Benefits of Green Tea – Happiness Experiment 26

Green tea is one of those beverages that, quite frankly, seems perfect.

It’s considered to be healthy in almost every diet going, second only to water. It has a half-decent taste, even without any sweetener. Also, it has a number of health benefits that are attributed to it.

Let’s start with the basics though. What is green tea? According to Wikipedia:

Green tea is made solely from the leaves of Camellia sinensis that have undergone minimal oxidation during processing. Green tea originates in China and has become associated with many cultures throughout Asia. It has recently become more widespread in the West, where black tea is traditionally consumed. Many varieties of green tea have been created in countries where they are grown. These varieties can differ substantially due to variable growing conditions, horticulture, production processing, and harvesting time.

Green tea is given credit with a huge number of health benefits. For the purposes of this experiment, I am specifically interested in two of the benefits of green tea: cognition benefits and weight loss (though I’ll measure blood pressure as well).

Improved brain function is really quite hard to measure, so I’ll do just self-monitor and report based on my own impressions.

On the green tea page it lists a specific study that took place at the Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. Consumption of 4 cups of green tea per day for 14 days led to all sorts of benefits, including: reduced blood pressure (both systolic and diastolic), body fat, and body weight.

Weight loss is far easier to measure, so that doesn’t require much explanation.

My blood pressure is typically quite well managed, but I’ll measure that as well to see if I can find some sort of change as well.

So, as with the study at Queen Margaret University, I’ll be drinking 4 cups of commercially available green tea per day.

The Benefits of Green Tea – Day 1

No change in weight or blood pressure yet, but cognition is easier to notice. The low-level caffeine of the large quantity of green tea was a definite extended boost for me today. It didn’t have the same ups and downs as I would have on a more powerful caffeinated beverage.

So, it’s too early to draw any conclusions yet, but it looks like it will be a fun week!