Why You Should Drink Green Tea This Winter

Coffee may be everyone’s get-up-and-go, but green tea is often advertised as a miracle in a mug. So with flu season upon us, and all that holiday craziness coming up, now is the time to start drinking green tea. Here are some of my favorite reasons why:

Weight-loss: Those tempting desserts will start showing up in the office soon and you want to be able to fit into your New Year’s outfit. Well, drinking green tea on a regular basis has been shown to help suppress appetite and increase metabolism. This can help you save AND burn some calories. Green tea has been shown to fight obesity and lower LDL “bad” cholesterol but in very limited studies.

Prevent Illness: With all the parties, shopping, and traveling this season, your immune system can take a hit. Studies have shown that green tea has antiviral properties. Two separate studies found that taking green tea catechin capsules or drinking green tea every day helped prevent the flu.

Stress Relief: I don’t know about you, but a hot cup of tea can be very relaxing. Plus green tea has half the amount of caffeine than a cup of coffee. So don’t worry about having trouble sleeping.

Awesome Antioxidants: Green tea has antioxidants called catechins. These hunt for free radicals that can damage DNA and contribute cancer, blood clots, and atherosclerosis. Other sources of antioxidants are grapes, berries, red wine, and dark chocolate. Green tea has more catechins than black or oolong because it goes through less processing.