I received a ton of questions about Green Tea For Fat Loss after posting “13 Flat Tummy Foods for Swimsuit Season” so here I go into the details of Green Tea – what kind is best, how to make it, adding flavor, super cool benefits, etc.
What Kind?
Homemade, natural green tea beats convenience, bottled green tea each and EVERY time!
Freshly brewed green tea has up to 95 percent higher levels of the antioxidant EGCG than bottled tea.
A bottle of Lipton Iced Green Tea (made from Green Tea extract) boasts that it contains 170mg of flavonoids per 16 oz. bottle. BUT you’ll get about 700mg of flavonoids from the same quantity of freshly brewed Green Tea.
Antioxidants in green tea are sensitive to heat, oxygen, sweeteners and other additives and can easily be destroyed during processing, transportation and storage of bottled tea.
***Pre-Made Bottled Green Tea is just another type of soft drink****
For example, take a look at the ingredients in Regular Lipton Iced Green Tea
“Water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, green tea, sodium hexametaphosphate, ascorbic acid, honey, natural flavors, phosphoric acid, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, calcium disodium edta, caramel color, tallow 5, blue1.”
With 200 calories, 13 teaspoons of added sugar and a long list of artificial ingredients…you know this is not so good and if you compare the two – they really are not much different that drinking a bottle of coke or pepsi!
~DIET Green Tea~
So what about DIET Lipton Green Tea?
“WATER, CITRIC ACID, GREEN TEA, NATURAL FLAVORS, SODIUM HEXAMETAPHOSPHATE (TO PROTECT FLAVOR), PHOSPHORIC ACID, POTASSIUM SORBATE AND POTASSIUM BENZOATE (PRESERVE FRESHNESS), ASCORBIC ACID (TO PROTECT FLAVOR), ASPARTAME, ACESULFAME POTASSIUM, CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA (TO PROTECT FLAVOR), CARAMEL COLOR, YELLOW 5, BLUE 1.”
How many of these ingredients do you know or can you pronounce??? Not good either…especially when you know it contains Aspartame!
Check out the ingredients of the tea you make yourself….
Green Tea: Green tea.
Raspberry Gardens: Green tea, hibiscus, blackberry leaves, natural raspberry flavor with other natural flavors (contains soy lecithin), roasted chicory and raspberries.
Pretty obvious – the closer something is to all natural – the better it is for your body and your fat loss efforts.
How to Make Your Own Freshly Brewed Green Tea
I personally keep it super simple:
1. Boil water in a tea pot
2. Pour into cup
3. Add tea bags
4. Steep for about 3-5 minutes
5. Drink and Enjoy!
Tips for the tea enthusiast
~ Loose Leaf vs. Teabags
Loose leaves are preferable to teabags. A teaspoon of leaves is enough for an eight-ounce cup. In order to increase the extraction of polyphenols, teabags should be continuously dunked in the teapot rather than left to float on the water.
~ Water Temperature
Catch your water at a pre-boil, when the air bubbles start to rise, or if it is already boiling, let it cool for 30 seconds to 1 minute before pouring over the tea leaves.
~ Steeping Times
Steeping too long will result in more bitterness and a less balanced flavor. Japanese green teas generally taste best at 1 – 2 minutes while Chinese green teas seem to prefer 2 – 3 minutes (the smaller leaves of Japanese teas will extract faster than the generally larger leaves of Chinese teas). Steeping time should be balanced with water temperature: the lower the temperature, the longer the tea can be steeped.
~~~~ You can also try these brewing methods! ~~~~~
The Coffeemaker Tea
Brew the same way you would coffee, except replace the ground coffee beans with tea leaves in the filter. Use double the amount of tea leaves than what you would use if you were making hot tea.
Overnight Tea
Using cold or room temperature water, add 2 tsp of tea per cup of water and allow it to stand in the refrigerator overnight, then strain into a second jug or pitcher in the morning or after at least 6 hours.
Making Green Tea Yummy:
Often times green tea is thought to taste bitter for it is simply brewed incorrectly. Following the tips above can help you to experience what green tea really tastes like.
Now do not defeat the purpose of drinking green tea by adding sugar, milk or honey. One of the great benefits of green tea is that it is a calorie-free beverage.
You can still add flavors to your tea and make it fun and interesting without adding calories.
- Choose a flavored green tea
– Brew your green tea with a flavored herbal tea
– Add fresh lemon and/or orange
– Add ginger
– Add fresh mint leaves
– Add cinnamon
– Add dried peppermint leaves
Green Tea Benefits
Studies have shown that antioxidants in green tea help with weight loss, cholesterol, cardiovascular diseases, stress, slowing the aging process and boosting your immune system.
