I use to drink an average of two or three cans of diet soda a day. Since a diet soft drink does not contain any calories, I felt like it was a free food that I could consume as much as I wanted with no negative impact to my body. Then late last year, I started studying the effects that soft drinks can have on your body and teeth and decided to give them up. My first healthy lifestyle change of this New Year was to give up diet soft drinks – which I have stuck to thus far!
One alternative beverage that I now drink in place of soft drinks is green tea. Green tea is full of antioxidants that are believed to help prevent certain cancers, blood clots, and heart disease. Unlike diet soda, green tea is minimally processed which makes it a great addition to a natural food diet.
I want to point out that I also drink tons of water. Over the course of a day, I typically consume twelve to sixteen cups of water!
One of the knocks that is often given to healthier foods is that they are expensive and take lots of time to prepare. Green tea is not either of these. It is relatively cheap compared to other beverages and it takes very little time to prepare.
Costs
Green tea is a healthy food that is cheap. For under $3.50, you can buy a box of 40 Lipton Naturally Decaffeinated bags at Walmart. BJ’s sells another brand of green tea with a box of 150 bags for just under $8.00. Those prices compute to under $.08 per serving, which is reasonable compared to other beverage options.
When I was drinking diet soda, I would typically pay around $2.50 for a 12 pack of cans. Even on the low side, that is over $.20 per serving. As you can tell by the numbers, this healthy beverage is relatively cheap and certainly no more expensive than soda.
The Benefits of Drinking Green Tea
As I noted before, there are many benefits of adding green tea to your diet. This healthy super food is thought to help prevent certain cancers and even aid in weight loss (which is something I am working on right now). Since there are no calories in green tea, you can enjoy one, two, or even four cups per day without adding to your waisteline!
Learning to live a healthy lifestyle can have many positive impacts on you and your family’s life. For example, a healthy diet and exercise can help control rising health care costs – which has become very important for my family. Maintaining a healthy weight allows you to be more active and enjoy spending time with your family.
Adding foods like green tea, kale, and sweet potatoes to our diet are just a few ways my family has started living healthier this year. Hopefully at this time next year we will have made significant improvements in our lifestyle.
Do you drink green tea? How many cups per day do you drink and what do you pay for it? What other healthy low-cost drink options can you suggest other than water?
Related posts:
- Healthy Food That is Cheap – Kale
- Healthy Food That is Cheap – Sweet Potatoes
- Healthy Food that is Cheap – Black Beans
- Healthy Lifestyle Change #1 – Eliminating Soft Drinks
- 4 Painless and Cheap Ways to Go Green at Home
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