Green Tea Cheat

"More than a decade's worth of research about green tea's health benefits -- particularly its potential to fight cancer and heart disease -- has been more than intriguing, as have limited studies about green tea's role in lowering cholesterol, burning fat, preventing diabetes and stroke, and staving off dementia." (from webmd.com)

Also, although green tea does not raise the metabolic rate enough to produce immediate weight loss, a green tea contains polyphenols and caffeine that have been shown to induce thermogenesis and stimulate fat oxidation, boosting the metabolic rate 4% without increasing the heart rate.

I LOVE green tea but most of the time I would not drink it because of the time it took to make one cup of tea... warm up the water, steep the tea bag, mix in a little honey, etc. This took almost 5 minutes of work. However, not long ago I had the brilliant idea of putting my pre-made green (iced) tea in the microwave for 2 minutes. It was wonderful! My favorite brand is Arizona Diet Green Tea with Ginseng. Since this green tea is already sweetened with splenda, you don't have to worry about extra calories from honey or whatever you might use to sweeten your tea.

Just pour a cup and nuke it in the mircrowave for 2 minutes and you're on your way to fighting all those diseases and raising your metabolism.