When it comes to drinks you serve at home, it is hard to find something refreshing and sometimes sweet.  There are no drinks you can buy in the grocery without ‘fructose’ or apple juice as their main sweetening agent.  The affordable healthy choices are limited to Concord grape juice and orange juice. 

Enter green tea.   While teas in general are thought to detoxify your body, green tea has been one of the more highly emphasized teas in recent years primarily because it has more flavonoids, and it oxidizes less which in turn means more antioxidants.   Why?  While both Green Tea and Black tea come from the same Camellia Sinesis plant; Green tea encounters less abuse in the preparation process.  It’s steamed and dried quickly thus leaving the leaves… green.  White tea is green tea less the caffeine.  Caffeine by the way is what gives coffee and tea its bitter taste.  

The health benefits are:

Here is the key to green tea.  Ice cold green tea is virtually useless.  You need to drink it hot or freshly brewed.   Also don’t make your tea with boiling water, very hot water is sufficient.   The higher quality green tea used the lower the temperature.  High grade green tea should be infused at approximately 60 degrees Celsius to 140 degrees.  If you are using bagged green tea the temperature would be as high as 180 degrees (still not boiling).   Steeping time is approximately 90 seconds.   Why so short?   Two reasons, it becomes bitter if you steep a tea too long.  Different tea’s have different ideal steeping times.

You’ll notice that ECGC is mentioned.  Research this and it’s touted as a big deal antioxidant as outlined above.  However be advised that after drinking a single glass of hot green tea, less than 5 percent of ECGC ever makes it through your liver into your bloodstream.   But hey… some is better than none.

Like most anything that is either bad or good for you, consistency and moderation are important factors in success.  You have to drink a lot, but not too much. You have to drink on a steady basis.   

I’m big on resveratrol which is in red wine.  It is highly regarded for its own anti-oxidants (anti-aging properties).  I’ve been watching the news over the past few years seeing that a time is fast upon us when that important ingredient is placed in a health pill so you do not have to consume red wine in order to gain its health benefits.  Fortunately if you do consume a good amount of green tea (fresh-brewed of course), studies reveal the anti-oxidants in green tea are twice as strong as resveratrol.  

RESOURCES: PUBMED: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12118006?dopt=Abstract

European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, Dr. Nikolaos Alexopoulos