I read Glory87's story and decided to get some of those "super foods" in me. As of yesterday, I have officially become addicted to green tea!
Is there a problem with drinking too much of this stuff? My husband says it's not good for you. I've been drinking about 5 cups a day and counting it as water.
Are you drinking decaf or regular green tea? I buy my green tea by the oz. at the farmers market I go to. I only drink 2 cups a day because of the caffeine content. I love it too.
Well, it doesn't say decaf. I thought herbal tea was all decaf. No wonder I'm bouncing up the stairs today! But that's a NSV for me - I usually drag myself up by the railing!
I don't how that rumor that tea has more caffiene than coffee got started, but it's just not true, especially of green tea. I just looked it up:
Quote:
According to the site's caffeine index, coffee has the most caffeine with 47-164 milligrams per 5 ounce serving. The caffeine content depends on how the coffee is brewed -- fresh drip has the highest level, instant has the lowest. Second place is a little more difficult to determine. A single serving of black tea (5 oz.) can have anywhere from 25 to 110 milligrams of caffeine, while a single serving of Coca-Cola (12 oz.) measures in with 46 milligrams. However, when you break it down to caffeine per ounce, tea handily beats Coke.
In the green tea site I checked, they said it has less caffiene than most other teas.
I have come to the conclusion the coffee lobby spread this rumor!
Aha! Wow, that's good to know, I've heard from everywhere over the years that green tea has more caffeine than coffee does! Thanks for setting me straight
Do you buy tea bags or use loose tea? I read somewhere that tea bags tend to have more caffeine than loose tea. Can't back that up, though.
I do remember that if you're using loose tea and concerned about caffeine, you can toss out your 1st steep -- 70% of the caffeine in loose tea is leeched out during the 1st infusion (something about caffeine being more easily released from the leaves than other compounds). If you're using a good, high-quality loose tea, you'll still have another 2 infusions left on that one batch of leaves, so it's still very cost-effective.
Thought I'd throw that in there.
Last edited by suitejudyblueeyes; 02-25-2008 at 09:57 AM.
Reason: typo
My mom's doctor told her not to drink green tea or take the supplements due to the caffeine in them. As for me, I have drank it in the past and well, it doesn't do anything for me except give me a guilty pleasure of drinking something that taste really good to me. I will say that I know a surgeon who is top in his field and I would let operate on me, my mother, my child who drinks green tea all the time and always has a very steady hand.
Well, green tea is one of the super foods so anything that helps me lose weight is tops in my book. Caffiene in moderation is not harmful unless you have a medical condition that it aggravates or are one of those people very sensitive to it. I did cut down to one or two cups a day. And tea DOES have less caffiene than coffee, contrary to popular myth.
green, white, red, and black tea are true (not herbal) teas (that is made from from tea leaves) and all have varying levels of caffeine. Herbal teas are made from plants other than the tea plant, are usually (but not always) caffeine free. There are other plants besides the coffee bean and tea leaf that are sometimes made into teas that contain caffeine and other stimulants (like ephedra).
I believe the confusion stems from the fact that tea leaves have more caffeine then coffee beans, but it is not as easily extracted by hot water. So brewed coffee has more caffeine then brewed tea.
I would suggest either cutting back to a cup or two (like you are doing) or either brewing the same bag multiple times or switching to decaf. Too much caffeine from any source is not a good idea.
Maybe it's just me, but I have yet to find a green tea that tastes like anything much at all . . . so far I'd just as soon have a cup of hot water.
How do you have yours? Do you have it with lemon; do you use a sweetener in it?
BTW . . . I love black tea but like it really, really strong.
You've got to oversteep it (I like it strong, too), and add a bit of honey and lemon. I make a big pot of it, put it in the fridge, and then heat it up or drink it as ice tea. It's really not bad at all. If you like black tea, throw a couple regular teabags in with the green tea to make it stronger.
Some people do put artificial sweetener in it, but I've found that any kind of tea tastes bad unless you use real sugar or honey.
Last edited by Phillygirl2; 03-16-2008 at 08:22 PM.
Green Tea
