For gals who drink green tea
Green tea is a beverage full of natural antioxidant and Vitamin C, it is a great thirsty quencher and an ideal dietary drink containing no calories. Drinking green tea could help burn body fat and regulate body glucose level. It also could reduce the risks of heart disease and certain cancers.
However, as every coin gets two sides, even though green tea is all natural and nutritious, it is not a "suit for all" beverage, for females in certain periods, it is more prudent to drink less than 5g of green tea per day or stop drinking at all:
1. Menstruation
Menstruation would cause loss of considerable amount of iron by bleeding, it is advisable to take foods that contain high level of iron, such as green vegetables, grapes, apple and meat. Green tea contains high level of tea tannins (tea polyphenols), which would react with irons in the digestion system and reduce iron absorption rate.
So never drink green tea immediately after meals, wait at least 2 hours after meal to drink green tea. And reduce green tea intake to less than 5 g a day, avoid drink a strong cup.
2. Pregnancy
During pregnancy, a female needs a lot of nutrition supplements for the growth of her fetus. Green tea would affect the absorption of iron supplements which is vital to fetal development. Also green tea contains caffeine, a substance when overdosed would increase chances of miscarriage and low birth weight. Heavy caffeine intake would also burden heart and kidney functions of pregnant women, induce high blood pressure and . The common safe threshold for total caffeine intake during pregnancy is below 300mg per day. A cup of green tea contains about 25 mg caffeine (a cup of coffee contains 100mg caffeine.).
So pay attention to tea drink during pregnancy, don't drink tea right after a meal or after take an iron capsule. Differed by individual tolerance to caffeine, green tea consumption should be reduced to 5g a day, or stop at all.
3. Lactation
It is believed by the Chinese that strong cups of tea would decrease milk supply. Also caffeine could enter into milk, cause alertness and over reaction in your baby.
So don't drink too much tea during lactation.
