Green tea - eat it or drink it? Either way it's good for you!

Green tea, the favourite drink in Aisa, has made a deep imprint in the western health psyche. It seems researchers and scientists can't get enough of this antioxidant, immune boosting, fat burning tea leaf, which when picked transforms into a light, delicate drink suitable for most occasions.

• As a morning brew it's low caffeine content wakes us up without the after slump of coffee
• A through the day drink, green tea is refreshing and comes in so many varieties and flavours you never have to have the same taste twice - flushing out your insides and lowering your cholesterol never tasted so good
• As an after dinner drink, it works on our digestion, speeds up our metabolism and cleanses the palate
• Before bed? Probably not so good due to the caffeine, but 3 out of 4's not bad!

The health benefits of the tea are not contested, in fact more evidence comes to light every day.
Cures diarrhoea, kills bacteria, lowers cholesterol, good for weight loss, slows cancer, kills germs, deters food poisoning and so on. The list of health claims is endless. How does a simple drink do this?

Tea health
All tea leaves - black, white, green or oolong - derive from the evergreen tree Camellia sinensis whose leaves contain polyphenols & flavonoids which are vital to our biochemical processes.

• Polyphenols are anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, anti-cancer, anti-oxidant and anti-viral.

• Flavonoids - a member of the polyphenol family - prevent the oxidation of ‘bad cholesterol’ in the blood (reducing a build up of plaque in artery walls). Maintain a healthy cardiovascular system and reduce the oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (thereby reducing the weight of obese patients, Oklahoma State University study)

Did you know?
One cup of black or green tea has more antioxidant power than a serving of broccoli, carrots, or spinach. But still less than pomegranates - god bless that fruit!

Green tea foods & healthy snacks

Not content  with just drinking the leaf, nutritionists and foodies have found numerous way to eat it, so for those of you who really don't like the taste (which if over brewed can be tart) you can still reap the health benefits while munching your way through green tea chocolate and healthy snacks. Yes, chocolate!


You can buy green tea leaves and use them as a sprinkle on salads or stir-frys, add them to scrambled eggs, make green tea truffles, bake bread. Mitsuko Tokunaga's book, New Tastes in Green Tea is a good place to start for ideas but if you simply fancy trying out some green  tea treats then Keiko Green Kiss have a cute range.


Kekio Green Kiss, supplied by Bioporek, is a range of sweets, organic chocolate and healthy snack bars that are based around one key ingredient: Matcha green tea.

Matcha is a finely milled Japanese green tea and Keiko use the first leaves to secure a fine subtle flavour which they then blend with other fruits or herbs to create tasty healthy snacks. Ever seen green chocolate? Once you get over the shock of the celadon coloured bar, the taste flows outs in a creamy white chocolate kind of way. Bizarre but true!

The green chocolate did pick me up during an afternoon dip, but my favourite matcha mix is found in the Green Kiss snack bars, available online are healthy, tasty, organic, fruity, and packed with ginger, almonds, honey and raw fruits - a natural source of goodness.

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