The Health Benefits Of Green Tea On Your Diet

By Barbara M Johnson

A diet can have great results if you follow it while consuming plenty of fluids, and exercising daily. Not only does the consumption of excess fluids help to hydrate you, but it also speeds up the fat burning process. And while there are plenty of tricks and fad diets, one thing that has been proven to work is green tea.

It has been proven that green tea reduces cholesterol, and helps to improve your body's immune system which is especially important when dieting. It also contains cancer-fighting agents and many antioxidants, but also a significant amount of vitamin E and C. The benefits that green tea has on your figure start to be visible after consuming one cup every day for a year. But you should always purchase unsweetened tea, when it comes to shopping for green tea, there are many products to choose from and not all are healthy for you. Some packaged tea is absolutely loaded with sugar and unhealthy artificial sweeteners and basically puts the drink in the same category as soda. And if you aren't already familiar sugar and calories result in weight gain and not the desired weight loss that you are trying to achieve.

So you are probably wondering by now, how much green tea should you drink. During the diet, the amount of green tea you consume will not influence its final outcome at all. There are no adverse effects of drinking green tea (some people even drink 20 cups a day), and therefore is recommended for all persons regardless of age and diet to drink it. And if you look at Chinese and Asian people that tend to drink tea with every meal and live very long lives, it becomes quite apparent that you really can't overdue this delicious drink.

Equally important is how you prepare your green tea, which has impact on its benefits. For example, we already went over how adding sugar or sweeteners to this drink can have negative effects on its effectiveness as a diet. For infusion, tea leaves should be more shredded. It takes less time to prepare whole tea leaves than shredded leaves. If you get your tea in a bag or pouch form, make sure it sinks in the water before putting the lid over it and wait about 5-7 minutes, then you can drink. It is recommended to leave the tea bag to float in your cup, because all the healthy ingredients and antioxidants will be released into the water.