Who knew that drinking tea burns calories? That's right. Two to three cups of green tea per day can kick up your metabolism by 80 calories per day. It may not sound like alot, but when you're trying to lose weight, every calorie counts. Besides that, green tea contains other healthy compounds that provide all sorts of healthy benefits, including slowing the aging process.As for the metabolism part, there is a plant chemical found mostly in green teas called EGCG (ok if you really have to know, it stands for epicgallocatechin gallate). Studies have shown that consuming 300mg of EGCG a day can promote a mild metabolism boosting benefit.
But before you rush out to load up on bottles of green tea drinks from the market, check the labels carefully. Many are sweetened (adding lots of calories or artificial sweetener). In fact, I saw one bottled "green tea" drink in the market that touted its calorie-burning benefits, even though it contained only 55 mg of EGCG per 16 ounce bottle. That means you'd have to drink six of those 16-ounce bottles in one day to have the same benefit from three cups of brewed green tea. (plus those six bottles would cost an awful lot more than 3 green tea bags!).
Don't worry too much about getting the jitters from drinking green tea. Though it does contain caffeine (50 mg vs 137mg found in a cup of coffee), the caffeine in green tea is surrounded by plant chemicals (called tannic acid compounds). They slow the release of green tea's caffeine into the bloodstream, thus resulting in fewer feelings of agitation or jitters which many people experience from drinking coffee. Bottoms up!
Cheryl Forberg, RD, is a James Beard award-winning chef, a bestselling author and the former nutritionist for NBC's "The Biggest Loser." 
