Green Tea Pills, Matcha, And Leaves – What Works?

Green tea’s been around for quite some time now… for, say, a couple of thousand years in mankind’s history? It’s the Japanese nowadays who are particularly keen on enjoying their green tea: their entire green tea market is barely enough to supply the massive local demand.

There’s no denying the fact that green tea is healthy. From lowering cholesterol levels to blocking cancer, numerous scientific researches have come up with a ton of healthy benefits for green tea.

There are at least three ways you can avail of the healthy goodness of green tea: through green tea leaves, matcha and green tea pills:

Three Ways to Take Green Tea

• Green tea leaves – take a bunch of green tea leaves or stems, steep them in water, take out the solid matter and drink the stuff that’s left behind. There are a couple of technicalities, like chopping up the leaves or using certain parts of the camellia sinensis plant, but this is the traditional and most common way of drinking tea.

Now even though the tea is steeped and the leaves and stems are discarded, the health benefits of steeped green tea are still greatly observable. That’s because the scientific studies previously mentioned were all conducted using steeped green tea leaves. Now imagine what would happen if you could drink a purer form of tea, with all the solid matter included?

• Matcha – Matcha is finely ground green tea, and is the highest quality (and most expensive) green tea you can get your hands on. And since all the green tea parts get crushed up and tossed into the drink, you can expect to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to the health benefits.

Now before anything else, you have to discriminate between matcha and processed matcha. The latter is definitely not as healthy as the former. Anything that’s processed, like matcha crystals, go through a ton of chemicals and preservatives. All this stuff definitely doesn’t help add up to the overall health benefits of green tea.

• Green tea pills – now this is where things get a little technical. Green tea pills claim to scrunch up all the healthy goodness that green tea has to offer into one, tiny package. No need for a lengthy drinking ceremony or meticulous preparation procedures. All you need is your mouth and a pill.

However, make sure that your source of green tea pills is reliable if you plan to take them as food supplements. When it comes to food supplements, there are always those who make a living off duping people into buying fake stuff. So watch out, and stick with reliable sources.

Just remember: whether you choose to drink green tea the old fashioned way or pop in a couple of green tea pills for a quick fix, green tea alone will only get you so far. It will be your lifestyle that ultimately determines whether you’ll live healthy or not. Just keep that in mind as you sip a cup of tea.