BENIFITS OF GREEN TEA POWDER

Green tea has become a popular drink as it has been implicated in reducing the risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and high cholesterol. The health benefits are out there, but drinking green tea isn't your only alternative. The popularity of green tea inspired many companies to provide alternative means of getting the benefits of green tea. At many Asian grocers, you will find green tea flavored gummy bears, green tea flavored ice cream, and green tea cookies. However, as with many packaged and processed foods, the amount of the 'good stuff' can be dubious. The good news is it is easy to incorporate more green tea into your daily life with green tea powder.

Green tea powder is not a new innovation. The Japanese tea ceremony is based on matcha, a specialized green tea powder. Green tea power is as it sounds, ground up green tea leaves, thus it maintains a rich green color. You can purchase green tea powder online or at most Japanese or Chinese grocers.

Food:

With green tea powder, you can add the benefits of green tea to any food. Like tea leaves, it can be add to hot water for instant green tea. You can also shake up your exercise but adding a small amount of green tea powder to bottled water. For a quick and healthy dessert, you can mix in a teaspoon full of green tea powder to non-fat yogurt or ice cream. You can also add a spoon full to a smoothie for an extra healthy kick.

It is also suitable for baking. Just take your favorite cake or cookie recipe and add a teaspoon of green tea powder into the mix before baking. Because of its rich color, you can also use it instead of food coloring to decorate certain foods.

Skin Treatment:

The skin is the largest organ on our body. The benefits of green tea include rejuvenation of skin cells and reduction of inflammation and cancer. It does not, however, directly block UV rays. Thus, good protection against the sun should include a good sun block with green tea. They can work together to minimize any possible sun damage and subsequent skin tumors.

There are several ways to use green tea powder with your sun block (take note, however, to use zinc oxide-based sunscreens as other sunscreen chemical might react with green tea). You can keep fill a salt dispenser with green tea powder and add a little to your sunscreen before putting it on.

You can also add it to your skin treatment routines. Making a green tea mask is easy with green tea powder. Just use two teaspoon full of powder and add a teaspoon of warm water to bring out the flavonoids. You can adjust the thickness by mixing in more or less water. Because green tea lacks the irritating chemicals such as alpha hydroxy and glycolic acid, you won't have to worry about leaving the mask on your face for too long. In fact, because green tea has anti-inflammatory components, it will reduce the redness caused by facial peels and acidic facials.