of green tea every single day.
    It's really good for you. Asians believe that black and green tea with (especially fattening) foods is good for your digestion, skin, and for losing weight. They believe that it burns / melts fat. It basically comes from the thinking that cold drinks with food tends to coagulate fats and make it 'tough' and hard, and hot drinks, especially tea, melts fat. Its one reason why you see many Asians 'washing' cutlery using tea in many cheap Chinese food joints because the cutlery tends to be oily from a lack of proper washing of the utensils (this is a massive stereotype of course but it does happen.)

    Green tea has actually been proven to aid with weight loss: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/green-tea-inhibits-weight-gain-study-20111007-1lcs4.html

    But its really important to buy GOOD QUALITY GREEN TEA. I've tried being cheap with my green tea because I drink so much and bought some cheap tea bags from a supermarket a long time back. It was NASTY. Horrible, tinny, bland, very dull, VERY disgustingly and offensively grassy and almost cloying. Good green tea is crisp, clear, has a mild, well-rounded taste that isn't grassy at all, but a slight pleasant floral scent which is much more prominent if its green tea scented with jasmine. The water you use is equally important. Clean, cold filtered water brought to 80 degrees (not boiling or you will burn the tea), before steeping for at least 3 min.

    I find that I lose weight much faster WITH green tea than without. Case in point, when I was overseas for a month I did not have access to green tea because of many factors, but had access to a gym. My weight loss was slow and I had stubborn stomach fat which just wouldn't go away but actually built up. I had constant bloating as well - which sucked. When I came back, it was back to green tea, and 3 weeks later I noticed my stomach paunch had reduced significantly, bloating all but disappeared, and I lost 3kg.

    Green tea is great, but if you can't take it you can always go for black tea, and gradually work your way down milder black teas, Oolong, then green tea.
  • taentea
    taentea Posts: 91 Member
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    Whitezombiegirl wrote: »
    taentea wrote: »
    Some of those teas also help mental clarity and increase my energy levels in a way somewhat similar to coffee's but milder and more prolonged.

    Green tea can be high in caffine- so tea/coffee- whatever. It's the caffine.
    Caffeine may be caffeine everywhere but amounts of it are different, also stuff that accompanies caffeine in the drink is different. I will not pretend to know the exact science behind all of this, but I know these two drinks affect me differently.

    I drink coffee because I enjoy the smell and taste but it's always a bit of a lottery for me. I have anxiety issues caused by blood vessels issues and occasionally blood pressure spikes. Coffee sometimes gives me major headaches, sends my heart racing and makes me excited in the bad uncomfortable way ( still worth it =) ). Its boost also doesn't last very long. The effect is instant and I would sometimes drink a cup to get me through an hour of extra work at night but it never carried me through the whole night. It actually makes me sleepy after an hour or two.

    Tea makes me feel more focused but does not overstimulate. I actually feel surprisingly calm while drinking it and sleep fine afterwards. There also doesn't seem to be an abrupt drop of energy related to it (maybe because the effect is not as strong and I can sip it for hours). Maybe its the lower amounts of caffeine, maybe other elements that make the release of caffeine to the blood system slower somehow, maybe it's blood vessel widening quality – I honestly don't know. But I know for a fact that these drinks do not feel the same.

    To be fair, there are many kinds of teas and many ways to brew them. Obviously they do not all feel the same. I prefer oolongs personally and brew my greens lightly. A big mug of a 10min+ brew of green tea would most likely have a much stronger effect.
  • sherry_80
    sherry_80 Posts: 86 Member
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    I work at a physical therapy clinic and 90% patients are Asian. They are elderly and bring there own tea. They tell me they drink tea every day. These patients are 70-80 years old & dont look there age. There active, work out every day- Tia chi is the exercise of choice. I believe them when they recommend a tea for me. The only thing I have to get a friend to translate because I don't understand them.
  • NoIdea101NoIdea
    NoIdea101NoIdea Posts: 659 Member
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    faithyang wrote: »
    I drink at least 3 big cups of green tea every single day.
    It's really good for you. Asians believe that black and green tea with (especially fattening) foods is good for your digestion, skin, and for losing weight. They believe that it burns / melts fat. It basically comes from the thinking that cold drinks with food tends to coagulate fats and make it 'tough' and hard, and hot drinks, especially tea, melts fat. Its one reason why you see many Asians 'washing' cutlery using tea in many cheap Chinese food joints because the cutlery tends to be oily from a lack of proper washing of the utensils (this is a massive stereotype of course but it does happen.)

