I wanted to lose weight. Everybody suggested me to take green tea instead of normal tea.
Some advertisements on television, especially, Shraddha Kapoor (Indian actress) for Lipton green tea is also showing that using green tea can get you a perfect figure and it can also reduce your belly fat.
Are these advertisements true? Or up to which extent? Considering it safe for our health, could we take it in any quantity? A study reveals that Green tea comes along with so many benefits such as
- Helps in losing weight
- Helps to improve mental alertness
- Helps to ease the symptoms of some types of cancer like breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer
- Helps in periods
- Helps in digestion and many more
Even some international companies are claiming that green tea is also helpful in boosting your fertility and helps you in conceiving. Up to which extents they are true? What actually green tea is?
Green tea originated in China, is obtained from fresh tea leaves which do not undergo through the process of fermentation. It contains Vitamin B, folic acid, magnesium and many of antioxidants and beneficial polyphenols along with small amount of caffeine. After white tea, it is one of the least processed tea.
However, compounds found in green tea like polyphenols help to control the damage of body’s cell, reduce inflammation, improves blood flow yet many researches have to happen to reveal the positive effects of green tea.
Scientists and researchers are working tirelessly to find out the effects of green tea. Along with some good effects, some side effects have been found in their studies. Today, I will discuss some of green tea side effects:
10 Green tea side effects
Caffeine sensitivity:
Green tea is considered as the healthiest drink as it consists of a very low amount of caffeine in it.
However, amount of caffeine in a cup of tea depends on how long you have infused the tea bag, and how much tea you have infused.
Drinking one or two cups of green tea a day is good but if you are taking it with black tea or coffee, it could harm you. You could experience pain in stomach, insomnia, irritability, nausea etc.
Bleeding disorders:
You should completely avoid green tea if you are suffering from any of bleeding disorders.
If you are undergoing blood-thinning medications you should avoid green tea. As we know green tea consists of Vitamin K which helps in blood clotting, it could make your medications ineffective.
You should avoid intake of green tea with aspirin as both are used to prevent platelets from clotting. If you would take them together it could increase your risk of bleeding.
Heart Palpitations:
More intake of caffeine may lead to heart palpitations i.e. you may feel like your heart is racing or skipping. However, green tea contains a very low amount of caffeine. According to a study, a cup of green tea contains almost 15 milligrams of caffeine.
However, you may experience an increase in heartbeat, if you are taking it in high quantity.
Iron Deficiency and Anaemia:
If you are taking green tea with or after the iron–rich diet, then this information is especially for you.
Green tea contains tannins, which actually prevents your body to absorb iron from plant-based sources. This way, excessive intake of green tea can cause anaemia to you.
If you will take green tea after an iron-rich diet, then EGCG found in green tea may bind to the iron and cause iron deficiency along with inflammation in the body as EGCG may lose its oxidation power.
Green tea may lead to Osteoporosis:
If taken in high quantity, green tea have severe effects and it may lead to osteoporosis. More intake may cause more depletion of calcium through urine. If your intake of caffeine is more than 400 mg, then you are at a high risk of osteoporosis. However, calcium rich diet or calcium supplements could help you.
Diabetes:
Caffeine may affect the blood sugar level in your body. If you are diabetic and taking more than three cups of green tea it may have worse effects on your body.
Diarrhoea:
However, Green tea contains caffeine in a very less amount. But whenever intake of green tea is high, it may worsen diarrhoea due to increase in intake of Caffeine.
Heartburn:
As we know, green tea is acidic in nature. It may cause irritation in the oesophageal lining which could further cause heart burn.
If you have been already suffering from heart burn, then you should avoid green tea. As most of the bottle packed green tea available in the market comes with a preservative called ascorbic acid. The caffeine present in green tea could increase stomach acid which may increase the risk of gastritis.
Insomnia:
One of the well-known worse effects of caffeine is that it could cause insomnia. If you are taking green tea in late hours of a day then it could cause the disturbance in your sleep.
As we know excess is bad, same is the case with green tea. If intake of green tea is high, it could cause many sleep disorders.
Drug interactions:
Green tea may interfere with many drugs. You must know about all the bad combination of drugs and the green tea and you should avoid them. Some of the bad combinations are warfarin, anisindione, dicumarol, Miradon etc.
You should avoid these combinations as these can outweighs the benefits of medication, may worsen the medication.
However, green tea side effects are very rarely found. An old proverb says, “Excess of everything is bad”. Same as with green tea, only people who are taking it in very high quantity may experience its side effects. If you will see in general, then you will find that benefits of green tea over its side effects. Green tea is proved to be good for health but if taken in high quantity, it may lose its power.
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