03.17.05
Posted in Green Tea in General, Health Benefits of Green Tea at 3:05 pm by site admin
Way back when I first started, I posted something to this effect on my green tea homepage. The reason I did that was because I’d researched and found quite a few studies done on this in Japan. It didn’t take long for the FDA to send me a nasty gram telling me I needed to remove that ASAP, which I did. Now, never did I claim that green tea cured cancer, only that studies suggested it, which was true. I guess I should have had more backbone and told the FDA where to go, but I complied. That being the case, I do feel somewhat vindicated today - check out the article for yourself. Green Tea fights cancer - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7187847/
Permalink
02.20.05
Posted in Green Tea in General, Health Benefits of Green Tea at 10:52 pm by site admin
A reader asks…
Hi,
I’ve just received my first shipment of Matcha and Sencha from your company. Could you please tell me what the breakdown of these teas is? I am interested to know the nutritional value based on a per teaspoon amount, if possible. Such as how many calories, carbohydrates, fiber grams (enough to help with irregularity?), fat, vitamin B, E etc.
I also would like a better understanding of the difference between health benefits with Matcha and Sencha, and will I get the same health benefit from eating the Matcha powder as drinking it(adding it to foods)?
How many 1 teaspoon servings per day does your company recommend for the health benefit of these teas?
Okay, you asked me a lot, so I’ll try my best here, heh.
Matcha and Sencha has 0%: calories, cholesterol, fat, sodium, carbohydrates, protein.
Regarding vitamins, I’m going to refer you to these pages:
http://www.o-cha.com/green-tea-benefits.htm
http://www.greenteabenefits.us/green-tea-health.htm
Matcha and Sencha have different levels of amino acids vs. catechins, although they each have some of both.
Matcha - best to drink it fresh, but you can add it to many kinds of foods. The key on green tea is “freshness”. It’s very important, I cannot emphasize that enough. Old green tea or green tea that isn’t packaged correctly oxidizes, and you want it to have “antioxidant” properties, right?!
I recommend a teaspoon a day of loose leaf green tea. One teaspoon makes about 3 infusions, so that should be enough but you can do more. I don’t believe there is a set amount, basically the more you drink the better. Also, a bowl of matcha is a nice supplement to that. You can balance the properties of each out that way. That’s what I do here.
Regarding brewing - how you brew has some effect. First, if you brew hotter, it releases more tannin and gives you a more astringent taste. If you brew on the cooler side, it gives a more mellow taste. This varies depending on the green tea you are selection. I don’t think it’s that critical for health benefits, but it is for achieving the taste you are looking for.
Permalink
11.23.04
Posted in Green Tea in General, Health Benefits of Green Tea at 2:37 am by site admin
Hardly a day goes by without someone asking me , Will green tea help me lose weight? Since I run my own online green tea shop, it might be surprising that I would answer “no” to this, but I must. If you take a good gander at our site, you’ll notice that we do not tout this. The reason for that is, it’s simply not my style to make money off of other peoples misfortunes, especially when I’ve yet to be convinced that it will really help a person lose weight. What do I base my answer on? Personal experience mostly, but also from the fact that I’ve yet to run across one good study from anyplace I consider legitime that shows weight loss attributed to green tea. Not saying it isn’t out there, mind you, just that I haven’t seen it yet.
The green tea and weightloss questions started coming in full bore about a year ago, and haven’t let up. Gosh, I wish it were only true - no one would be thinner than me. Believe me, I drink the good stuff, and a lot of it. It seems green tea is the new way to make a fast buck in the weightloss industry. Green tea patches, green tea extract, crappy green tea from China. I only bring this up because I’m the guy who ends up having to answer the emails and dash peoples hopes. And let me tell you, some people don’t appreciate it when I won’t tell them what they want to hear.
Here’s what I can tell you about green tea and weightloss. First, there is about 30mg of caffeine in a cup of green tea, which is slightly less than a regular cup of tea, and much less than a cup of drip coffee. So, technically, the caffeine in green tea will raise ones metabolism to a certain extent, and *might* have a tiny effect for weightloss. Because of this, I guess some can claim it will help with weightloss and not be held liable.
Okay, so it doesn’t do much for weightloss - the stuff is still awesome. Green tea has extremely well documented and researched health benefits, health benefits that are noticeable as soon as you start drinking it. Soon, I’ll explain why green tea is so special…
Permalink
RSS
