Green Tea Diet With Honey and Lemon

by Angelina
(India)

Hi, I drink brewed green tea with one spoon of honey with some lemon juice. I take it empty stomach in the morning to shred some weight. Is it correct to add honey and lemon and take it in the morning?

Answer:

Angelina, the best time to drink green tea is between meals i.e. one hour after mealtime. It is not advisable to drink green tea empty stomach first thing in the morning as it is known to cause indigestion, gastric pains, heartburn and nausea. This subject is discussed in details in the post below:

Green Tea Best Time for Drinking

Taking green tea with honey and lemon juice is a great idea and has been shown to have significant weight loss benefits. It seems that this is done to lemon enhancing the absorption of green tea antioxidants, see post below:

Green Tea With Lemon

If you scroll down this page, you will also notice a couple of contributors to this site saying that they have experienced significant weight loss with a green tea and honey lemon diet.

As for honey, it obviously contains calories, so be sparring in your use. If your budget allow, I will recommend using a raw honey as they contain significant health benefits:

Honey Health Benefits - 10 Reasons Why the Future Is Sweet

Of course, if you are drinking a very high grade green tea, then it will make sense to drink it on its own as adding honey and lemons only will distract you from experiencing its rich, savoury taste.

I hope my answer helps. Please do consider signing to my newsletter as I will be publishing a series of articles on green tea diet plan soon.

Green Tea With Lemon - Increase Antioxidants Benefits

by Julian

15 Nov 2007 - Drinking green tea with lemon juice might boost their mutual health benefits.

Green tea has certain antioxidants or disease fighting properties. Juices of lemon, orange, lime and grapefruit enable these antioxidants to remain after digestion making the pairing even healthier than previously thought, the scientists fund.

Researchers at Purdue University compared the effect of various beverage additives including juices and creamers on catechins, naturally occurring antioxidants found in tea.

They found that drinking green tea with lemon juices or vitamin C increases the amount of catechins available for the body to absorb, reported health portal Medical News Today.

Catechins display health-promoting qualities and may be responsible for some of green tea's reported health benefits, like reducing risk of cancer, heart attack and stroke.

The problem, the scientists said, is that catechins are relatively unstable in non-acidic environments such as the intestines, and less than 20 percent of the total remains after digestion.

Citrus juices enable these antioxidants to remain after digestion. The study found that lemon juice in particular caused 80 percent of tea's catechins to remain. Following lemon, in terms of stabilising power, were orange, lime and grapefruit juices.

Source: Green Tea With Lemon Juices. The Earth Times.

Adding Honey to Green Tea

by Amanda
(Iowa)

I recently started drinking green tea and because I wanted to sweeten the taste and the health benefits of honey, I started adding honey to it. Will this in any way impact the health benefits of the green tea?

Answer:

Amanda, not all at. Adding honey to green tea is a great way to consume them.

The only thing I have to add is that if you are drinking quality green tea, you don't really need to add honey. You can, but you would prefer not to.

This is because a quality green tea is fresh and sweet tasting, thank to its high theanine content, which is calming, decaffeinating and help to brain to concentrate with the task at hand. It is also a sign of quality of green tea.

(i.e. your green tea is much likelier to contain more antioxidants.)

So in conclusion, honey, and especially raw honey, is wholesome and very beneficial. But if you find your green tea too bland or bitter to taste, chances are it is low quality and due for an upgrade.

Both honey and green tea are covered in details in this site, and the left hand navigation on the left is a good place to start exploring them in more details.

Honey Health Benefits - 10 Reasons Why the Future Is Sweet

I hope this helps.

Julian

Green Tea with Lemon Weight Loss - 6 Kilograms in 3 Months!

by Ms Nusrat
(Pakistan)

My weight was 75 kilograms three months ago when I started taking green tea with lemon before going to the bed at night. Now I am 69 kilograms!

Can I continue this habit or should I should drink more to lose more weight? My height is 4 feet 10 inches. I have 3 children and my age is 37.

Answer:

Ms Nusrat, congratulation for successfully losing 6 kilograms in 3 months! Well done!

If this is working for you, there is no reason to stop doing this. By all means continue drinking your green tea with lemon, or try out other types of green tea. It is a good thing to continue losing weight.

I don't know much green tea you drink daily, but since you are drinking at night, you may want to be careful not to drink too much, otherwise it may cause sleeplessness.

