Jamie Who is a blog about everything. Except current affairs. And politics. Also science, sport, religion, celebrities, movies, media and marketing, technology, business and design. So...basically Jamie Who is a blog about food. All things food.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Green tea - the shizniz


I drink about 6 cups of green tea every day. I have been doing that for about 3 years and I have noticed incredible changes in my health. I always knew it was good for you and that it boosted your metabolism so I thought I would look into a bit more. I was amazed at what I found. 

There is a shitload of information on the web about the health benefits of tea generally. Green tea is one of a family of varieties which include green, black and oolong. All teas include powerful antioxidants known as polyphenols with green tea containing the highest concentration. These help in reducing the effects of aging, lowering cholesterol and decreasing your risk of heart disease and cancer. Green tea is also used to control blood sugar levels in diabetics. There is further research to suggest that green tea's polyphenols are more beneficial than Vitamin C. This is partly due to the fact that green tea is unfermented and is the least processed of all teas.  

As with most things food-related, if it's this healthy it must taste terrible surely? Well, I'm afraid so. The same compounds that give it such awesome health benefits are responsible for making it taste pretty shocking. Bitter, bitter, bitter. Luckily I've gotten used to it and can drink it 'neat', but if you need to, why not try this... 
  • Make a pot of green tea and let it cool before mixing it with cranberry juice. Drink 3 cups a day. Once you are used to the taste start diluting the tea with less juice. Eventually drink the tea warm with a spoon of honey. 
Try and get into it, and if you don't believe me check out one of MANY articles about the miracle drink on :

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/green-tea-000255.htm

Cheers,
Jamie Who

1 comment:

taste traveller said...

Thanks for the tip on drinking more green tea - very clever way to increase your general liquid intake throughout the day.