What is Green Tea Good for? 5 Life-Changing Reasons to Drink It Daily

Green tea is one of the healthiest drink choices you can make for your health.

It’s tasty, it’s refreshing, it’s a fun color, and it’s good for you. You’ve probably heard that green tea is healthy, but maybe you’re still wondering, what is green tea good for really?

To clear things up, here are some of the best science-backed advantages of green tea and why you can benefit from a cup or more per day.

1. Provides a Boost of Antioxidants

Green tea is rich in catechins, antioxidants that help protect your body from damage.

All leaf teas contain catechins, but here’s the difference: unlike other teas, green tea is not processed too much, so the catechins are usually more preserved. This makes green tea (along with a healthy diet high in fruits and vegetables) a great choice for increasing your intake of antioxidants.

2. Supports Better Blood Pressure

Human and animal studies have shown consuming green tea may prevent blood vessels from hardening and can have a positive effect on blood pressure [1].

A 2007 study at the University of Bristol also showed theanine counteracted raised blood pressure caused by caffeine consumption in research subjects [2].

These benefits are likely due to the presence of theanine.

3. Offers a Healthy Drink Substitute

Often what we do drink is just as important as what we don’t drink.

People who are used to drinking soda, coffee with added cream and/or sugar, or alcoholic beverage every day can replace those choices with green tea for a calorie-free, sugar-free, carbonation-free drink that has actual health benefits.

Try making the switch for a couple weeks to a month. You might be pleasantly surprised by how great you start to feel!

4. Green Tea Benefits Equal or Outweigh Coffee Benefits

Coffee has demonstrated some significant benefits similar to tea, but there are a few advantages of green tea over coffee:

• Per cup, it has a much lower caffeine content. This is good news for those sensitivity to or wanting to cut down on caffeine consumption. You can still get a little boost without consuming too much caffeine, which can lead to jitteriness, anxiety, and trouble sleeping.
• Green tea is less acidic than coffee. If coffee upsets your digestion or stomach, green tea might be a more tolerable choice.
• Coffee is a diuretic, meaning more water is excreted from your body and there’s a higher chance of getting dehydrated than if you’re drinking tea.
• Lastly, theatine, the benefits of which we already discussed, is present in tea but not in coffee.

5. Helps You Slow Down and Increase Mindfulness

Many people find a warm cup or tea or coffee a pleasurable experience—and we can all use a little more mindfulness to slow us down in life.

Plus, green tea contains the amino acid theanine, which can have a calming and soothing effect [1].

So, having a cup or more of green tea to start your day and get you through the afternoon can help you slow down and appreciate more about the present moment.

Use your green tea time as your opportunity for a few quiet moment of self-development, reading, prayer, or meditation or reflection on life.

Choosing Your Drink: Best Types of Green Tea and How to Drink Them

The “you get what you pay for” saying applies well here. Spending a little more on your green tea, if you can, generally means the catechin and nutrient levels are higher. Bottle or canned green tea drinks, while still tasty and beneficial, likely have less nutrition than bagged or loose leaf teas.

There are different varieties and flavors of green tea to choose from, as well, including:

• Matcha green tea (as well as match powders)
• Jasmine green tea
• Yerba mate, which has nearly twice the antioxidants and more caffeine
• Ginger green tea
• Sencha green tea

Also, opt for unsweetened, pure green tea. Avoid adding any sugar or cream to your green tea (or if you really want to make it sweet, use one of these healthy sugar substitutes) so you’ll get all the benefits without any added calories or sugars.

So, what is green tea good for? As you can see, variety of things! Try swapping out your next beverage for green tea to support a healthy, wholesome diet and lifestyle.

Disclaimer: Statements made have not been evaluated by the FDA. Products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.