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Green Tea |
Yoga for Beginners (Home) > Green Tea > Green Tea and Pregnancy Green Tea and PregnancyPregnancy is a time for considering everything a woman does and how it will effect the wonderful miracle growing inside her. Some things can be small and some things can be large, just like the resulting effects can be either great or small. What one consumes during pregnancy is one of these concerns weighing on a mother's mind. Some things are common sense while others must be learned. Green tea has so many healthy benefits, but can it be beneficial or harmful during pregnancy? Green tea comes from and naturally grown and cultivated tea plant, found in use centuries ago in Indian and Asian communities. The fresh leaves of the plant are steeped in boiling water to release the flavor as well as the beneficial nutrients and antioxidants into a drink for consuming. Concentrate forms can also forms can be available as either a capsule or as an extract. Most studies on green tea have been based on the beverage style so often used around the world. There can not be any studies found on the effects of green tea on a growing fetus. Reason would tell one that green tea has been consumed by pregnant mothers of India and China, where the first use of green tea is found, and no harm to newborns have been reported as a result of drinking green tea. Even today mothers drink green tea on a daily basis. Some items worthy of consideration in regards to green tea would be the amount of caffeine, if the tea is combined with anything else or if there are any possible problems. In the category of caffeine, green tea contains less than half the amount of caffeine contained in coffee and has the least amount of caffeine of the teas on the market. While it has lower amounts of caffeine, caution should still be practiced when it comes to large intake amounts. Everything in moderation, especially since caffeine has been linked with low birth rates or even miscarriage. Studies have shown that a couple cups of coffee, or in this case 4 cups of green tea, posed no threat while increase in caffeine intake from there increases the chances for problems. Another areas to be aware of is if the tea is a combination of ingredients. Relatively established is the green tea itself should not be harmful to the fetus, but what will the other ingredients do? The best manner to handle this is to look at the ingredient list and see if the product contains anything other than green tea leaves. If the product does, check on the other ingredients to see if they are safe for consuming during pregnancy. For example, ginseng is occasionally combined with green tea. Normally a great health booster, ginseng has been related to embryo abnormalities in studies done upon rats and is therefore advised against using in pregnancy especially in the beginning stages of embryo growth. To be sure one is purchasing pure green tea, health food stores or herbalists usually have the fresh green tea leaves for sale. Lastly, researchers have found during examination of an active green tea component, named epigallocatechins or EGCG, may affect the way in which the body absorbs folate. Folate is importantin a pregnant woman's diet since it has shown in other studies to be necessary in the prevention of neural tube birth defects. Again, folate plays an important role in the first trimester and that is when doctors have recommended staying away from green tea in the first trimester.It has been recommended as well to counteract the deficiency in folate by eating green vegetables that are folate-rich or taking a folate supplement. Moderationapplies here as well, and according to researchersmore studies are needed for conclusive results.
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