Green tea for diet is frequently used in weight loss plans. Even though it is known to have a variety of useful ingredients, it turns out that several things must be considered when drinking green tea so that it does not hurt health.
This is because antioxidants at too high levels will cause several problems in the body due to their nature, which binds nutrients from other foods.
One of the important compounds that green tea has is caffeine. In a 2019 study published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, it was revealed that caffeine can aid weight loss and reduce body fat.
In addition, according to Healthline, green tea also contains epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which can burn more calories for the body even when you are resting.
Tips
To get its good benefits, you need to know how to drink green tea the right way.
Here are some tips.
1. Only 3 to 5 Cups a Day
Green tea is rich in antioxidants and naturally occurring plant compounds like tannins and flavonoids. Excessive consumption can result in poisoning or liver damage. Drinking three to five cups of green tea per day provides the most health benefits, according to Healthline. Excessive consumption can have certain side effects, but the benefits far outweigh the risks.
Furthermore, a study conducted at the University of Maryland Medical Center discovered several benefits of green tea in women who consumed three cups per day for four months. As a result, there was a significant reduction not only in body weight but also in blood sugar and LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol).
In addition, make sure when drinking green tea for your diet to brew green tea leaves without using added sugar.
2. Never Drink Green Tea on an Empty Stomach
Of course, starting the day with a dose of caffeine can give you a boost as you start the day. However, don’t drink it on an empty stomach.
Because, according to The Tea Shelf, drinking green tea on an empty stomach can cause stomach aches. This is because green tea contains polyphenols known as tannins, which can increase stomach acid, causing stomach pain, nausea, a burning sensation, or even constipation.
Therefore, it is better to drink green tea after eating.
3. Avoid drinking green tea after meals
Most people drink green tea for their diet after meals without realizing that this method can inhibit the absorption of nutrients. This means that whatever you eat is not properly absorbed because the caffeine and tannins act as a barrier.
It can also dilute stomach juices, resulting in improper digestion. Therefore, it is better to drink green tea 30-45 minutes after eating.
4. Avoid Drinking at Night
Avoid drinking green tea for your diet at night because it can disrupt sleep patterns. This can pose a problem for those at risk for heart problems or high blood pressure.
5. Don’t Use Used Green Tea Bags
Using green tea bags for diet causes the tea bags to become wet, making them vulnerable to microbial attack. As a rule, never use it more than twice. Therefore, make sure to use one green tea bag for your cup of tea.
6. Drink warm
Green tea can be enjoyed hot or cold. However, if you want the properties to help you lose weight, you should enjoy green tea in warm conditions. If you brew real green tea leaves directly, they’re best brewed with hot water at a temperature of 80–90 degrees Celsius. Leave it for a while until the tea becomes warm, then drink it up.
7. Drink 3-4 times a day
Apart from being drunk warm, this tea should be consumed 3–4 times a day. The best time to drink it is after breakfast because drinking tea on an empty stomach can stimulate stomach acid production.
After that, during the day, drink green tea again to refresh the body and mind after carrying out intense activities. After dinner, you can go back to sipping a cup of green tea. However, apart from these times, you can also enjoy green tea in the afternoon after coming home from work. because green tea not only helps the diet process but can also make the body fresher.
8. Do Not Add Any Mixture
Do you like matcha lattes or other processed green tea drinks? If you are on a diet, you should not add any mixture to green tea, OK? This is because green tea mixed with milk, honey, or lime is not recommended for dieting. It would be better if you consumed steeped, pure green tea leaves if you wanted to lose weight.
The addition of milk or honey can increase the calorie content in green tea. While lime does have properties for weight loss, green tea mixed with lime is not recommended for consumption by people who have a history of stomach ulcers.
9. Avoid Drinking Green Tea Before Bed
If you are on a diet program, you should avoid drinking green tea before going to bed. This is because green tea contains caffeine, although not as much as coffee. This caffeine content can make it difficult for you to sleep if you drink it less than 2 hours before going to bed. Therefore, avoid drinking green tea before going to bed to prevent insomnia.
