67 replies to this topic

[Maecenas]

People I drink 2 to 3 litres of a green tea a day and don't drink water at all. I've been doing it for more than 3 years. Can it be harmful in a long term or is the green tea healthy in any quantities?

Edited by Maecenas, 24 January 2015 - 07:47 AM.

[motorcitykid]

People I drink 2 to 3 litres of a green tea a day and don't drink water at all. I've been doing it for more than 3 years. Can it be harmful in a long term or is the green tea healthy in any quantities?

 

Yeah long term it could be a problem. I imagine it depends on your susceptibility to developing kidney stones-green tea contains oxalic acid(not as much as black) which can cause kidney stones.. if consumed by the litre.

 

This happened to someone I know. He smoked, ate breaded and fried food and became inspired to change his ways when he read an article touting the health benefits of green tea, He threw away the cigs and exchanged his chicken parm hero for turkey sandwiches and PLENTY of green tea. In six months he was rushed to the hospital, he thought he was dying- it was kidney stones.

 

Food for thought.

[Adaptogen]

People I drink 2 to 3 litres of a green tea a day and don't drink water at all. I've been doing it for more than 3 years. Can it be harmful in a long term or is the green tea healthy in any quantities?

 

that's about how much I drink each day.

 

if it's entirely healthy or not probably depends in part on the quality of your green tea. as for any acute risk, I doubt that you are close to an egcg overdose at that amount, unless its really strong tea. 

 

but I imagine nausea would get to you long before liver damage.

[gamesguru]

if it's entirely healthy or not probably depends in part on the quality of your green tea.

 

and perhaps also the strength of the brew matters.  I doubt at that rate (of half a gallon daily) how it could possibly be healthy crushing 4 grams of sencha per cup of boiling water.  Order from an authentic Japanese vendor and crush it in a mortar and pestle or an herb grinder.  This will result in a darkly pigmented and bitter brew, a uniquely sublime concoction which packs a punch and takes some getting used to.

 

not only does all tea contain some fluoride (typically an insignificant amount), but when abused the tannins and catechins also begin to leach minerals, precipitate anxiety and at extreme doses even suffocate the mitochondria of oxygen.  A combination of that much anti-oxidant superpower, packed with caffeine, epi-catechin, theanine, fluoride and tannins is assuredly not a healthy indulgence.  Some experts have recommended as little as one strong cup of tea daily.

 

I definitely push the limits on that with 3 or 4 strong cups, probably totaling  between 500 and 1000 mg of EGCG each day.  But i've worked into it over the course years, and i still pay the price.  It leaves a bitter taste on my mouth for hours until i eat.  It causes me to produce more saliva, to have a slightly upset stomach, and to eat less.

 

Somehow though, the solace, the renewal it provides are things i find indispensable.  If i stay below 4 cups i don't have these issues.  And if i quit i get a minor headache and longing, but nothing even that noticeable.  It radiates warmth and vibrancy from every organ out through your skin.  Everyone needs that vibrant glow as well as the flexibility of body and mind, but ideally.. without actually having to go to the gym daily or practice yoga

[Adaptogen]

What's your rationale for mortar & pestling sencha, as opposed to traditional consumption, or as opposed to just buying powdered sencha or drinking grade matcha? I find most fukamushi-cha to be close to crushed already, and my infusions end up a thick green. 3 to 4 steepings in a 250ml kyusu, and I find the tea leaves are thoroughly extracted, with subsequent infusions having very little flavor or color.

Edited by Adaptogen, 02 March 2020 - 11:36 PM.

[gamesguru]

What's your rationale for mortar & pestling sencha, as opposed to traditional consumption, or as opposed to just buying powdered sencha or drinking grade matcha? I find most fukamushi-cha to be close to crushed already, and my infusions end up a thick green. 3 to 4 steepings in a 250ml kyusu, and I find the tea leaves are thoroughly extracted, with subsequent infusions having very little flavor or color.

 

Crushing it means everything is extracted with the first brew, the grits sink but a second brew is completely watery.
buying it crushed exposes to oxygen the smaller particles with more surface area over a greater period.
you can use a coffee grinder or vitamix.  store it in sachets, it's more portable this way than a kyusu.  maybe not as convenient.

fukamushi is just a method of deep steaming.  many of the sencha from Shizuoka and Fuji are deep steamed shinchas of the Yabukita cultivar.  definitely a worthy tea.  A lot of these don't come in long, intact leaves, but i wouldnt call it "crushed already".

Yame has stronger tea even.  i think it's healthier too, though it often tastes more astringent, vegetal and marine.  The fishy taste is not a result of being grown near the ocean or of using fertilizer with fish byproducts, rather it is a result of the Saemidori and Okumidori cultivars and the lighter steaming process, which produce dimethyl sulfide and methylmethionines.  These compounds contribute to the intestinal benefits.

the leaves may be spent after 4 brews, or maybe not.  One experiment you can try, empty out the kyusu and dry the leaves.  Crush them smaller the next day and see if you can brew more still.

[Adaptogen]

 

 

you reckon there's any truth to the TCM lore that ginseng should not be consumed with tea? I came across an ebay listing a while back recommending against consumption with tea or radish. Curiously, there was actually some supporting evidence for the radish claim: Effect of Raw Radish on Pharmacological Action of Ginseng, but I could never track down much about taking KRG with tea.

[gamesguru]

you reckon there's any truth to the TCM lore that ginseng should not be consumed with tea? I came across an ebay listing a while back recommending against consumption with tea or radish. Curiously, there was actually some supporting evidence for the radish claim: Effect of Raw Radish on Pharmacological Action of Ginseng, but I could never track down much about taking KRG with tea.

 

good question, it's hard to say.  I tried to find the full article but kept getting errors; it would be interesting to know about the suspected mechanism, active constituents in radish, type of radish, speculations, etc.

 

My experience has been they are fine to mix in low amounts.  Ginkgo and ginseng has been more anxiety inducing for me, as one antagonists GABA-A and the other GABA-B.  It's possible ginseng oppose theanine on these grounds, but seems weak speculation at best, and sometimes opposites compliment especially with partial agonists, pre-synaptic sites, long-term effects, convoluted neural pathways and feedback circuits.. it becomes complicated

 

i know green tea can reduce uptake of other nutrients, but it can also increase delivery of huperzine in albumin to the brain.. so it's kind of a shot in the dark with drug delivery and kinetics.

 

epi-genetic downregulation may be another thing to watch out for.  if green tea slows down methylation and ginseng slows down acetylation and phosphorylation, then combining heavy doses at the same time could really reduce the proteins produced by your cells, resulting potentially even in malaise and fatigue, brain fog and other undesired and paradoxical effects.  it could be reminiscent of a small dose of ricin, a ribosome inhibiting and golgi apparatus suffocating poisin which usually kills in 3-5 days and was fired from an umbrella gun incident during the assassination of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov

 

the only other thing i could worry about is saturation of some hormonal mechanism, both ginseng and green tea are known to lower cortisol and potentially some overlap effect on the thyroid and adrenals too.  Best thing is to listen to your body, run repeated experiments, and build on your knowledge with your own experience.

Edited by gamesguru, 23 June 2020 - 02:09 AM.