Did you know that green tea was good to help recover from fatigue? You might think this contradicts with the fact that green tea contains a high amount of caffeine, as caffeine stimulates your brain to awake, rather than relaxing you to recover from fatigue.
It is true that green tea contains caffeine, but another natural element of the green tea called theanine works well to make the effect of caffeine moderate. This mechanism of theanine creates the state where you feel relaxed and alert at the same time. You may find this explanation difficult to understand, but probably anyone should have experienced the condition from time to time where your brain is very clear but not excited, and you feel calm at the same time.
This effect of green tea has been proven through various researches and experiments. One of them is a joint experiment carried out by Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine and Meiji University of Integrative Medicine. In this experiment, 5 students were asked to work for 2 hours and then given green tea drinks. 3 days later, they worked for 2 hours and then given distilled water. This pattern was repeated a few times. Each time after taking green tea or distilled water, the students’ blood was sampled and their heartbeats were measured. The data collected through the measuring were then analyzed in terms of various aspects such as psychological status, mood, fatigue level and reactions to light and sound etc.
The results show clear differences between drinking green tea and drinking distilled water after the labor. All students were better in the said aspects with green tea than with distilled water. It is considered that these effects of green tea are thanks to the theanine, caffeine and polyphenol contained in the green tea as well as the distinctive aroma that the tea has.
In order to gain the most of the effects of green tea in recovering from fatigue, it is the best to drink the type of the green tea that contains a high amount of theanine. Theanine is the basic natural element of green tea, but when thanine is exposed to the sun too long, it changes into catechin.
Gyokuro, Matcha and Kabusecha contain more theanie than other types of green tea because their leaves are shaded for a certain period of time before being picked. Therefore these teas are recommended to drink when you would like to recover from fatigue.
References:
On the Fatigue-Reducing Effects of Green Tea