Lack of sleep will disrupt the body’s metabolic processes, so fat burning in the body is not optimal. So it’s best to drink green tea after dinner. That means you have to eat dinner less than 4 hours before bedtime. After eating, drink freshly brewed green tea.
10. Don’t Just Rely on Green Tea
The various ways to drink green tea that has been described earlier can indeed help the process of losing weight. However, please note that green tea is not a shortcut to having an ideal body weight, so you should not only rely on green tea.
Green tea does contain epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which produces hormones that can speed up the process of burning fat in the body, but you also have to pay attention to every food you eat. Like someone who is on a diet, you must reduce fatty and high-calorie foods. In addition, you also have to exercise regularly to speed up the process of burning fat and calories in the body.
11. Avoid Artificial Flavor Enhancers
Avoid adding extra calories from sweeteners such as sugar, honey, milk, or cream when planning to drink tea on a diet. By adding 1 teaspoon of honey and 1 tablespoon of cream, the benefits of this green tea will be wasted.
because the calories in green tea for the diet will increase to 86 calories. A cup of plain green tea has only 2 calories, making it a perfect drink for your diet plan.
12. Drink More Water
You should not forget to keep consuming water. Because, green tea for the diet can be a diuretic, which can cause frequent urination.
So, it’s better to drink lots of water to hydrate your body. In addition, regular consumption of water can also affect body weight.
Research in the Obesity Research Journal explains that fulfilling water intake has benefits for greater fat and weight loss, regardless of diet and exercise.
13. Drink When It’s Warm
Green tea for the diet can indeed be enjoyed warm or cold. However, if you want its properties to lose weight, you should enjoy green tea in warm conditions.
If you brew real green tea leaves directly, it’s best to brew them with hot water at a temperature of 80–90 degrees Celsius. Leave it for a while until the tea becomes warm, then drink it up.
14. Add Some Healthy Spices
Green tea is well known for its relaxing benefits, due to its high antioxidant content and its function in accelerating metabolism.
For these benefits to be maximized, you can add some natural ingredients, such as ginger, mint leaves, and lemongrass, to taste. This addition can make the taste and aroma of green tea more enjoyable.
How to Brew Green Tea
In getting the benefits of green tea for the diet, you also have to know the exact manufacturing process.
The following is how to brew green tea for the right diet, namely:
- Make sure the water used for tea is between 160 and 180 degrees Celsius.
- Brew green tea in water for only 2 to 3 minutes.
- Overdoing it can prevent the tea leaves from releasing excess flavors that can make the tea bitter.
- Add 2 grams of tea leaves to 177 ml of water. This is the perfect ratio between tea leaves and water to make a healthy and delicious cup of tea.
To enhance the taste, you can add some mint leaves. Another mix of ingredients to try is lemon and cinnamon.
Recipes
Most women want to have a slim and ideal body. One way to get the ideal body is to diet. When talking about a healthy diet, green tea is one of the natural ingredients that are quite often relied on. Not without reason, this tea, which comes from the shoots of the Camellia sinensis plant, comes from China and is often used as a medicinal ingredient.
Not only that, green tea contains high anti-oxidants so it can fight free radicals in the body. Exposure to these free radicals can cause premature aging to dangerous diseases such as cancer. Consuming green tea is also believed to prevent heart disease, lower cholesterol, prevent diabetes, and help you lose weight.
As mentioned above, that green tea can help you lose weight because of its high antioxidant content. Green tea helps in increasing the body’s metabolic rate by promoting weight loss. In addition, green tea is also rich in the active ingredient Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) which increases the fat-burning process. Here are some quick and easy green tea recipes that are perfect for those of you on a diet!
1. Green Tea With Lemon Squeeze
Green tea itself has weight loss properties, and when you add lemon to this drink, it helps you lose weight even more. Because Lemon is a fruit that contains polyphenol compounds. Thus, these antioxidants can reduce weight gain.
Recipe:
- Bring water to a boil, then add organic green tea leaves.
- Take a cup and add drops of fresh lemon juice, and add filtered green tea.
- The next step is to add a few drops of honey (depending on how sweet you want your tea).
- Enjoy this tea in the morning or evening for better results.
