Green tea has been a wellness craze for quite some time now and with good reason. Waking up and having a cup of green tea to start your day can have several health benefits. It contains a high amount of antioxidants, which can help reduce inflammation throughout your body. Plus, green tea can help boost your metabolism and increase fat loss. In addition, it can help improve brain function, reduce heart disease and certain cancers and manage blood sugar levels. To get a better idea of green tea’s impact on people, Eat This, Not That spoke with people who drank the beverage twice a day for a week and noticed major changes. Here’s the surprising things people experienced.
Mental Clarity
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Dr. Lee S. Marcus, Board-Certified Cardiologist & Founder of Impact Health is used to long days and procedures, but suffered from energy crashes in the afternoon that affected patient consultations. To help regain focus, Dr. Marcus incorporated green tea into his diet and noticed several surprising changes. “Within three days, I noticed significantly sharper concentration during complex cardiac catheterizations,” he says. “The sustained mental energy lasted four to six hours without the typical mid-afternoon fog that used to hit around 2 PM..” Erinn Everhart, Licensed Marriage Family Therapist and owner of Every Heart Dreams Counseling in El Dorado Hills, CA also experienced a shift with her focus after drinking green tea. “I noticed sharper focus during EMDR therapy sessions with trauma clients,” she says. “My ability to track multiple emotional states and guide complex therapeutic processes felt more effortless.” Everhart adds, “This was surprising since I typically rely on coffee, but green tea provided sustained mental energy without the afternoon crash.”
Improved Sleep Quality
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Dr. Marcus was also able to sleep better at night thanks to his green tea routine. “Surprisingly, switching from coffee to green tea actually improved my sleep despite containing caffeine,” he says. “I was falling asleep faster and waking up more refreshed, which was crucial during those brutal call schedules.”
Better Gut-Brain Connection
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Green tea can work as a remedy for a plethora of health issues, including improved gut-brain connection, according to Everhart. “As someone who teaches clients about the mind-gut connection (I often recommend probiotics and dietary changes), I experienced how green tea’s antioxidants improved my digestive comfort,” she says. “My morning smoothie routine paired perfectly with green tea, and I felt more balanced throughout intense therapy days. The difference was noticeable enough that I started recommending it to clients struggling with anxiety.”
Reduced Inflammation Markers
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Green tea is known to reduce inflammation because its rich in antioxidants and Dr. Marcus saw an improvement with his markers in a short amount of time. “After six months of consistent green tea consumption, my own lab work showed a 15% drop in C-reactive protein levels,” he says. “As someone who screens patients for cardiovascular inflammation daily, seeing this biomarker improvement in myself was fascinating from both personal and professional perspectives.”
Improved Emotional Regulation
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Green tea can have a calming effect, which both Dr. Marcus and Everhart experienced. “The most unexpected change was feeling more emotionally centered when handling difficult cases involving family trauma,” Everhart explains. “Green tea seemed to provide a calming baseline that helped me maintain therapeutic presence during challenging DBT sessions with teens.” She adds, “I was less reactive to the emotional intensity that comes with integrated trauma work.” And for Dr. Marcus, green tea helped manage his stress. “The L-theanine seemed to blunt my stress response during emergency procedures,” he explains. “I felt more composed during high-pressure situations like treating acute heart attacks, where clear thinking literally saves lives.”
Heather Newgen
Heather Newgen has two decades of experience reporting and writing about health, fitness, entertainment and travel. Heather currently freelances for several publications. Read more about Heather
