Green tea is known for its antioxidant properties and many other health benefits. Among its many benefits, green tea helps in boosting your body’s fat burning mechanism, improving metabolism , thus, helping in losing weight tremendously.
But the main thing to remember about drinking a tea, such as green tea or black tea, is that it is a negative calorie food, which means that it can cause you to lose nutrition. For example, tea is known to block absorption of protein, fat and iron.
Green tea contains lots of theanine, antioxidants and come with lots of health benefits. Also, it is a great energiser and good for maintaining your body weight and fat.
But, it is essential to understand that timing of drinking green tea is very important as taking it randomly can cause adverse effects and you should not drink excessive amount of it.
Read on how to time the intake of green tea effectively.
When is the Best Time to Drink Green Tea?
1. Not as Your Early Morning Drink
Drinking green tea first thing in the morning may not be a good idea. A study conducted on dietary supplement with green tea extracts reported that green tea supplement on an empty stomach can have adverse effects on the liver.1
2. At Least 2 Hours Before or After Meal Time
Drink green tea between meals, preferably at least 2 hours before or after eating to maximize your nutrient intake. But avoid it along with a meal, most especially if you are anemic. That is because, according to a fact sheet that was published by the National Cancer Institute, the antioxidant catechins in green tea inhibit the absorption and digestion of iron from your diet.2
Taking it between meals can allow your body to absorb iron from the food. But, if you want to drink green tea with your meal, make sure you include food that enhances iron absorption, such as vitamin C-rich food. Red meat is good to mitigate the interaction between iron and tea. Also, adding milk or lemon to your green tea would help to an extent.
3. At Least 1-2 Hours Before Going to Bed
There are many articles on internet about the calming properties of green tea, which can lull your body into a peaceful slumber. But, green tea is not a bedtime drink.
Caffeine is a scientifically proven stimulant which disrupts sleep.3 Also, green tea contains the amino acid L-theanine that has the capacity to calm you down but also make you alert, focus and concentrate better, 4 which is at odds with getting a good night’s sleep.
How Many Cups Daily is the Limit for Drinking Green Tea?
Unless you are drinking green tea in moderation, it could cause some trouble to your body. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, a person should limit consumption of green tea to 2-3 cups daily or 100-750 mg of standardized green tea extract per day.5
References:
1 Sarma, Dandapantula N., Marilyn L. Barrett, Mary L. Chavez, Paula Gardiner, Richard Ko, Gail B. Mahady, Robin J. Marles, Linda S. Pellicore, Gabriel I. Giancaspro, and Tieraona Low Dog. “Safety of green tea extracts.”Drug Safety 31, no. 6 (2008): 469-484.
2, 5 Green Tea. University Of Maryland Medical Center.
3 Whalen, Diana J., Jennifer S. Silk, Mara Semel, Erika E. Forbes, Neal D. Ryan, David A. Axelson, Boris Birmaher, and Ronald E. Dahl. “Caffeine consumption, sleep, and affect in the natural environments of depressed youth and healthy controls.” Journal of pediatric psychology 33, no. 4 (2008): 358-367.
4 Bryan, Janet. “Psychological effects of dietary components of tea: caffeine and L-theanine.” Nutrition reviews 66, no. 2 (2008): 82-90.
When is the Best Time to Drink Green Tea for Maximum Benefits?
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