Counting Tea Calories & Advocating Health
Two-third of the world population is a regular consumer of tea. On average, a tea consumer in the country consumes 50 cups of tea a month. This large amount of intake is a part of everyday life. Anything that is part of everyday life impacts the health and well-being of the body.
Tea manufacturers usually discard the thought of indicating the tea calories on the packaging. It can be troublesome to note your calorie intake with no clear idea.
Subsequent questions that may pop up in your mind: does plain hot tea have calories? How many calories is tea with sugar? How many calories are in a cup of tea with milk and sugar? Does it affect your everyday life? Walkthrough the article with us to find out.
Does Plain Hot Tea Have Calories?
Tea comes from the stems, leaves and buds of Camellia sinensis plants. Processed tea that comes to your doorstep is of two types: Orthodox and CTC. The parts of the plant have only cards and medicinal properties. Hence, plain tea is a calorie-free beverage. A freshly brewed 240 ml cup of tea has a negligible amount of calories, only 2 cal.
Because of the bitter natural taste of pure tea, sugar and its substitute are added to make it a little sweetened. The tea calories will increase only after adding sugar to it. Otherwise, it only has caffeine and antioxidants like polyphenols etc. The substances help you lose weight, heart health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases, including cancer.
Tea Calories Based on Type
Where pure teas do not have any calories, adding ingredients like milk and sugar can increase the count. Here we have different types of popular pure teas and the number of tea calories in them:
Green, Black, and White Tea
All the above teas come from the Camellia sinensis plant and are famous for the health benefits that they offer. They offer the most benefits and least cal when taking any orthodox form.
Green tea is not fermented at all. Whereas, some of its varieties are minimally fermented. Black tea is fully fermented, and white tea is minimally fermented.
When processed and hot water is poured on them, their calorie count is merrily between 2-3 calories in a 240 ml cup. If you are planning to add sugars to them, be warned! Adding even one teaspoon of sugar will add 16 calories to your teacup. To get minimal tea calories, make sure you take the sweeteners in limited amounts.
Herbal Teas
The tea prepared from infusing the flowers, buds and leaves of plants other than Camellia sinensis is herbal tea. Popular varieties of these teas are Hibiscus, peppermint, lavender, etc.
The good news is that herbal teas have varieties that even have zero calories. Some types contain calories but in so little quantity that they can be considered insignificant. The cal count only increases when you add sweetness.
Teas With Sugar and Honey
If the bitter taste of tea annoys you and you have been adding sweeteners like sugar and honey, then a cal boost in your beverage and body is evident. Tea cal only increases when sweeteners are added. One teaspoon of sugar can add as many as 16 cal.
Ok, consider the following situation, you have two teaspoons of sugar in a cup of tea, and you take at least four cups of tea in a day. If you are good at math, you know that it makes up 128 calories! Get your calculators; you don't believe me. This many calories only from a standard average may not be a good idea. You must be thinking that adding honey instead of sugar will make your drink healthier.
However, a teaspoon of honey has twice the number of calories that are in traditional sugars. Additionally, honey does have nutritional value that is a plus for the body. So using honey instead of sugar is always a good idea!
Tea Calories With Milk
Milk is a popular addition to the Tea. Chai, which is especially famous in India, is made with milk. Spices and sweetness like sugar and honey are specially added to it. Black tea that is the most bitter is also prepared with milk to reduce the bitterness and increase the creaminess of the beverage.
However, you must be warned that 120 ml of milk contains 75 cal alone. You can always use toned or slim milk in order to reduce this count.
Closing Thoughts
Researches have made it quite evident that teas benefit the human body. The proper tea can help you lose weight, prevent the risk of cardiovascular diseases, boost immunity, improve metabolism, improve heart health, etc. However, choosing the proper tea can be a task. It is advisable to get your tea routine tested to follow up on your calorie intake.
Tea lovers would agree that if one is a true lover of tea, they understand its natural sweetness. Therefore, one can appreciate different teas’ rich and authentic taste instead of adding sweeteners. This will take down the tea calories intake.