    Green tea has actually been proven to aid with weight loss: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/green-tea-inhibits-weight-gain-study-20111007-1lcs4.html

    But its really important to buy GOOD QUALITY GREEN TEA. I've tried being cheap with my green tea because I drink so much and bought some cheap tea bags from a supermarket a long time back. It was NASTY. Horrible, tinny, bland, very dull, VERY disgustingly and offensively grassy and almost cloying. Good green tea is crisp, clear, has a mild, well-rounded taste that isn't grassy at all, but a slight pleasant floral scent which is much more prominent if its green tea scented with jasmine. The water you use is equally important. Clean, cold filtered water brought to 80 degrees (not boiling or you will burn the tea), before steeping for at least 3 min.

    I find that I lose weight much faster WITH green tea than without. Case in point, when I was overseas for a month I did not have access to green tea because of many factors, but had access to a gym. My weight loss was slow and I had stubborn stomach fat which just wouldn't go away but actually built up. I had constant bloating as well - which sucked. When I came back, it was back to green tea, and 3 weeks later I noticed my stomach paunch had reduced significantly, bloating all but disappeared, and I lost 3kg.

    Green tea is great, but if you can't take it you can always go for black tea, and gradually work your way down milder black teas, Oolong, then green tea.

    A couple of quotes from the article which stuck out at me-I'm not a scientific kinda gal, so if anyone could clarify for me, that would be great as I do find these sorts of things interesting:

    "Extrapolating from the mice study, Lambert says a human being would have to drink 10 cups of green tea per day to ingest a dose of EGCG equivalent to that given to the mice, but further research is required to establish a more effective dose, and what the magnitude of the effect actually is."

    So are they saying that you would have to drink at least 10 cups of tea a day? But they aren't actually sure, and they aren't actually sure of the effects of drinking green tea in regards to weight loss when it comes to humans (as in, how much you would have to drink for it to have an effect, IF it has an effect)? Which kinda discredits this 'study' right there if I have understood that correctly? They then go on to say:

    "Studies suggest that approximately 150mgs of green tea is needed to gain a therapeutic effect, which is approximately three-to-four cups daily," she says. "Dosage must be kept to three-to-four cups per day due to the caffeine content of green tea, [and] there is no data regarding toxicity of long term use."

    So now are they saying that you would have to drink at least 10 cups of the stuff, but due to the caffeine in green tea it is only recommended to drink 3-4 cups anyway? So you would have the choice of drinking too much and over caffeinating yourself and *maybe* it may have *some* effect although they don't actually KNOW yet if it will have an effect on humans, or just having the recommended 3-4 cups daily which they say is 'therapeutic' but won't assist in weight loss?

    Sorry, I flunked Science as you can probably tell, but this article has really confused me seeing as it has been posted to 'prove' that green tea can aid in weight loss.



  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    No green tea does nothing for weight loss. It's about cico, not magical teas. If you don't like it, don't drink it. I think it tastes awful so I don't drink it.
  • Jaxxie1181
    Jaxxie1181 Posts: 138 Member
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    kxbrown27 wrote: »
    So much green tea hate on these boards. No, it won't help you burn belly fat like some websites claim, but it tastes delicious.

    ^This. I love a berry infused green tea. Just enough caffeine to keep my going and it tastes amazing.

  • arctic_al
    arctic_al Posts: 1 Member
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    Green tea has actually been proven to help aid weight loss when drank with a healthy balanced diet. It can speed up your metabolism if you drink 4-5 cups a day. I've done this for the past few months and have lost 10lbs.

