[Apple Pro Underwear]

I heard a rumor about eating tea to get the maximum anti-oxidents and stuff from the tea leaves because just steeping it gets you like 25% of the nutrients.

http://www.culture-dome.or.jp/FS-E/N...9/page02-e.htm

"From Drinking Tea to Eating Tea
Although there is a devotion to the practice of drinking tea in the modern age, in the past-just as with herbs-it was important to drink and eat tea. In fact, since only one-third of tea's nutrients and beneficial ingredients are soluble in (cold and hot) water, the remainder of these ingredients are discarded with the tea leaves themselves. It can be said that to eat tea leaves whole (rather than just to drink the extracted liquid) is the ideal way to elicit all of the power that is contained in the tea. To take advantage of tea's remarkable functions we should skillfully incorporate it, with modern sensitivity and creativity, into our every-day diets.
Green tea consists of 35 percent water-soluble ingredients (such as catechin, caffeine, amino acids, and water-soluble vitamins), and 65 percent non-water-soluble ingredients (the part of the tea leaf that is discarded after use, such as fiber, vitamin E, carotene, protein, chlorophyll and others). And each of these prime ingredients produce specific effects. It has been scientifically proven that the astringent ingredient of catechin in particular serves as everything from an anti-bacteria and anti-oxidant to protecting against cavities and halitosis, from decreasing blood cholesterol levels to suppressing the outbreak of cancer. By utilizing green tea as a daily cooking ingredient (thus making beneficial use of its effects), it could be recognized throughout the world not merely as a Japanese drink but as a food substance that has functions for tuning the body. A specialty book on tea in the Tang dynasty, China, which is said to be the oldest in the world, reports examples of tea being consumed "as food" (such as in a soup recipe). In Japan, matcha, which is used in the tea ceremony, is made by transforming the tea leaves into powder thus utilizing all of their ingredients. Cook books published during the Edo period show rice, soup and many other dishes cooked with tea .

In order to skillfully utilize the tea it is important to properly understand the different processing methods of tea, such as konacha (broken tea leaves that are produced mid-way through the process of making sencha) and matcha (strongly roasted tea leaves that are made into powder) as well as the different tea states, such as chagara (the tea leaves that remain after the tea liquid is extracted) and the extracted tea liquid itself."


I bought a canister of tea bags from Whole Foods called "People's Republic of Tea — Green Tea", which I believe is a decent quality tea. I started yesterday to steep it once and finish it and then rip the bag open and drink it again with some more water. Thereby ingesting some of the leaves. It is pretty finely chopped so I dont really taste anything. I even took a spoonful and ate it. It tasted pretty un-nasty.

You guys have any thoughts on this?

[olePigeon]

Roasting the tea leaves will change the composition of the nutrients and break them down. I'd be curious if there's really any more nutrients in roasted tea leaves than there are in just boild leaves.

If you like to eat/drink tea, you can always try green tea.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

If you like to eat/drink tea, you can always try green tea.

that's what i've been doing.

i would not do that with a bag of lipton or bigelow. i was particularly wondering if this was "dangerous" in any way. I suppose not because we are ingesting the tea bag no matter how you look at it.

[dav]

since you can buy capsules of ground green tea, i would think ingesting the leaves yourself should be fine...

" Special tips: --Green tea capsules provide a more potent antioxidant effect than a cup of green tea: Green tea leaf is 8% to12% polyphenols (the key antioxidants) while the capsules can contain anywhere from 50% to 90% polyphenols, depending on the brand.

--To get an adequate amount of polyphenols, you need three to four cups of green tea a day or 100 mg of the extract in capsule form. What you do is largely a matter of personal taste. If you want to make green tea your mealtime beverage (as they do in Japan), then obviously you don't need to take extract capsules. If you drink just one cup a day, you're better off with a capsule.

--Antioxidant researchers say that two 8-ounce cups of green tea contain about as many flavonoids (a type of antioxidant) as a serving of vegetables or fruit."

i'm a fan of gyokuro (green) tea from adagio teas. adagio

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally Posted by dav

since you can buy capsules of ground green tea, i would think ingesting the leaves yourself should be fine...

I think so too. I didn't get diarrea or anything so I think i'm fine.

" Special tips: --Green tea capsules provide a more potent antioxidant effect than a cup of green tea: Green tea leaf is 8% to12% polyphenols (the key antioxidants) while the capsules can contain anywhere from 50% to 90% polyphenols, depending on the brand.

--To get an adequate amount of polyphenols, you need three to four cups of green tea a day or 100 mg of the extract in capsule form. What you do is largely a matter of personal taste. If you want to make green tea your mealtime beverage (as they do in Japan), then obviously you don't need to take extract capsules. If you drink just one cup a day, you're better off with a capsule.

--Antioxidant researchers say that two 8-ounce cups of green tea contain about as many flavonoids (a type of antioxidant) as a serving of vegetables or fruit."

A person should just eat fruits and veggies to get the anti-oxidents instead. Eating a tablet seems to me to be a cheat. i eat a multi-vitamin but it's not to replace anything. if a person eats green tea capsules, then why not extra vitamin XXX and vitamin YYY too?

i'm a fan of gyokuro (green) tea from adagio teas. adagio

thanks, i think I might get the sampler thing with the steeper when my current supply ends