You're asking and I'm answering . . .
"Dear Fit,
You've been extolling your wisdom on the benefits of green tea, but I'm unsure how much green tea you actually have to drink for it to make a difference. I've heard as much as 10 cups a day which sounds crazy!
Thanks so much!"
– Green Tea Gina
This a great question because green tea is amazing. I feel fortunate that I do like the taste so drinking a cup or two a day is no problem for me. This is good since both
Dr. Zuo Feng Zhang, a cancer epidemiology researcher at UCLA, and the University of Maryland Medical Center recommend two to three teacups (not mugs) a day will prove beneficial to your health.
To see what drinking five cups of green tea a day can do for you read more.
However, drinking up to five cups a day has been shown to decrease risk for stomach cancer. For weight loss and to boost your metabolism, the best results have been seen with drinking seven cups a day (this was studied in mice though and has yet to be studied directly on humans). Additionally many other medical studies have shown the the more green tea consumed daily the greater the benefits, with 10 cups being the upper limit. If you are sensitive to caffeine, or suffer from insomnia, 10 cups of green tea is probably going to be too much for your system, regardless of the benefits.
There are a few negative consequences to drinking lots and lots of green tea. The tannins found in both green and black tea can decrease absorption of folic acid, an important vitamin that helps decrease birth defects. If you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant, you should definitely limit your green tea consumption to two cups a day, or skip it all together. Green tea can also interfere with the absorption of iron, too, so it is recommended that you avoid drinking green tea with meals and just drink it between them.
Rieker
Soul Cal
Giorgio Fedon
I drink 2 to 4 per day, dont think I would do more than that.
1wow 10 cups!
2I would have enough trouble drinking 10 cups or water
I have a HUGE mug that I drink my tea in, it's probably 2-3 cups and I drink at LEAST one of those if not 2 a day. I love it, it's my morning ritual.
3Two mugs is about my limit, but always good.
4i have been doing about two mugs of green tea in the morning in substitute of my former 1 cup of coffee.
however, today i had an iced coffee this afternoon, and now i feel like crap, stomach all wonky & completely had the caffeine buzz & now sleepy. i knew i should've skipped the coffee, been feeling much better without it.
hopefully the gym will save me tonight!
5i kno that tea is really good from you but I am not a fan of the taste. is there any type of mixture or additives that might make it so I like it more. I really want to drink it for its health benifits but i can't stand the taste
6Hi Liciababe,
I'm with you on the taste so I put a lil honey in it and the taste is alot better.
7I've been a tea drinker all my life so the amounts suggested don't seem excessive to me. But tea is definitely something you have to get used to, just like coffee and wine.
8For those who don't like the taste, add a bag of something else strong flavoured, like peppermint tea. Also a little sweetener and/or lemon juice.
9I drink, on average, 4 to 6 cups of green tea every day. It's my beverage of choice, after water. Good to know there's an upper limit though... sometimes I get carried away!
10i know this place is a bit on the stupidly expensive side...but teavanna has a bunch of different flavored green teas to ease the taste. i usually like things in the pure form but some added dried strawberries and other goodies really helped me after i tried the pure stuff and quickly started to dislike it. it smells soo great too.
11i recently started drinking green tea..cant manage more than 2-5 cups a day..im not at home that much to drink that much tea!! the taste has grown on me!!
Q. if u don't drink as much as recommended do you still benefit from drinking green tea??????????
12I recently stopped driniking coffee and I started drinking tea instead. I drink the regular English Breakfast, but I'm thinking that I should switch to green tea, I had no idea it has so many benefits! I don't take more than three cups of tea a day, and that's enough for me. I used to suffer insomnia and too much caffeine is not good for my system.
13I prefer tea over coffee.
14I should try and drink more, but I'm just not a fan.
15I alternate between coffee and tea but am trying to drink more green tea than anything else (like the Diet Pepsi I'm trying to cut back on). No matter how hard I've tried, I just can't do plain water...just too blah. So green tea is great and I've started adding lemon juice to my tea recently as I've read it multiplies the benefits of green tea. I feel guilty when I'm not drinking tea these days...
1610 cups? Whoa. I drink like 2 or 3 cups MAYBE during the day. I don't think I could drink more than that unless I drank a HUGE cup of it at a time.
17I love green tea.
18I have a question, does it matter what brand of green tea it is? Cuz I've seen really expensive tea at the health food store and boxes of generic tea at the dollar store. Is there a big difference?
19Yes, not all green tea is created equal.
If anyone struggles with the taste of green tea, there's a chance it hasn't been brewed or cultivated well. There should be no bitterness. Brew it with the water at less than boiling temp for only about two minutes, otherwise it will taste like an overcooked vegetable.
And seek out a Japanese-grown looseleaf tea leaf for your best quality.
20Thanks!
21I love tea and it's exciting to see that tea (green tea) can have such great health benefits. My problems is that I can't really do caffeine and green tea most certainly has caffeine in it!
22Thanks for this!
mblab, you can get caffeine-free green tea! I drink this later in the day so it doesn't effect my sleeping at night. If it's not in the regular section of your supermarket, look in the healthfood section, or go to a healthfood store.
23Also, for people who don't like the taste, try infusions. You can buy green tea that has jasmine, peppermint etc mixed with it, to give it a different taste. I'm in Australia so giving actual brand names probably isn't helpful, but have a look around for some.
White tea is another option. Its leaves are actually taken from the same plant as green tea, but they're the smaller baby leaves. It has just as many (actually, more) antioxidants but the taste is a lot more subtle.
24It's been like 2 years and a half now since I started drinking it the first thing in the morning, without any sugar!
And again after my nap
sometimes I drink more than 2 MUGS! lol I think it is effective but not overly so.
25Like if I over ate it won't save me or something! Just helps boost metabolism and I heard that from more than one source..
yeah rosey I usually take it mixed with peppermint..
26Question for ya'll,
Does Hoodia work? Anyone have any experiences they can share? I'm thinking about trying it
27i had NO IDEA green tea interferes with the absorption of iron and folic acid. That's crazy. I have been drinking green tea for a while now but have recently discovered i have a folic acid and iron deficiency. wow. going to cut back on the green tea and maybe give it up all together.
28I have a stupid question
29If i put sugar in my green tea, do i totally defeat the purpose of drinking it ???
i drink 2 mugs a day - love my decaf green tea!
30monkey-i put sugar or honey in it too, i think it just adds some calories, that's all
31o arite thats wat i figured. i guess it wont boost up my metabolism that much tho
32hehe u called me monkey its so cute
I wish I could stand the taste
33switch to black tea with spiced up flavors like orange.
34I love green tea. Definitely add another flavored tea or lemon juice to it. I know that some people think it tastes like grass so do what you have to do to start drinking green tea and then ween yourself down to minimal sweeteners.
35for people who don't like the taste of "plain" green tea- Arizona is now making tea bags, and they have a Pomegrante Acai flavor that is so sweet. Try it, you'll like it- and you won't need to add sugar or honey!
36I drink Green Tea with Jasmine. Its the yummiest. I LOVE it. I drink about 2-3 mugs a day. Are the tea bags (like Lipton) worse than the ones in a health store???
I might experiment for a week next week to see if 7 cups does make a difference though.
37I drink green tea too, with a squeeze of lemon for catechin absorption and flavor!
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