Green tea contains antioxidations, polyphenols, theanine, as well as a wide variety of vitamins and minerals.
Polyphenols–Polyphenols are a class of phytochemicals that have been associated with heart disease and cancer prevention.
Catechins–Catechins are a category of polyphenols. In green tea, catechins are present in significant quantities, more specifically; epicatechin(EC), epigallocatechin(EGC), epicatechin gallate(ECG) and epigallocatechin gallate(EGCG). EGCG makes up about 10-50% of the total catechin content and appears to be the most powerful of the catechins.
With antioxidant activity about 25-100 times more potent then vitamins C and E. A cup of green tea may provide 10-40mg of polyphenols and has antioxidant activity greater then a serving of broccoli, spinach, carrots or strawberries.
But What about Green Tea For Fat Loss????
Sure there are studies that show that the catechin polyphenol compounds can boost your metabolism, increase the rate of fat oxidation (the burning of fat calories) and help regulate insulin levels. These small changes in our body take place over time and with consistency.
The most immediate effect comes from switching out the unhealthy food and drink for green tea, in essence going from unhealthy, fat storing calories to a healthy, calorie-free, metabolism boosting options – such as Green Tea!
As busy moms, we are all reaching for something that gives us a caffeine kick – I know I do! BUT the majority of what we end up drinking is high calorie coffees.
You can still enjoy a boost of caffeine but without all the fat storing calories by simply switching to brewed Green Tea!
Your Green Tea For Fat Loss Action Plan
1. Make a list of all the calorie containing beverages you drink a day
2. Add in all the diet drinks too
3. Cut this number in half this week by substituting Green Tea
4. Leave a Reply below sharing the differences you notice
Your Friend and Coach,
Holly
Author FitYummyMummy.com
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Holly, great article. I love green tea and enjoy it often. I do drink the bottled Liptons once in a while, but mostly drink it hot (brewed via tea bag). I’m going to pick up leaves and give them a try. I didn’t know about the extra benefits. I enjoy the emails everyday and have shared with many friends. Keep it up! You’re wonderful!
I’ve switched to green tea for the last week and have noticed a difference in cravings. Of course running around after my 2 boys it’s usually cold tea I’m drinking which still tastes pretty good. I find I have more energy drinking it throughout the day than I did with coffee. I brew my own from the tea leaves, I use Uncle Lee’s Tea Premium Gunpowder Green Tea in Bulk, from the health food store. Thanks for the article, it’s reassuring for things I’ve read! I really appreciate the your time and efforts to send out these posts.
I sweeten mine with stevita stevia powder, add ice and lemon in the summer.
As of tomorrow morning, I am switching from two cups of coffee to green tea. I am going to give it a try and will post results next week! Wish me luck!
So glad the homemade stuff is getting more popular! I drink a cup of hot Salada green tea with Celestial Seasonings Peppermint every morning. For sipping on hot Texas summer days, I make a pitcher of ice salada tea (sometimes I throw in one bag of strawberry for flavor) with mint leave and touch of raw honey. If you add the strawberry tea bag, a sweetener isn’t even necessary.
Holly,
My husband loves iced tea and I’ve been making it with a combination of green tea and an herbal tea. He really likes it and he’s drinking something much healthier than he had been. We’ve started using stevia also and he doesn’t mind that either. If I mix mint with the green tea, I don’t need to sweeten it. Nice zero calorie drink!
Thank you so mutch for all this Information it is great to now all this new stuff….
Holly, im lazy; so i make sun brewed green or black tea! Sun brewed tea is *supposed* to be very healthy; & in late spring/ summer,it dosn’t take that long to brew. I also sweeten it with flavored sugar cane syrups! And i love the True Lemon & Lime packets to add to the tea. It gives me energy for the entire day! According to reseach, having caffein with green tea also boosts your metabolism; so today, i had chocalate covered coffee beans! Decadent & delicous! Yum Yum!
I’m gonna be real honest..I can’t stand tea without sugar..LOL
Thanks for these ideas to get some flavor but man it’s hard to acquire a taste for tea w/o sugar like it’s hard for me to acquire a taste for beer. Yuck! I would love to find a mix of teas that would still give me a sweet taste without sugar or honey.
I switched from black tea to green tea about a month ago…fortunatly for me I have never liked my tea sweetened at all and I really enjoy the lighter taste of the green tea vs. the black tea.
Naomi – I live in the south and grew up drinking super sweet tea a the normal drink choice. It took me a little while to get used to green tea but I’ll share a couple suggestions I found to help me.
