Green Tea - Best Time For Drinking

by Joyce
(Alberta, Canada)

When is the best time to drink green tea, before or after meals?

Answer

Joyce, the key to remember about drinking a tea - such as black tea or green tea - is that it is a negative calorie food i.e. it can cause you to lose nutrition. For example, tea is known to block absorption of protein, fat and iron.

Now of course, green tea contains lots of antioxidants and theanine and come with lots of health benefits. It is a great energiser and great for maintaining your body weight and fat. But you have to drink it at the right time and you shouldn't drink excessive amount of it.

In addition, green tea is known to upset the stomach. Unless you are drinking an extremely water-downed green tea such as the Japanese Genmaicha, it is generally NOT recommended to drink green tea first thing in the morning with an empty stomach or before breakfast. It is also not recommended to drink green tea with a meal.

Drinking green tea at the wrong time can give rise to unpleasant side effects such as nausea and gastric pain. If you are prone to diarrhea, it can cause stomach upset.

Green tea is a powerful herb and you have to harness its power properly to benefit fully from it. Here are the rules of thumb:

- Drink green tea in between meals i.e. more than one hour after breakfast and lunch.

- Avoid drinking first thing in the morning or before breakfast.

- Avoid drinking green tea late at night as the caffeine can cause insomnia.

In addition, and this is my favourite - it is highly recommended to drink green tea at least half an hour before exercise. It has been found that green tea can improve your performance level and help you to last longer. It will help you to lose weight and burn fat!

Green Tea Diet and Exercise - Visceral Fat Burning and Stamina

(I can vouch that green tea definitely make me run faster and longer.)

If you need a tea to go with your meal, I will recommend drinking an oolong or a pu-erh tea, which is known to block fat absorption and excretion - very useful if you are eating extremely greasy food!

Check out the following article on oolong tea weight loss:

Oolong Tea Weight Loss - Frequently Asked Questions

I hope my answer helps. Please feel free to click on the link below to read what other readers have to say. Don't forget to leave your comments and thoughts on this important subject!

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Best Time For Tea?

by Aditi Arora
(CT, USA)

What are the best time to have green tea for weight loss purpose and how many times in a day should it be consumed?

Answer:

Aditi, generally speaking, the best time to drink tea is in between meals.

This is because when you stomach has food, green tea can affect absorption and irritates the stomach, causing some undesirable side effects.

And according to Chinese medicine, it is not good when your stomach is empty as well.

So if you have a sensitive stomach, the best time is in between meals, 3 to 6 cups a day, or more, depending on your history (i.e. beginner should start with 1 to 3 cups, more experienced drinker can drink as much as they like).

(I start with 3 cups a week!)

If you stomach is fine, and you feel good drinking tea, that by all means drink it first thing in the morning (which is what I do) or with meals.

Drinking tea has the effect of blocking the absorption of iron, thiamine and according to Chinese research, fat and protein as well.

Drinking tea with meals can be good or bad, depending on how you feel.

If you are just starting to drink tea daily, I suggest you start with in between meals, 3 cups a day, loose green tea, then increase gradually to 6 cups a day.

With loose green tea, 3 grams of dried leaves should be able to infuse 3 times to give you your 3 cups.

Depending on how sensitive you are to caffeine, it is also a good idea to avoid drinking tea after dinner to avoid losing any sleep.

Hope this helps.

When To Drink Tea - After Lunch or Dinner?

by A.Gh
(Tehran, Iran)

Please tell me the best time to take tea, after lunch or dinner?

Answer:

A, I just recently answer a related question on when to drink tea. You can find it here:

Best Time To Drink Green Tea

To answer your specific question, a couple of hours after lunch will be preferable to dinner because tea contains caffeine that might keep you awake!

(Having said that, I do drink oolong tea after dinner, especially when I am eating something meaty and fatty.)

Julian

Tea after Meal - Ideal Minimum Time Gap

by Ms
(Mumbai India)

How long should one wait after having meals to take tea? What should be the ideal minimum gap as I feel like having tea shortly after meals?

Answer:

Hey Ms, there really isn't any hard and fast rule on this subject. If you are comfortable, you can drink tea straight after meals, or with your meals. The precaution is there really for people who are prone to indigestions and anaemia (iron deficiency). Also, darker and more oxidised oolong tea is more gentle on the stomach than green tea.

Having said that, it takes 4 hours for your stomach to digest the food (depending on what food you eat, meat takes longer). Personally, I find that it is okay to drink tea couple of hours later. You should do what is comfortable for you.

I hope this helps.

Drinking Tea In the Morning - Any Side Effects

by Keshav S Melnad
(Bangalore, Karnataka, India)

I just want to know if drinking tea in empty stomach is good for health. If not, what are the side effects of drinking tea in the morning?

Answer:

Keshav, the best time to drink tea is in-between meals.

Drinking tea in the morning with empty stomach can upset the stomach for some people.

You can read about the stomach side effects of tea at

Green Tea and Stomach Gastric Irritation - Indigestion and Heart Burn

In addition, in Chinese medicine, tea, especially those which are lightly oxidised (i.e. white tea, green tea and yellow tea etc) is associated with "coldness" and hurts the stomach.

For many years, I drank green tea first thing in the morning. However, my Chinese physician has recently advised against that as she said my stomach is prone to developing ulcers. I now drink tea mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

I hope this helps.

Julian

Drinking Green Tea First Thing In The Morning?

by Altctrlshiftc
(Singapore)

Hi! I live in Singapore. I just made a trip to China and had a chance to buy Longjing green tea from MeijiaWu.

The lady gave us some tips, which I am not sure if I got it correctly so I would like to confirm with you.

She told us you could leave the tea overnight in the room temperature water and drink it the first thing the next morning on empty stomach.

I have also read some of your threads and one of it says:

"Personally, I drink 3 to 6 cups of Dragon Well tea first thing in the morning. A 2007 study conducted by the University of Arizona found that green tea cleanses the body by boosting the production of detoxifying enzyme GST. Morning is a good time for cleansing after a long night's rest."

Can I know do you prepare your Longjing tea in the previous night? same as the lady's recommendation, using room temperature water and letting them steep overnight?

I find that its bitter as its left overnight, and I only put one teaspoon of tea leaves and half a mug of water.

How you manage to prepare 3 to 6 cups? Do you eat some of the tea leaves down?

Many websites say its not good to drink tea that has been left long. I would like to find out if i am doing the wrong thing. Thank you so much!!!

Sorry for the long questions, am rather new to green tea and would like to drink them right! :)

Answer:

Hey, the short answer to your question is that I don't recommend leaving your tea overnight (not especially green tea, especially if unrefridgerated), and I don't recommend brewing tea using room temperature water.

As for how I prepare my Longjing green tea, this is what I do:

- First thing morning, empty stomach
- 1 to 2 grams tea leaves (about 60 tea shoots per gram)
- 225 millimeter or 8 ounces glass tumbler
- boiling water
- infuse 3 times
- after infusing, pour over to a porcelain bowl to cool then drink.

Further information can be found here:

Brewing Loose Tea Tips and Tricks - Resource Center

I hope this helps.

Julian