green tea
 

What are your thoughts on green tea? Is it better to drink it or take it in a pill form? How much should I get? I know there are alot of benefits of it so I want to add it into my daily diet.

Pill form is useless.

Green tea is cheap and I don't drink it every day but I do drink it once in a while. A cup/day will provide many antioxidants and can also curb your appetite some.

I agree that the real stuff is the way to go as there are so many chemicals released and the pills do not replicate the entire beneficial array. I buy my green tea in loose form from the Japanese market. It is very green and the leaves are in pretty big pieces- they actually unfurl when brewing. Not cheap, but a little goes a long way. I keep it in a glass jar. In the summer it is good iced. The color is a shocking yellow!- nothing like the "green tea drinks" you see around. I do drink all kinds of teas and tisanes. I think variety is helpful and keeps you excited about drinking it, not the same old, same old, every day. Once I got into tea I found coffee just fell off the radar. I have it maybe when I go to breakfast with friends, or meet someone at a coffee house (cuz their tea usually tastes like lukewarm tap water), but not as a frequent beverage. I know recent reports say coffee can be good for you. I am just reporting that my taste buds changed. A good friend is a 54 year old kindergarten teacher who drinks home brewed ice tea in large quantities every day. Despite all the flying germs and snot she is rarely ill and has a ton of energy. Anecdotal evidence only of course, but interesting.

That is interesting, Tommy. I do have some green tea bags lying around that I bought a few months ago.

Can anyone tell me the difference in taste from, let's say just a tea bag of lipton tea?

In my experience (though it's a bit limited as I just started with loose tea) is that the bagged teas seem a bit duller than the loose. Even lipton now has loose tea, but I love getting mine from teavana! I bought myself a small glass teapot with a built in strainer, and some loose green tea and I love it! though right now I'm on a Lady Grey kick ;)

I'd be careful if your tea is bright yellow, you might be over steeping it, or the water might be too hot! Green tea, even from loose, whole leaf should still be rather pale if prepared correctly. It should only be steeped about 3 minutes. I LOVE loose leaf tea, I have about 50 different varieties in sample sizes from http://www.specialteas.com/ which is an excellent source of good tea if you can't find good variety locally!

Green tea tastes a lot more grassy, and light compared to black tea. That might not sound tasty, for some it is an acquired taste, but I love it. My personal favorite is Jasmine Green Tea, it smells fantastic!

Definitely grassy. It's holding me back, but I do love my black tea. I drink a lot of that, plain and iced, plus or minus lemon.

ok, I do understand the taste difference. Now, another question, please. I might have about 3 'swigs' of coffee in the morning b4 I go to work to get down my meds. Then, maybe in the after I'll have a cup to wake me up. Other than, I drink water. My questions is this... how does incorporating tea into my diet help me? How much do I take in place of the water I drink?

If you don't like the taste, white tea has a much more pleasant taste and actually has more antioxidants than green tea.

ladyviv - green tea is just good for antioxidants and can also help somewhat with hunger.

Green tea and white tea are both full of antioxidants. Green tea has minimal caffiene, you could try replacing your afternoon coffee with it for energy.

i think drinking it is better cuz it will curb your appetite and you can drink several cups a day

Pills=no.
that's my 2 cents. i tend to be a purist when it comes to food and health, and i just don't get the whole practice of discovering something beneficial and turning it into a pill. I think part of the reason that green tea is so beneficial a part of those eastern culture where it is widely consumed is that it is a part of their lifestyle.

Pure simple green tea steeped in water and drank several times throughout the day along with a diet high in vegetables etc. is not the same as popping a so called green tea pill and drinking your diet coke or whatever typical american foods we here tend to ingest. Not saying you do that, that's just a generalization of our country. :)

that aside, i have found that you need to find a good quality green tea to really decide that you like the taste. i've met a few people who say they dislike green tea, but they've only tried a crappy brand.
loose leaf would give you the best flavor, but that can usually only be found at specialty stores, asian supermarkets or healthfood stores.
as far as tea bags go, i prefer trader joes or newmans own. both are sold in a 40 pack for @ 3$. and taste pretty good.

I now drink more tea than I do coffee, which in its self has to be better for me. Quite a switch for this Java junkie too.
Try Trader Joe's green tea, and yes you do get used to the taste.

i love green tea. I drink this and water.

I have a Mr. Coffee tea maker. My SO drinks black tea, I make green tea.

My favorite mix is Lee's Organic green tea (3 tea bags) and 1 White tea with blueberries and pomegranate.

I make 3 quarts and sweeten it with 1/4 cup honey. Makes it a pretty low cal drink. 20 cs a glass.

can´t confirm that. my pills (levocaptine) have green tea in it and they are not useless at all. it´s got some additional ingredients, so it it might be true, that the additional stuff is doing the job, but I wouldn´t call green tea as pills useless. have you ever tried any product with grean tea so far?