Green tea is a popular drink that has various benefits. Many associate the tea with excellent health and well-being. Many green tea lovers do not base their opinions on facts and miss the crucial information they need to understand the tea. As such, here are the top-10 misconceptions about green tea.
1. Green Tea is decaffeinated:
Despite popular beliefs, green tea does carry caffeine. The exact amount is determined by the quantity of tea used and the length of time the leaves are dried. On average green tea has 15-40 mg of caffeine compared to instant coffee which has 50-100 mg per cup. Excessive drinking could cause insomnia, dizziness and fast heart beats.
2. Green Tea helps people lose weight:
The studies done on green teas are valid. However, the tests are principally looking at specific type of teas as the areas of concentration. They sometimes fail to examine other teas as a form of analysis. For example, European scientists have found that black tea has identical results as green tea when helping tea drinkers lose weight. Asian researchers when exhilarating the green tea market, failed to mention this in their studies.
3. Green Tea, Black Tea and Oolong come from different plants:
This is not true, despite popular beliefs. All teas come from Camellia Sinensis. This belief is similar to that of olives. Green and Black olives come from the same tree; yet when ripe, green olives turn black. When it comes to tea, the colour of the leaves is determined by the way each is processed.
4. Black tea has more caffeine than Green Tea:
Despite popular beliefs one should not view caffeine levels by the colour of the tea. The younger the leaves, the more caffeine the tea has. For example, Japanese green tea, Gyokuro, has more caffeine than a regular green tea.
5. Green Tea makes you healthy:
Green tea is not the magic tooth fairy. It cannot produce wanders as much as people would love to think. Although green tea does speed up the metabolism, it does not solve various other problems associated with overweight. One cannot just drink a cup of green tea after eating 4000 calories worth of food and think they will be able to lose weight and reduce cholesterol and blood sugar levels. The process of burning fat would be faster but surely not thorough at a snap of a finger or shall we say, a cup of green tea.