1. Only steep your green tea for 2 minutes. I found that the tea isn’t bitter at this strength (which is one of the reasons I needed the sweetner)
2. Get a flavored herbal tea to mix with it. My favorite combo is Ginger Peach Green Tea (Rep. of Tea brand) and Country Peach Passion herbal tea (Celestial Seasonings brand). You could also steep your herbal tea for a minute or two before adding the green tea to give that a more dominant flavor
3. If you absolutely can’t go without sweetening then do the bare minimum and then gradually decrease until you use none. It only took me a week or so
I hope this helps.
I really love Manderin Orange Green Tea (???Celestial Seasonings???). I always hated the taste of teas…but have found some that I really do love. Don’t give up! Also, the different spices (such as ginger and cinnamon) have health benefits of their own….gotta love 2 for 1 deals ;0)
Good Luck Everyone!
I have been trying to use green tea but just don’t enjoy it as much as the coffee I brew. Love all the info Holly. I think I’ll go look for some loose leaf teas at the Tea Smith. I’ll let you know what I think.
Hi Holly
thanks for the info. I have never liked hot drinks but have been drinking green tea for the last couple of months. But find i can not drink it after lunch time as the caffine in it keeps me awake at night
How many cups a day should you been drinking to benifit fully from green tea?
Holly, thanks for the great information. I have a question for you though, what about wulong tea and slimming Chinese Wulong is that the same as drinking green tea?? I see adds for it all the time and Ophra talks about it. Just thought I’d see what you think.
I observed some Japanese homestay students preparing their green tea for the day. Brew tea, pour 2 or 3 servings into a large water bottle (1 litre) and add water. Sip it all day as you feel thirsty.
I brew up a pot of green tea and then I brew another kind like rooibos, fennel, hibiscus, oolong. After they are cooled down I pour them into a pitcher and put in the fridge. I drink this thruout the day or put some in a glass bottle and take it with me. If I want it hot, then it goes into a mug and I nuke it. I still have coffee in the a.m. but I usually drink the tea or water with lemon the rest of the time. No sweetner and no other source of liquid except this.
Perfect topic. I just tried brewing the green tea yesterday for the first time. I’m not a real big tea drinker of any kind and I’ll be honest, the green tea tastes like “grass” juice to me. It tastes like my lawn smells after my husband mows it. Since it’s been unusually warm here, I did brew it and put it in a large water bottle in the fridge. I’ll try some of the suggestions and not brewing it as long.
I’m giving myself a week of trying it before I make a final decision whether I like it or not. Yesterday I ended up drinking a whole glass at a time just to get it in me. Kind of like medicine!
I do like raspberry tea, so maybe I’ll try brewing them together.
Thanks for all the input.
To make the taste better, I use flavored green teas (Orange)or add a bag of Good Earth Tea (original flavor) to give it a nice spicy taste. I brew it in my coffee maker but just put the tea bags into the glass pot before starting… I use 1/2 the # of bags per cups of water and let it steep for several minutes. Then I drink a few cups hot in the morning and the rest is chilled for ice tea. I have had rave reviews on my ice tea and no one suspects that it is green tea!
Thanks for the reminder to get back to drinking tea. For a while I tried a combination of green, oolong, and black teas – as recommended by Mike Geary, Truth About Abs. I enjoyed it better than any one of them on their own. I am looking forward to trying the many suggestions here.
I usually make coffeepot tea, as I am lazy and usually doing 15 things at once. I hadn’t realized the difference in taste with steeping time, but as the water runs through the bags, rather than steeping them, in the coffee pot, that may be why I like it better than when I make it in a cup.
Thanks everyone for the great ideas!
I was just wondering… I read a few times that letting the tea get cold destroys some of the antioxidants. Is this true?
yes, Im an avid supporter of green tea!I use green tea extract tablets for when I dont have time to brew!
Thanks Rachel and AmberLee for the great ideas!
Great to know Holly, this is fantastic news since i have also within the past couple months switched to using Green Tea. Surprisingly for me it acts somewhat as a hunger suppressent for me as well so I am well on my way to a new and healthier me especially since now i snack on fruits as opposed to unhealthy choices to achieve my goal.
Thanks again
I have just recently got into Green Tea and find it tough on the palette. I have found a reasonable brand though with less bitterness and your article persuades me I should keep working on my tastebuds! It’s always good to get some further encouragement via such an informative and detailed article. Instead of going down to make a cup of English Breakfast, I am going to have another cup of the green stuff.
Well done Holly!