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| (Image credit to ‘Akira Kaede -Getty Images’) |
What does come in your mind when talking about green tea? Its health benefits, its great taste that can encourage your mood in the morning, weight loss, or caffeine content? Let’s explore more for the last issue -- How much caffeine in green tea?
Yes, there are some amounts of caffeine in green tea, but they are relatively less than if compared to other beverages (such as other tea or coffee). Moreover, there is also available ‘caffeine-free of green tea /decaffeinated green tea’ to accommodate some medical purposes!
What is actually caffeine?
It acts as “a stimuli”, which generally can stimulate the heart and central nervous system. Consuming caffeine can increase the level of blood pressure (instantly increasing). But there is still no definitive evidence that this condition can affect to the blood pressure itself in long term.
Our body is more likely to absorb quickly the caffeine. In other words, about after 5-7 hours of drinking coffee your body can eliminate the half of caffeine that you consume, and the body needs only about after 8-10 hours to remove completely the caffeine.
However, something that is consumed too over is not good! If you are coffee lover, make sure you choose moderate option (about 300 mg of caffeine /day or “2-3 cups of coffee” is relatively safe in most healthy adults). And for older people or if you have high blood pressure problem, consuming coffee/ other beverages with high content of caffeine should be limited or avoided if necessary for better result!.
What you should know about caffeine in green tea?
Some studies found that caffeine in green tea is different than caffeine in coffee. In green tea, we can find other constituents that can work as well with caffeine, that are; tannin, oils, and vitamins. Moreover, some experts believe that the caffeine content of green tea works with a different approach in the body, which may not significantly affect to the blood pressure and heart rate.
As mentioned before, the caffeine content in green tea is relatively lower than in coffee and other types of tea. It is only about the half of caffeine in black tea, and the quarter of caffeine in coffee. Nevertheless, you need to follow some precautions; particularly you should consume green tea in the moderate amount, otherwise there may be negative reactions that you will get!
So, how much caffeine in green tea? Check the table below for more detailed information!
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| Table source: National Soft Drink Association, US Food and Drug Administration, Bunker and McWilliams, Pepsi, Slim-Fast. |
Many people still believe that drinking green tea with less caffeine is much better than drinking this tea with its normal caffeine level. There are some ideas & helpful tips on how to minimize bad effects of caffeine in green tea, which may include:
- First, don’t jump to more cups /day! Start moderately! You can start with a cup of green tea /day to observe the reactions with your body, and then you can increase gradually until meet to the tolerance level of your body.
- You may also need to try with decaffeinated green tea (especially you have diabetes or blood pressure problem -- talk with your dietitian to get more advices!).
- Chose drinking in the morning instead of after 2 PM in order to eliminate insomnia problem!
- If you have already been familiar with tea bags, this option is not good idea if you want to get less caffeine intake from a cup of green tea! There are more filler materials in tea bags that have higher content of caffeine. Therefore, much better to choose loose-leaf tea!
- Drink your tea while it is still hot! This is not only important to give great sensational of taste but also will be helpful enough to encourage theanine and catechin from green tea to work better on rendering caffeine-content to be less effective.
Read also about helpful FAQs of matcha green tea powder!
