Green tea is becoming a popular drink to enhance weight loss and improve general health, but as with all herbal supplements, caution is warranted. Unless you are following a doctor’s orders, you may be unsure about the correct dosage of supplements, and green tea is no exception.
Just how much green tea is safe to take, and are there any possible side effects from taking too much of it?
It’s definitely possible to overdo it with supplements, no matter what they are – and the same goes for tea that you drink. The first and most obvious side effect of too much green tea is caused by ingesting high levels of caffeine.
Green tea contains less caffeine than coffee, but it’s still easy to ingest too much and pay the price. Unpleasant side effects of too much caffeine include: rapid heartbeat, irregular heartbeat, restlessness, irritability, jitters, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea.
Other than caffeine overload, there are a few other side effects from drinking too much green tea.
One of the more common is nausea. The tannins in green tea have been known to irritate the stomach lining and colon, especially if the tea has been steeped for too long. Steeping green tea for longer than 1 to 3 minutes will make it taste bitter and increase the likelihood of stomach upset. Drinking green tea on an empty stomach can also cause nausea, so you may want to drink it with a small snack.
Pregnant women are often advised to avoid green tea, partly because of the caffeine content, but also because of the risks of neural tube defects in babies. Both caffeine and EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate – the antioxidant found in green tea) are suspect contributors to neural tube defects, so it’s best to avoid green tea and other caffeinated drinks during pregnancy just to be on the safe side.
Finally, doctors often advise their patients to avoid green tea if they are taking blood thinning medication, and for several days before surgery, as green tea has a thinning effect on the blood and helps prevent the formation of blood clots.
Other than these known dangers, green tea should be safe to drink for most other people provided they don’t overdo it.
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