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If I drink green tea it happens that after 1-1.5h I feel very tired. I noticed that this does not happen if I consume cheese / meat while drinking green tea. If I eat vegetables or grains during the consumption of green tea the effect is nearly the same, as if I don't eat anything, i.e. starting to feel tired after 1-1.5h.

I use only one bag of tea for 800-1000ml and consume about 2000-3000ml of green tea a day.

I also read that when eating diary products while drinking green tea it helps to preserve the integrity and antioxidant activity of polyphenols during digestion.

The question is now, what are other interactions between cheese / meat and green tea which could explain this phenomena, i.e. not feeling tired vs. feeling tired after consuming green tea depending on the food consumed concomitantly.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25154916

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  • Knowing if the same tiredness issue occurs after other caffeinated beverages (other types of tea, coffee, cola, energy drinks) could greatly help to answer this. Also, important: is tea with or without sugar.
    – Jan
    Mar 17, 2018 at 12:41
  • I experience similar effects, but slightly different. When consuming coffee I feel awake for 2-3h but then starting to feel tired when caffeine wears off. With energy drinks, the high only lasts about 45m - 1h until reactive hypoglycemia kicks in ("sugar crash"). I only drink green tea (camellia sinensis) without sugar. The tiredness after drinking green tea feels different. It is more physical, I feel weak especially remarkable regarding grip strength...
    – CuriousIndeed
    Mar 17, 2018 at 12:50
  • Interestingly, if I stop drinking tea, caffeine withdrawal never gives me the same physical weakness. Withdrawal is rather mental, i.e. giving me headaches or slight depression of mood.
    – CuriousIndeed
    Mar 17, 2018 at 12:52
  • I only use one bag of tea for 800-1000ml. I usually drink between 2000-3000ml a day. Coffee consumption is not correlated with any food. "Tired" feels like mentally awake, relaxed, but physically weak. Probably some of the effect comes from L-Theanine. But why I don't feel physically weak when concomitantly consuming cheese or meat is not clear and warrants an explanation
    – CuriousIndeed
    Mar 17, 2018 at 14:36
  • I have searched the literature and only found that cheese preserves the integrity of antioxidant activity of polyphenols stemming from green tea. Could not find any other interactions
    – CuriousIndeed
    Mar 17, 2018 at 14:37

1 Answer 1

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Cheese and meat are both high in fat, which slows down the emptying of the stomach content (including tea) into the small intestine more than carbohydrate foods (vegetables and grains). So, taking tea with fatty foods will slow down the absorption of caffeine and other tea components and result in lower peak blood caffeine levels than taking tea on an empty stomach or with carbs.

Source: The effect of meal energy content on gastric emptying. PubMed

Increasing the energy content of the meal of fixed composition progressively delayed gastric emptying.

Cheese and meat usually have more energy than the same amount of carbohydrate foods.

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  • I think you might be correct. If fatty foods would slow the absorption of L-Theanine, this could explain the effect experienced. I will leave the question open for a while for additional inputs.
    – CuriousIndeed
    Mar 17, 2018 at 14:57

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