A good herbal tea can often, when you have exceeded your caffeine limit for the day, or if you are trying to cut down on coffee, be a really wonderful thing. Have you ever looked into peppermint tea vs green tea?
If not, why not? We’re going to look through the various merits of each of these teas together, so you can decide which is best for you.
Peppermint Tea Vs Green Tea
These two iconic drinks both share a number of health benefits – but they are actually very different teas (despite both being green!)
- Green tea is actual tea. Green tea is made from the Camellia Sinensis plant, the same plant that makes our tea bags.
- Peppermint tea is made with peppermint leaves, and as such it contains no caffeine, unlike green tea.
- Both teas have health benefits, and have been known to aid in weight loss and getting rid of bad breath.
- Pepppermint tea is known to help with anxiety, as it is a calming drink. Green tea, because of the caffeine content, can increase your jitters.
- Both teas are available in either bags or in a loose leaf version, so you can choose what sort of brew you want to make and how strong to have it.
- Green tea traces its roots all the way back to ancient China, while peppermint tea is more associated with ancient Egypt.
- Both of these healthy drinks are relatively easy to source these days, with more and more varieties appearing every day.
With the rise in popularity of healthy herbal drinks, both peppermint tea and green tea are on the rise – great news if you want something a little different that coffee or black tea!
Does Peppermint Tea Have The Same Benefits As Green Tea?
Both of these teas are very good for your physical health, and can actually help to improve your mental wellbeing too. Let’s look into it in more detail:
Peppermint tea
- Very good for the digestion. Menthol can help to calm and soothe an upset stomach, and can be used effectively for morning sickness.
- Helps you relax. The compounds in mint tea act as a muscle relaxant, helping your body to unwind.
- Good for insomnia. This tea is a great one to drink before bedtime, as it will help to calm your thoughts and is considered a good treatment for anxiety.
- Improves the immune system. Peppermint has antibacterial properties, so drinking it as a tea can help you fight off illness and disease.
- Can help with weight loss. Drinking a cup of peppermint tea when you feel like snacking is a great tool in your weight loss arsenal.
- Improves bad breath. Mint is a delicious smell, and one that is far nicer to have on your breath than tea or coffee!
Green tea
- High in antioxidants. These things, as we all know these days, are great at helping you and your body stay healthy, and can even help fight off cancer.
- Helpful for brain function. If you are cramming for an exam, green tea’s amino acids and caffeine content can help you stay alert and focused.
- Can help with weight loss. Green tea stimulates the metabolism, making it far easier to shift those extra few pounds.
- May help protect against heart disease. Because of those lovely antioxidants, green tea is very good at helping to protect the heart.
- Has been shown to help prevent type 2 diabetes. This drink can improve sensitivity to insulin and reduce the levels of blood sugar.
- Can improve bad breath. Because this tea is an all round good cleanser, drinking it can help to reduce the bacteria in your mouth that cause bad breath.
Is Green Tea Or Peppermint Tea Better For Weight Loss?
In short, both of these teas can help you on your weight loss journey. But which is better at doing this?
Well, many of us feel hungry when we are actually just thirsty. Swapping that cake or packet of crisps for an herbal tea will go a long way to reducing the pounds.
Drinking peppermint tea will help curb those hunger pangs, plus it is low in calories so it will be a healthy treat.
Green tea actively boosts the metabolism, making it a firm favourite for those wanting to use different teas to help with weight loss.
However, peppermint tea is great for the digestion, and because so many weight-related issues com from poor digestion, this is a great choice too.
Basically, either one of these yummy teas will help you enormously if you are trying to shift a bit of weight. Which one you choose is up to you! Why not both?
Here’s a peer-reviewed article, focussing on the weight loss properties of green tea.
What Is The Healthiest Tea You Can Drink?
There are a lot of healthy teas out there – in fact, even our favourite builder’s tea is filled with antioxidants!
But, the best tea for health benefits has got to be green tea. Because of the amount of good stuff in this humble tea, it is wonderful for the body!
There are a lot of others, of course – peppermint, chamomile, echinacea, lemon balm – but for sheer goodness, drink green tea.
Try just a cup or two a day, and even if you don’t particularly like the taste, your body will thank you for it!
If you like a visual guide, have a look at this video showing you the healthiest teas you can drink:
Is It Ok To Drink Peppermint Tea Every Day?
If you have developed a taste for peppermint tea but you are worried that you’re drinking too much of it, don’t panic!
This is a caffeine free tea, meaning that it won’t keep you awake or give you the jitters, no matter what time of day or night you drink it.
It contains a lot of useful health benefits, so you don’t have to worry that you may be overdosing on it a little.
There aren’t any specific guidelines for how much of this tea you should drink, but a good starting point is 1 or 2 cups a day.
If you enjoy it, and if you don’t experience any side effects (this is very unlikely, by the way!) then you can happily drink as much peppermint tea as you like, as often as you want.
As you can see, both of these delicious teas have a huge variety of health benefits for you and your family.
Which one you prefer comes down to personal choice – you can have one or the other – or mix it up and drink both together!
