Does Green Tea Contain Caffeine?

I’ve been asked a couple of times this question. Does green tea contain caffeine?  This is a very common question and it arises due to the misconception that green tea contains caffeine. Yes white tea contains caffeine, black tea contains caffeine, decaffeinated tea contains caffeine albeit not very much. Herbs most of them do not contain caffeine. Caffeine is a defence mechanism that is intended to stop the young shoots and leaves from being eaten by animals. It is the caffeine that acts as a poison so that it not consumed before its time. 

White tea which is young unopened leaves has in fact probably more caffeine than green tea and black tea. So yes green tea contains caffeine, while white tea contains probably more caffeine than black tea. So please don’t think just because it sounds trendy and healthy that there’s no caffeine in it. By the same token please don’t assume that just because it’s got caffeine in it that is a bad thing, it’s not. If you can tolerate caffeine that is fine. I hope that answers the question concerning green tea and caffeine.

7 Health Benefits of Green Tea & How to Drink it

In todays article is going to be all about the health benefits of green tea. I have seen some overblown claims so I going to provide some tips on how to make the healthiest cup of tea possible. Green tea is one of those rare beverages that’s pretty much universally accepted by science as a healthy one but just remember as with everything in life you can have too much of a good thing so don’t overdo with the green tea.

The first thing that makes green tea so good for you is that it’s loaded with healthy nutrients. All of these bioactive polyphenols are awesome for your health. You may have heard of some of them known as flavonoids or catechins. These are antioxidants whose job is to do prevent free radical damage to your body that over time causes cancer. Let me break that down a bit as I know all of you have faucets at home whether it’s in your bathroom or in your kitchen. Some of those faucets have rust on them and the rust is a direct result of the free radical damage when we always talk about oxidation. Therefore, antioxidants prevent that rust from forming so think of antioxidants as the rust prevention within our own bodies.

This has been mentioned before that those who drink green tea have lower rates of cancer and it’s been theorized that it has something to do with the huge amount of antioxidants found within green tea.

However, we should not get too excited by this fact because this is only a correlation and not a causation yes. It’s good to drink green tea but no it’s not going to cure and prevent all types of cancer.

Another great point about green tea if you got bad breath, maybe you should try some green tea because some of the nutrients within green tea that I mentioned such as catechins, do a great job of inhibiting and killing certain types of bacteria such as anaerobic bacteria found in the oral cavity. In fact studies were done and proved that bacteria known to cause bad breath within your mouth was killed by drinking green tea. Also when you have less of that specific bacteria you have less plaque.

Green tea does a great job of giving you stable energy without all the jitters as it has about 30 to 50 milligrams of caffeine which is roughly half a cup of coffee. This will keep you focused during the day but not overly stimulated and jittery that you get with a big cup of coffee.

Another nutrient within green tea that works together with caffeine to boost your brain function is called LV and its benefit is that it gives your brain relaxation without the added sedation or drowsiness that comes along with other relaxing agents.

Remarkably, in animal and lab models green tea increases your good cholesterol and lowers your bad cholesterol as well as lowers your blood pressure and if you watch my hypertension video you know how important it is to keep your blood pressure under control.

Green tea can help you burn fat well maybe this is more of an individual case-by-case basis thing because not all studies agree on this. However, there is a promise of increased metabolism and fat oxidation essential to the fat burning process. Some of the lab models have shown a decrease in new blood vessel formation within your fat stores meaning that it literally takes away the vital nutrition for your fat and makes it die.

Green tea decreases the risk of you developing Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease science isn’t clear on why this occurs but it’s theorized that it has something to do with the decrease in the development of plaque within the brain if that doesn’t encourage you to take a sip I don’t know what will.

Now this last point is a game changer this is the one that everyone gets excited about green tea may increase your lifespan.

 There’s been a ton of research done on this and some studies even have 40,000 participants that show those who drink three to five cups of green tea a day have an increased lifespan and decreased all-causes of mortality. This means dying from age related illnesses from strokes to heart disease. But before we get too excited we need to remember the correlation versus causation. Just because those who drink green tea live longer it doesn’t mean green teas the single thing that’s responsible for that effect. So yes enjoy your green tea but don’t think you’re going live forever with that alone.

Here’s how you create the healthiest cup of tea possible. Don’t add green tea directly to boiling water as it destroys those healthy catechins we’ve been talking about. Also don’t go decaf because the decaffeination process hurts more of the nutrients found within green tea. You can add lemon into your tea as it aids in the absorption of some of these nutrients.  Finally don’t cheap out. Go for the good premium stuff as it contains more of the healthy nutrients I’ve been talking about all along I need you to take notice don’t buy into the BS supplements that take green tea extract and claim that it has miracle health benefits. They do not exact the same benefits like real thing.