2. Green Tea Ice
Another way to drink green tea for quick and effective weight loss is to drink it cold. Green tea ice can also reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and diabetes.
Recipe:
- Take a pot and bring the water to a boil, add your favorite green tea.
- Take a glass and add organic honey drops.
- Pour in the filtered green tea.
- Add some ice cubes.
- Your green tea is ready.
3. Green Tea with Rose Petals
Rose petal green tea is another excellent drink that one can consume to burn calories fast.
Recipe:
- Take a cup, and add it with boiling water, rose petals, and green tea leaves.
- Let the tea and rose petals steep for 10 minutes and strain the tea.
- You can add sugar or honey according to taste.
- Serve the tea cold. Green tea with rose petals is ready to drink.
4. Green Tea and Cinnamon
This name may sound strange, but believe me, it is the best combination for effective weight loss.
Known for its anti-inflammatory properties, cinnamon when mixed with green tea is a drink recipe that you must add to your diet program.
Recipe:
- Take a teapot, and add the required amount of green tea leaves into it.
- Bring the tea to a boil.
- Strain the tea in a cup, add a pinch of cinnamon powder to it, and mix well.
- You can also add a few drops of organic honey if you don’t like tea that isn’t sweet
- Enjoy this tea for better weight loss results with green tea.
Please try the recipe now and feel the benefits!
Other Benefits
Besides being good for diet, several other benefits can be obtained when consuming this drink.
Check out the explanation below.
1. Relieves Menstrual Pain
A study by the British Medical Association Open stated that drinking green tea during menstruation in moderation can reduce menstrual pain compared to other types of tea. Green tea has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties which can reduce bloating and make you more relaxed during your period. Green tea also has a low caffeine content, which is 29 mg in 1 cup.
2. Protects Bone Health
Green tea is also good for maintaining bone health. The content of antioxidants in it is proven to reduce the risk of fractures because it can make bones stronger and less brittle. Green tea also contains phenol which is good for maintaining bone density.
3. Good for Dental and Oral Health
The catechins contained in green tea also help inhibit the growth of mutant Streptococcus bacteria, which often cause cavities and tooth decay. Not only that but green tea is also said to prevent bad breath.
Impact of Excessive
Although it has several good benefits, if consumed in excess, it can hurt the body.
Here are some of the cans that are felt when consuming green tea in excess.
1. Iron Deficiency and Anemia
Drinking green tea in high doses can be dangerous because it reduces the absorption of iron from food. To avoid this, it is best consumed with lemon or other fruits rich in vitamin C.
2. Anxiety and Stress
Just like coffee, green tea also contains caffeine. One study found that the caffeine content of 1 gram of green tea ranged from 11-20 mg.
One serving is usually measured at 1 tablespoon (2 grams) of tea leaves per 1 cup (240 ml) of water. This means that the average cup of green tea contains around 22-40 mg of caffeine. If caffeine enters the body in excessive amounts, it can trigger side effects in the form of anxiety, anxiety, and even stress.
It’s best to consume caffeine below 200 milligrams a day to prevent several negative effects from drinking green tea.
3. Muscle Contraction
Excessive green tea drinking can cause muscle spasms and twitching. Because caffeine is associated with restless leg syndrome, which forces the skeletal muscles to contract and causes muscle spasms in the legs.
4. Nausea
One of the right ways to drink green tea is to not consume it on an empty stomach. This will cause nausea. Moreover, if green tea is consumed too much.
The content of tannins in tea can irritate digestion. As a consequence, the stomach can feel painful and nauseous. How impactful green tea is on one’s digestion depends on individual sensitivity. Some feel nauseous after only consuming 1-2 cups, some feel nauseous after consuming 5 cups.
5. Headaches
The dangers of drinking green tea for dieting excessively can also cause headaches, because of the caffeine content in it. Each individual has a different tolerance for how much caffeine intake can cause headaches.
If you feel persistent headaches after drinking green tea, try reducing your consumption and see the changes.
In comparison, the side effects of drinking green tea may tend to be smaller, but consuming it regularly may provide long-term benefits.
So, there’s nothing wrong with making green tea for the diet as one of your ways to lose weight.
