is green tea really that good for you?

ive heard people say green tea is very cleansing and good for you. is this true and if so whats it do?
i have some and i used to drink some but it didnt seem to be making me feel any different, just a yuk taste in my mouth after drinking it. should i make it a habit to drink it again?

A quick google search produced this: http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa011400a.htm

i dont have any proof or anyhting but after drinking green tea for an extended period of time i do feel better.

Green tea is full of good antioxidants.
Try it slowly. Its something you really have to develop a taste for, but once you do, its addictive! (a good addiction)
I like lipton brand "mixed berry" green tea. It has a much less harsh taste than the regular kind.

If the tea tastes too bitter, chances are the water is too hot. Let the water come off of the boil for a few minutes before steeping. Ideally the water's temp should be around 60-70 C. Also, green tea should not steep for more than a minute, 90 seconds tops. Overextracting is another great way to get a bitter taste.

Keep in mind that other than the caffeine you won't likely feel much different. The benefit of green tea is in its antioxidants (as MynameisnotDeja pointed out), which means that you will have improved health, reduced risk of cancer, and possibly increased longevity. Just because you can't feel this doesn't mean that it isn't working.

Check out a good tea shop. Tea's can range from $2 to $2000 a gram. Most of the supermarket-tea's are pretty shocking.

Dave said:

Also, green tea should not steep for more than a minute, 90 seconds tops.

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Is this just to avoid a bitter taste, or are there any other reasons?

Just for the taste. Most of the good stuff (polyphenols and catechins) are fairly water soluble, so you don't gain much as far as health benefits by steeping it for longer than 60-90 sec. But if you let it steep longer, it starts to taste like ass pretty quickly.

And I forgot to mention: get loose, whole-leaf tea. Filterbags are just the low-grade floor sweepings leftover from when the good stuff is sorted. While it can be expensive, there are usually some reasonably priced whole leaf varieties around. Look for a bulk sencha variety; they tend to have a stronger 'vegetabley' flavour (in my mind not dissimilar to asparagus) even with the short steeping time. Or if you have some extra cash and want something with a very mild flavour, look for white tea, or rolled tea.

Also, if you're used to the 'eye opener' effect of coffee, try matcha. It's a finely ground green tea that you suspend in warm (no more than 60 C) water instead of steeping. So a) you get ALL of the good stuff in tea, even the stuff that doesn't extract right away b) you get a solid hit of caffeine similar to a small (~6 oz) cup of coffee and c) a longer-lasting caffeine stimulation without the characteristic caffeine crash that one gets from coffee. It lasts roughly 4-5 hours (to baseline) whereas with coffee I'm at baseline after ~90 minutes.

Can you tell that I love green tea?

Good post. :D

i only heard of all the great effects of green tea, im not even sure if it works, but hey i figure why not, i try to drink about 3 cups of green tea a day, and also tonz of water..but thats me, im a health freak!

many people say green tea has a slight fat burning property, but i def. wouldnt rely on it. mynameisnotdeja knows her shit, as its the antioxidants that make drinking the tea benificial.

if you hate the tea you can get some of the benifits in pill form, but id say the tea is the best. this way youre getting water as well, an easy way to contribute to the 8 glasses a day thing. i like green tea with mint occasionaly as well, i find it settles the stomach. i will have to try the berry one.

women need to watch out if consuming tea after a meal, especially if you dont consume meat. the tannins (a molecule) in the tea can inhibit iron absorption. drinking tea occasionally with a meal is fine, but in some it can lead to an iron deficiency if done over a longer period.

another thing to watch (esp for women)is caffiene. any caffiene can contribute to bone loss. so if you pounding back the tea just keep these things in mind. most people are fine and tea is very benificial, but for some other problems can arise. my bfs mother has iron def from tea, and i had to cut out caffiene because of a low bone density.

on a side note, i always find its impossible to duplicate the amazing green tea from japanese restaurants. i want the secret lol.

This might seem a little funny, forgive me please. I drink the "Sobe Green Tea" once in a while, and I do enjoy it. However, from reading this thread, it seems that maybe that kind of "green tea" is too commercialized. Any input on this?

If it is one of the commercial iced grean tea drinks, then chances are it has a little bit of green tea extract and a fuckload of sugar. I've not tried the particular drink that you mentioned, but I would imagine that it is the case. Just check the ingredient list, and if anything other than water is before green tea (or more likely green tea concentrate/extract), then IMO it isn't worth the cost.

Granted, it would be better for you than cola, but then again nearly anything is

Cupcakez- AFAIK, the fat burning property of green tea is more or less due to the caffeine content. Caffeine acts as a thermogenic (causes the body's metabolism to speed up, increasing waste heat output by a little bit), and green tea is an ideal source of caffeine from a health standpoint. I agree with you though that this is a minor effect, and that the best reason to drink green tea is for the antioxidants. Well, that and because it tastes awesome!

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Is there a certain ingredient that one should be looking for on the tea bag? Or are most teas (at a place like Whole Foods or Gelson's) roughly the same in terms of the health aspect? (the price is just a different taste?)

Nope, just green tea. The more other stuff there is in the tea bag, the less green tea there is. If you aren't keen on the taste of the stuff, brew a cup of it at normal strength and then dilute it. Maybe add a bit of honey for sweetness.

See my earlier post for my opinion on tea bags

I do notice that with green tea is there is much less of a crash (if any) than with coffee. Coffee also tends to make me a bit shakey during the comedown---that never happens with green tea.

Does anybody know if green tea is ever fermented?

If it was fermented, it would be black tea

Dunno, but I drink it anyway coz I like it. My GF got me onto it bc it helps her relax and makes her feel better in general. Tea usually has heaps of antioxidants so it must have some sort of value in the health dept.

cupcakez said:

if you hate the tea you can get some of the benifits in pill form, but id say the tea is the best. this way youre getting water as well, an easy way to contribute to the 8 glasses a day thing.

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Drinking ANYTHING with caffine in it does not count towards your 8 glasses a water a day thing. Same with alcohol. Your going to dehydrate yourself by drinking it- not hydrate yourself.