Is green tea toxic to our health?

Introduction

Do you want to increase your metabolism and burn your fat? Then, drink GREEN TEA!

I think you heard people saying the above statement often. I too heard many of my friends suggest me to take a sip once in the morning.

But do you know, 80% of the people who drink green tea, DO IT IN A WRONG WAY?

Yes! you heard it right. Most people do not know how to select the right green tea. Moreover, they fumble in preparing the right green tea drink.

So, let’s dig deep into it and find out the fascinating facts about green tea.

Green Tea – Global demand

Green tea belongs to the land of Asia and is highly cultivated in India and China. In recent times an urge for high anti-oxidant inputs has driven green tea to the limelight. Most doctors and dieticians are recommending green tea to increase body metabolism.

Almost 20% of the world population who drink tea prefer green tea. Hence it has a global demand which is increasing day by day. But on the other hand, the increased demand has not been supported with the same output.

As a result, we are now seeing more counterfeit green tea packets in the market to curb the rising global demand for GREEN TEA. Hence be cautious while buying these packs. 

Extraction of Green Tea

Usually, the leaves of camellia Sinensis are fermented and oxidized to prepare tea powder. The process of oxidation makes the leaves dry and brown in color.

This process has a few disadvantages, where the natural flavonoids are lost in the leaves.

On the other hand, for preparing green tea, the leaves are not oxidized which retains flavonoids, polyphenols, and other antioxidants.

For preparing green tea, the leaves have to be fresh and should not undergo any fermentation. To preserve the freshness, the leaves are steam processed immediately after picking them from plants.

This makes green tea a clear winner in proving high levels of antioxidants to the body.

How is green tea different from Black tea and coffee?

All these above drinks have one thing in common. They all have caffeine in them. Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant. It helps in better thinking and aids in producing Euphoria.

But on the other hand, the effects of caffeine act like a double-edged sword on the human body. In most instances, people get addicted to caffeinated liquids. As a result of prolonged usage, these people become habituated to caffeinated drinks.

As a result, they become drug dependent. A state of addiction. In normal terms, have you ever seen people becoming frustrated and nervous when they do not get the right amount of coffee or tea?

But green tea is a bit different from all the other drinks. They have minimum levels of caffeine when compared to coffee or tea. 

Hence, doctors around the world are in favor of green tea when compared to other caffeinated drinks.

How green tea acts on the body?

Green tea contains 40-50% polyphenols by weight. They are the primary sources of antioxidants in the body. 

Moreover, the main polyphenol in green tea is catechins like Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG helps in preventing cell damage from free radicals in the body.

Benefits of Green tea

Green tea contains high concentrations of antioxidants. Hence they are known to fight against cancer by decreasing tumor growth in the body.

A study published in the Journal of the American medical association found a significant decrease in mortality from cardiovascular diseases in patients drinking green tea.

Green tea helps in reducing bad cholesterol in the body. Hence it helps decrease the fat content in the body. Moreover, it helps in weight reduction and increases the metabolism of the body.

A study published in the Annals of internal medicine has advocated that drinking 6 cups of green tea can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 33%.

Green tea is found to reduce the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. 

Be aware of green tea!

After knowing the benefits, I think now you will have the urge to drink green tea every day.  Right? But, wait!

Don’t be in a hurry. Here is the right point you should know before getting acquainted with green tea.

Many of us don’t know the right way to drink green tea. Moreover, we certainly do some flaws while buying these premium products. So let’s see them in detail.

Low cost

Cost is an important factor when buying any product. We tend to buy a low-cost product in a given segment. This is a human tendency.

But the cost comes with quality. There are many brands that sell green tea at much cheaper prices. But these products are of sub-optimal quality and are not useful in any sense to us.

For example, low-cost green tea sachets have more dust in them than green tea powder. This type of adulteration is more common in Asian countries like India. In order to maintain the flavor, they add flavoring agents to the powder.

On the other hand, these low-cost green tea packs contain age-old tea leaves. Usually, as the age of the tea leaf increases, the number of antioxidants in it would decrease in proportion.

The so-called low-cost green tea packs contain powder made of age-old leaves. Hence they might not carry any medicinal value with them.

Premium quality comes with a price

How to prepare green tea?

I have seen people preparing green tea in an unconventional way which is almost wrong in terms of maintaining medicinal value.

People usually do 2 mistakes while preparing green tea.

1. They usually boil green tea with powder
2. They just keep the powder in a sachet in hot water for 2-5 minutes.

But both methods are wrong. They don’t add any medicinal value to your drink.  Because the flavonoids and polyphenols are very sensitive to temperature.

These anti-oxidants cannot withstand high temperatures and usually are eliminated completely when you boil the drink.

On the other hand, adding green tea powder to hot water is not advised, as the high temperatures are not good for anti-oxidants.

The right way

The right way to prepare green tea is to add a half glass of cold water to another half glass of fresh HOT water. Then add the green tea powder sachet of spray the green tea powder over the water and close it with a lid.

Do not disturb the cup for 2-3 minutes. But not more than 3 minutes. And do not stir the water with green tea. Just spray them over the water.

Stirring with a spoon or leaving the powder for a long time over the water can produce bitterness in the drink. 

After 5 minutes, you can have green tea which is high in antioxidants.

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