During the period of pregnancy, it is absolutely necessary that you keep yourself hydrated. This is not only for the mother’s health but also for the baby. Depending on the person, you may consume at least 2 to 3 litres of water every day. However, it may get boring and you would want to have another healthy alternative.
When it comes to healthy beverages, we all know that green tea is the best. Apart from tasting great, it is all natural and provides many health benefits. Drinking green tea during pregnancy can be the ideal option to keep yourself hydrated provided you monitor your intake amount.
Understanding What Green Tea Really Is
Do not confuse green tea with herbal tea. Just like any normal black tea, green tea too comes from the same tea plant. Although in reduced doses, it still includes caffeine. It also has high levels of polyphenols which are an antioxidant. These antioxidants combat your body’s high-energy particles or free radicals and stop them from causing DNA damage to your cells. Since green tea is primarily water, each cup has nearly no calories. These nutrients have beneficial health effects for pregnant women. You can get Lipton green tea at a good price to savour these benefits.
Many Health Advantages Of Consuming Green Tea For Pregnant Women
Consuming too much caffeine might have negative health effects during pregnancy. Green tea, on the other hand, has roughly 25% less caffeine than a regular cup of coffee. Numerous health advantages also exist in addition to this. Green tea can provide the following health benefits to expectant mothers:
Strengthens Your Immunity
During pregnancy, green tea helps to strengthen your immune system. The danger of illnesses and viral diseases is reduced by the tea. You can try Lipton green tea to enjoy these benefits to have a healthy pregnancy.
Has Anti-inflammatory Advantages
Green tea contains anti-inflammatory characteristics that aid in the treatment of a number of health disorders, including osteoporosis, rheumatic diseases, and other conditions affecting the health of your bone. It can assist in effectively easing the discomforts and aches associated with pregnancy.
Offers Important Antioxidants
Green tea renders an ample number of antioxidants including flavonoids even if it cannot replace the primary food. Its antioxidant qualities are very good in scavenging high-energy atoms and particles that lead to memory loss, muscle pain and damage the cells during the gestation period. To get these advantages, you may find Tetley green tea as a good option.
Improves Heart and Vascular Health
As a pregnant woman, drinking green tea can be really good for your health of your heart. Polyphenols, an antioxidant found in green tea, help prevent any cardiovascular illness. Its consumption reduces bad cholesterol in expectant moms with elevated levels of blood lipids. It protects heart disorders brought on by pro-inflammatory oxidative stress.
Assists In Maintaining A Healthy Weight
Green tea is full of nutrients that are very helpful for controlling bodyweight in pregnant women. You may control your weight and avoid getting fat during pregnancy by consuming organic Indian green tea.
What Is The Caffeine Content Of Green Tea?
Several foods must be avoided or limited when pregnant and caffeine is one of theme. Excessive consumption of caffeine can harm the baby. Therefore, it is generally advised to keep your caffeine intake up to 200 milligrams.
Green tea may be healthy but it too contains some amount of caffeine. To give you an idea, one cup of coffee contains up to 200 milligrams of caffeine whereas green tea contains at least 25 milligrams of caffeine considering how it is made.
However, you must take notice of your other caffeine sources such as chocolate, sodas, black tea, coffee, soft drinks and energy drinks to ensure you do not cross the doctor’s advised levels.
You may drink roughly 1 to 2 green tea cups per day while pregnant as long as you stick to the daily caffeine limit.
Is Drinking Green Tea When Pregnant Harmful?
As an expectant parent, you must have received a number of advices from your close ones as well as your doctor on what you should consume and what you should avoid. Caffeine is one of them.
As a stimulant, caffeine can enter the infant’s blood circulation after readily passing through the placenta. Unlike an average adult, an infant cannot digest caffeine and may even affect its development.
High caffeine intake has been linked to complications such as premature baby, baby having lower weight than the normal, acute blood cancer or even miscarriages.
Additionally, consuming a lot of caffeine can also increase your heart rate or blood pressure. With the advancement and bodily changes during pregnancy, your body becomes less capable of metabolizing caffeine. Furthermore, consuming high levels can also make you anxious and have difficulties falling asleep.
Moreover, since tea has a diuretic effect due to caffeine, it is advised to avoid drinking green tea in excess. It can make you urinate more frequently, causing you to lose important fluids and electrolytes, and make you get dehydrated. Dehydration in pregnant women poses risks to both the mother and the unborn child. Therefore, it is necessary to compensate for water loss caused by caffeine.
This is why it is crucial to discuss your caffeine consumption with the physician. They can suggest you to consume one or two cups daily or weekly.Safety Measures for Caffeine Consumption
If you are someone who generally consumes around eight cups of green tea, it is suggested you limit your intake. As we already know, green tea significantly has less caffeine as compared to coffee. However, this does not mean that you will not take any necessary safety measures.
It is also advised to keep a tab on how your body feels after caffeine consumption as your body may alter when pregnant and also affect caffeine sensitivity. Caffeine sensitivity is highly individual and manifests differently in each individual and each pregnancy.
Apart from high blood pressure and problems falling asleep, consuming too much green tea can also cause the system to not properly absorb folic acid. During the first three months of you your pregnancy, folic acid plays a vital role. An infant’s chance of developing neural tube abnormalities can rise with exaggerated consumption of green tea.
Despite adverse reaction to caffeine, if you want to consume green tea, it is suggested to remove the water the first cup of water you soak your tea in. Later, refill your cup and soak again. This will allow your tea to have significantly lower quantity of caffeine while preserving many healthy nutrients.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it is pretty clear that although you can consume caffeine during pregnancy, it is also necessary to monitor it. Physicians frequently advise keeping your daily consumption to around 200 milligrams or perhaps avoiding it entirely. Notice, that all caffeine sources are included in this.
Normally, a cup of green tea has caffeine between 25 to 45 milligrams. So, it can possible be safe to consume in limited quantity. However, you must consult your doctor for this. It is absolutely necessary to read the labels for caffeine content in your products. Green tea that is iced and is freshly brewed may have more than a typical cup of green tea.
There are many benefits of green tea including immunity boosting, antioxidants, improved heart health and more. But it is essential to acknowledge your sensitivity to caffeine and how your body reacts to it. If it’s giving you the shakes or making it difficult for you to fall asleep, it’s definitely time to cut back.
Comments are closed.