You can try drinking some more green tea first thing in the morning, or in between meals.

In any case, drinking green tea for weight loss is about "slow and steady" and "permanent". 3 to 6 cups per day will have a good effect.

Please feel free to check out my Shop Home Page for any recent offers and good deals.

Amazing Green Tea Shop

Thank you for sharing!

Julian

Green Tea with Lemon - I Lost Weight Drinking It!

by Tanya
(Delhi)

I have been drinking green tea and it's actually helpful in weight loss specially if you add lemon to it :)

It makes you feel light and specially what I noticed in my case is that it can act as a substitute of other drinks like other tea and coffee and obviously it is more effective as compared to them!

Lemon in Tea Reduces Problems of Iron Absorption

I have counseled pregnant women for years to avoid tea with their meals, and instead to drink tea between meals, especially if they are anemic.

I have heard that adding lemon to tea reduces the effect of tea on iron absorption, but haven't found the research reference - please tell me your source for this info.

Answer:

Hey, you should be able to find the references at the three studies cited at the end of the article.

Green Tea and Iron Absorption

It has been a long while since I written the article so I have actually forgotten which one it was! But it definitely was something mentioned in the papers.

I hope this helps.

Julian

Green Tea and Honey - Two Warnings for Pregnant/Baby

There is no doubt about the health benefits of green tea and/or honey. BUT two warnings seem extremely important to me, and I believe they should be included in every article promoting the use of either of the above.

One is that honey contains clostridium botulinum which can be harmful and even fatal to babies under 1 year of age.

Two is that large amounts of green tea can cause neural tube defects in the fetus and so should be used only in moderation by pregnant women.

Answer:

Totally agreed. For further information about why pregnant mother should avoid drinking green tea, read

Drinking Green Tea When Pregnant - Twin Risks

Julian

Drinking Green Tea with Lemon - Get Weird Taste Like Throwing Up

by Mona
(Tampa,FL)

I usually drink regular tea with lemon as I was told green tea helps with belly fat.

I have tried green tea. Was drinking it for about 4 days. It was green tea with lemon. But about after 4 days I had got this nasty taste like I had just thrown up whenever I would swallow.(but it has never made me physically throw up).

At first I couldn't figure out what was making me get that nasty taste cause I loved the taste of it so I stopped drinking the green tea to see if that would make that feeling go away and it did.

So now I'm afraid to go back to drinking green tea.

I loved the taste but I am afraid after a few days I may get that nasty side affect again.

I don't know if it was the brand, the tea was made with real green 100% tea leaves /natural lemon flavor. No artificial colors or additives. (per the package).

Any suggestions on brands? or how to avoid that side affect if anyone else experienced that?

Green Tea with Honey and Milk - Any Health Benefits?

by Anonymous
(Preston)

Hi, I've heard that green tea helps you lose weight so I brought some green tea bags.

I didn't really know how to make it, so I put one tea bag in a mug, boiled some water, cooled it for one minute then poured it over my tea bag and mixed and left for a while.

It tasted so "bitter and horrible" because I usually put milk and 2 spoons of sugar in my normal PG tea and make it on the gas cooker.

So, my question is if I add milk and honey (to make it sweeter) to my green tea will it change the health benifits? Or is there another way to drink it? Please help! Thank you.

Answer:

It is very unusual for people to add milk to green tea. So I suggest you give it a miss (especialy if you are already saying it tastes horrible). As for the health benefits, yes, adding milk does dilute away some of the health benefits of tea (both black and green tea). I have discussed this topic in the article below:

Tea With Milk

As for honey, it is preferable to table sugar as study has found that your body tolerates it better (i.e. less likely to cause blood sugar spike and hypoglycemia conditions). However, your best choice is unprocessed honey, or raw honey, as it contains the full nutritions found in natural honey. Honey that you buy in supermarket tends to be pasteurised so most of the nutritions have already been filtered away.

Also remember honey contains calories and drinking lots of processed honey (which contains little nutrition value) won't help you lose weight. So use sparringly.

Any other way to help your tea taste better? Well, use lower temperature water, brew for less time and (highly recommended) upgrade to a higher quality tea, preferably an unflavoured loose green tea.

Further information can be found at

Green Tea Beverage Brands Best Of 7 Types Reviewed

Hope this helps.

Julian