  • 11Adams11wife11
    11Adams11wife11 Posts: 66 Member
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    Seems like my original question has spiked a lot of interest.
    I didn't like the green tea so I'll be sticking to bottled or tap water.
    Thanks for all your comments :-)
  • Jaxxie1181
    Jaxxie1181 Posts: 138 Member
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    11Adams11wife11 wrote: »
    Seems like my original question has spiked a lot of interest.
    I didn't like the green tea so I'll be sticking to bottled or tap water.
    Thanks for all your comments :-)

    Yeah, definitely don't consume something you don't like, because at the end of the day there isn't a magic potion that will aid in weight loss or fat blasting. Life's too short to eat and drink things that suck :wink:
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    edited June 2015
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    arctic_al wrote: »
    Green tea has actually been proven to help aid weight loss when drank with a healthy balanced diet. It can speed up your metabolism if you drink 4-5 cups a day. I've done this for the past few months and have lost 10lbs.

    Making origami every day, when combined with a healthy balanced diet, also promotes weight loss. Clearly it's the origami (and or green tea), and not the healthy balanced diet.
  • 11Adams11wife11
    11Adams11wife11 Posts: 66 Member
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    Jaxxie1181 wrote: »
    11Adams11wife11 wrote: »
    Seems like my original question has spiked a lot of interest.
    I didn't like the green tea so I'll be sticking to bottled or tap water.
    Thanks for all your comments :-)

    Yeah, definitely don't consume something you don't like, because at the end of the day there isn't a magic potion that will aid in weight loss or fat blasting. Life's too short to eat and drink things that suck :wink:
    That is very true! :-)
    Would be ace if there was a magic potion though.... ;-)
  • mburgess458
    mburgess458 Posts: 480 Member
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    I drink green tea for health benefits (high catechin content).....and I like the taste with a lemon wedge added.

    http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/health-benefits-of-green-tea

  • 11Adams11wife11
    11Adams11wife11 Posts: 66 Member
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    mburgess458 wrote: »
    I drink green tea for health benefits (high catechin content).....and I like the taste with a lemon wedge added.

    http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/health-benefits-of-green-tea

    I've only ever tried one flavour. It's tetleys berry burst BOOST. I didn't taste any berry flavour though :-/ I love lemon, never thought to add a wedge of it. :-)
  • temazur
    temazur Posts: 76 Member
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    I used to mix green tea powder into my water. It was pretty awesome, gave a nice flavor to the water and didn't need sweetened. It felt like it had some diuretic properties, but not as much as coffee, so it helped whenever I felt bloated, too.

    I found that because it was flavored my cravings for soda and diet sodas went down, too.

    Obviously, everyone's mileage may vary, but I like it. I need to get another giant bag of it again.
  • colors_fade
    colors_fade Posts: 464 Member
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    The benefit of green tea, as I have come to understand it, has to do with the fact that it provides antioxidants, which fight damage done by free radicals that occur when exercising (and as a natural process of being alive). This is why bodybuilders and other lifting types - folks who exercise a lot - espouse the benefits of green tea so much (Scooby as an example).

    So, if you're trying to lose weight, eating at a calorie deficit, and working out, you may find some benefit to drinking green tea. It won't burn fat; but it will help fight free radicals.
  • 11Adams11wife11
    11Adams11wife11 Posts: 66 Member
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    colors_fade wrote: »
    The benefit of green tea, as I have come to understand it, has to do with the fact that it provides antioxidants, which fight damage done by free radicals that occur when exercising (and as a natural process of being alive). This is why bodybuilders and other lifting types - folks who exercise a lot - espouse the benefits of green tea so much (Scooby as an example).

    So, if you're trying to lose weight, eating at a calorie deficit, and working out, you may find some benefit to drinking green tea. It won't burn fat; but it will help fight free radicals.

    I have a "friend" on Facebook who constantly uploads photos of herself saying that the green tea she's drinking is literally melting the fat off her... But there's absolutely no difference in the whole time she's been drinking it (4/5 weeks) !! She also isn't eating healthy, exercising and has a bottle of wine a day... But like someone already said - it's not a magic potion.

    Thanks for taking the time to reply :-)
  • jjalbertt
    jjalbertt Posts: 98 Member
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    arctic_al wrote: »
    Green tea has actually been proven to help aid weight loss when drank with a healthy balanced diet. It can speed up your metabolism if you drink 4-5 cups a day. I've done this for the past few months and have lost 10lbs.
    Def has a lot of health benefits. Like reducing bloating and helping with your skin!

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