Drinking Green Tea Can Keep You Trim

Yet another study has just come out showing us that drinking just a few cups of green tea daily, could help you stay trim. As you might have gathered by now, I’m a mega proponent of green tea and drink at least 4 large cups a day. When I travel, I have to take travel mugs, infusers and all kinds of gadgets to make my brew – it it wasn’t for my husband drawing the line, I’d take my giant tea kettle with me too!

In my book, The Gorgeously Green Diet, I recommend drinking green tea throughout the day, instead of filling up with coffee or sugary coffee drinks from the coffee shop. This way you’re not denying yourself anything, just adding a wonderfully enjoyable warm drink that’s packed with good stuff. Once you really get into green tea, it’s like fine wine, you’ll want to start exploring teas from different regions and noticing the subtle and beautiful differences.

This recent study found that when the compound EGCG was given to rodents on a high fat diet, the ones that received the ECEG gained weight significantly more slowly than those who weren’t given it. I’m actually more interested in the health benefits that the weight-loss benefits, and they are plenty: helps protect against many different cancers, lowers bad cholesterol, helps with oral health – these are just a few!

But here’s the thing – green tea is like wine in that you can either buy a cheap bottle from a grocery store, which can taste pretty gross, or you can choose a slightly more expensive bottle, which will have you addicted. The same deal with tea – for the most part, tea bags are equivalent to the cheap wine – the worst quality, broken leaves are used in bags (there are a few rare exceptions,) so always go for loose green teas.

Although from the same plant, you can choose either white, green, oolong or black tea. They are differentiated on how long they have been fermented. White and green haven’t been fermented, just steamed, which is why they are thought to contain the most polyphenols (antioxidants,) oolong has been slightly fermented, and the black has been fully fermented. I start my day with one cup of black as I like the taste and the caffeine kick and then I move onto either white or green.

Always prepare your tea according to the directions on the packet. Fine quality teas always come with precise directions (water temperature and brewing time,) and you really need to follow this to a T. Fine loose teas can be expensive, but you can always brew white, green and oolong tea two, three and sometime four times. I justify the expense by knowing that I’m saving by not going to the coffee shop.

Here are my favorite tea shops – easy to purchase all of these online:

Lupica – incredible green teas

Strand Teas – love this small family-run company with outstanding ethical practices

Rishi Tea – they carry the best Silver Needles white tea (my all-time fave).