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To most of us, the notion of eating green tea leaves is not just strange and peculiar, but it can also be downright disgusting and messy. Many of us have experienced sipping a piece of shredded leaf while sipping our brewed green tea tea drink and our first reaction is to try to spit it out. They can have a rough texture that we commonly find difficult to swallow and feels very unnatural to eat. Besides, history and tradition has taught us that green tea is to be brewed and sipped, not eaten.

There is certainly no denying the fact that a hot green tea tea drink is the most widely known and accepted form of ingesting this wonder of nature and introducing the nutritional components that it contains inside it. Aside from unlocking its many health benefitting compounds and exposing our system to them, drinking green tea is also a soothing and relaxing way to spend some time with family and friends. But for those that are looking to fully extract the health benefits that can be derived from green tea, eating the whole tea leaves is an option that should be considered greatly.

The potent capabilities of green tea to provide immense assistance in various health conditions are widely known throughout the annals of time. Recently developed technology has affirmed many of these health claims through thousands of scientific studies made by reputable medical experts and highly capable laboratories. Many of these reports have confirmed the potency of green tea in its role in the prevention and treatment of various health conditions such as lowering cholesterol levels, reducing the risk of heart diseases, preventing the development of cancerous cells, promoting weight loss, hindering the symptoms of aging, and maintaining blood sugar levels just to name a few.

Green tea is capable of providing these health benefits because they are brimming with highly powerful antioxidants that are called polyphenols and flavonols. Among these antioxidants found in green tea, the most powerful and beneficial to the human body is a polyphenol called Epigallocatechin gallate also called as EGCG. EGCG offers more power as an antioxidant as compared to nutrients like Vitamins E and C and promotes development in a greater number of areas in the human system. Overall, green tea has been found to provide more nutrients and health inducing compounds than many similar “superfoods” that we know today.

Our bodies though can only benefit from the goodness that green tea can provide if we are able to consume the right amount on a regular basis. This is where the true nature of the question lies as to whether drinking brewed green tea tea is better than eating green tea leaves. Why? Because studies have shown that brewing green tea doesn’t extract much of the nutrients that one can find from the green tea leaf and despite the fact that they have more nutrients to offer than many other plants, vegetables, fruits, or herbs, you’re not receiving as much as you think you would be receiving.

Most of the nutrients are left inside the green tea leaves and is thrown away as the green tea leaves are disposed. You may think that you’re ingesting and introducing a large amount of those powerful antioxidants to your body but in reality, you’re not even getting close to a quarter of it.

Eating green tea leaves on the other hand instantly boosts your intake of these powerful nutrients tens of thousands times over. Eating one whole green tea leaf is equivalent to drinking as much as 10 cups of green tea tea drink. If you think that eating green tea may not really be comfortable for you, don’t worry, the green tea leaves can be incorporated to many healthy dishes so you won’t really be ingesting the green tea leaf by itself, you won’t even notice that you’re eating it.

But before you reach out and take a first bite on your green tea leaves, you should know that you can’t just eat any green tea you may have lying around. Make sure to get edible green tea leaves, either in whole or powdered form so that you wont have any problems with it.