Green Tea and Me

Well, this writing lacks originality and/or style.  But it describes a simple way of improving your health by avoiding sugary drinks at zero cost.  And it assumes that you will be drinking at least one cup of green tea, preferably in the morning. Now, instead of tossing the tea bag after your 3-minute steeping session, transfer it into another cup/container/bottle containing about the same volume of heated water – that was initially heated to prepare the primary cup of tea - and let it sit, while going about your business drinking your hot tea and reading the depressing news of the day. Come back in a few hours, discard the t-bag and refrigerate the diluted tea. After a few hours of chilling, you have some safe and healthy hydrating fluid to drink at any time for any purpose. 

I have been making this chilled, diluted tea now for a good 5 years. It took a bit of time to look forward to the taste. But if you stick with it, you will prefer it to drinking plain water although sipping both at various times of the day in also a cogent strategy. 

Green tea usually contains some caffeine, although much less than coffee.  Maybe enough to keep you alert without increasing your heart rate or getting you agitated. The truth is that I follow up my one cup of hot tea with one cup of coffee as the morning progresses. 

Introducing green tea into my feeding schedule was not an easy task. As a westerner, my tea preferences gravitated to black tea, i.e., English Breakfast, Earl Grey, and the taste of green tea was not only different but initially distasteful. The stronger green teas from China and Japan were particularly objectionable. I settled on Tazo green tea that contained a dash of spearmint. That was a few years ago. Now I drink any green tea that I am served or can squirrel away from airport lounges around the globe.  Truth is that green tea from Japan possesses the most spunk to color that second glass of tea that is crafted from the tea bag discard from your primary cup.  My favorite is the Yamamotoyama brand. 

Green tea is presumably good for you on a number of fronts. Mostly through its anti-oxidant properties, it mitigates the effect of oxidant stress your heart, lung, brain, GI tract, and even your prostate gland - for those of you who are lucky enough to have one. It also has been found to reduce your chances of some cancers including prostate cancer. While this short essay is not meant to provide evidence for such medicinal virtues, it certainly argues that not only does this green tea concoction provide an alternative to canned or bottled drinks that contains calories, artificial ingredients, and an addicting sugar component, it is also good for you, and also saves you money that can be spent on buying more green tea and other healthy fruits and vegetables.