Need opinion and truths on sweet tea!!

[CountrySurfBum]

OK so I do not have many things in my life I am not willing to change when I see the need or am shown the benifit of changing it. I am ( i like to think) pretty open minded.

That being said, I love sweet tea. Southern tea is something I really really don't see a problem with while working out. I use a gallon pot to make my tea, 7 lipton tea bags, and add anywhere from 1/2- 1 cup of surgar to that gallon of tea and then add as much ice as possible or cool water to cool it down.

I would like to hear some talk on if this is going to really keep me from being healthy and having a nice fit body. Fit to the point of not having 20% body fat..I do not need to be cut and stone rock hard. but I do want to be nice looking..I do not want to loose my tea though :P

[kimsquit]

OK so I do not have many things in my life I am not willing to change when I see the need or am shown the benifit of changing it. I am ( i like to think) pretty open minded.

That being said, I love sweet tea. Southern tea is something I really really don't see a problem with while working out. I use a gallon pot to make my tea, 7 lipton tea bags, and add anywhere from 1/2- 1 cup of surgar to that gallon of tea and then add as much ice as possible or cool water to cool it down.

I would like to hear some talk on if this is going to really keep me from being healthy and having a nice fit body. Fit to the point of not having 20% body fat..I do not need to be cut and stone rock hard. but I do want to be nice looking..I do not want to loose my tea though :P

are you drinking a gallon of the stuff every day? if you are, then that 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar isn't helping you reach your goals

if you're not, then it's probably not that big a deal given your goals

[GnomusMaximus]

My opinion is....yummy...love that stuff. Going off the coke and on the sweet tea. Figure not only is it good, bu the lesser of two evils.

[CountrySurfBum]

No sir, a gallon of tea last me a good 3 days. I do not drink soda routinly but maybe once a week or less and it's a pesi one or diet sugar free type.

[mslman71]

No sir, a gallon of tea last me a good 3 days. I do not drink soda routinly but maybe once a week prably less though.

@ 1 cup table sugar 800 cal / 3 days ~ 270 cal/day. Whether or not this is important depends on your calorie balance and your goals. As to general "health," no, nothing wrong with sugar.

[hochspeyer]

@ 1 cup table sugar 800 cal / 3 days ~ 270 cal/day. Whether or not this is important depends on your calorie balance and your goals. As to general "health," no, nothing wrong with sugar.

http://www.fitday.com/webfit/nutriti...d_or_lump.html

It's roughly one can of soda per day, in equivalent caloric terms. But, with tea, you're getting good stuff (sorry, Snapple, it was the first term that came to mind) in addition to calories.

[mslman71]

http://www.fitday.com/webfit/nutriti...d_or_lump.html

It's roughly one can of soda per day, in equivalent caloric terms. But, with tea, you're getting good stuff (sorry, Snapple, it was the first term that came to mind) in addition to calories.

Yeah, just not sure what "healthy" means in an overall sense. I assumed weight management, rightly or wrongly. If the OP enjoys tea that much, then a basic calorie and content analysis would lead me to conclude that it's not much of a factor relative to his level of enjoyment.

[tnthudson]

OK so I do not have many things in my life I am not willing to change when I see the need or am shown the benifit of changing it. I am ( i like to think) pretty open minded.

That being said, I love sweet tea. Southern tea is something I really really don't see a problem with while working out. I use a gallon pot to make my tea, 7 lipton tea bags, and add anywhere from 1/2- 1 cup of surgar to that gallon of tea and then add as much ice as possible or cool water to cool it down.

I would like to hear some talk on if this is going to really keep me from being healthy and having a nice fit body. Fit to the point of not having 20% body fat..I do not need to be cut and stone rock hard. but I do want to be nice looking..I do not want to loose my tea though :P

I'm a Southern guy too, and used to drink sweet tea all the time. My dad told me to try unsweet for 2 weeks and he swore I'd never go back. Now I drink a quart to 1/2 gallon of unsweet tea each day, he was right...may want to give that a shot?

[CountrySurfBum]

I'm a Southern guy too, and used to drink sweet tea all the time. My dad told me to try unsweet for 2 weeks and he swore I'd never go back. Now I drink a quart to 1/2 gallon of unsweet tea each day, he was right...may want to give that a shot?

I stopped drinking it all together for a record 2 months by drinking green tea and oolong tea, Being in South Korea, there are lots of alts to choose from. It just isn't the same..I remember drinking my tea from a bottle. I use to joke ( and still would if I hadn't driven it in the dirt) I would rather not have sex than not drink my tea.

Healthy the way I am using it is in its most general form. Eating well and daily activity.

[tnthudson]

I gotta tell ya I like tea too, but....sex is the bomb. But fresh-brewed Lipton is darn good.

[Parajoe]

Maybe try using a sugar substitute? I don't see anything wrong with what your doing though. I loves me some sweet tea. nom nom nom

[jdtemple]

You can easily eat fewer carbs or whatever to accommodate the sweet tea calories. If you'd rather eat more food (which I'd rather do, instead of drinking sugar), you can use less sugar, or a blend of sugar and some artificial sweetener. You could even ween yourself off of real sugar over time and eventually sweeten your tea with artificial stuff.

You have lots of options that don't involve giving up sweet tea.

[mikieson]

Gonna put it straight to ya TC....Ive been workingout since about 1996-97. Off and on throughout the years..Weight training is easy. Takes very little discipline "to me"...On the other hand...eating and drinking right are hard and they are the most important factors as to how you look and feel.

Im still chasing the "no gut" and will until Im dead. If workingout alone made a flat stomach, I would have zero gut....BUT its the kitchen that matters MOST in your outcome.

Sure your sweet tea isnt going to kill you. JUST like my coke and french vanilla coffee isnt going to kill me. BUT if you are wanting the "change" you have to be willing to give it all up at all cost until you reach your goal. THEN and only then, do you get your cheat days and rewards for your hard work.

Now if I could follow my own advice, I would be golden. Good luck

[Baloothebear1]

I may be a newbie, but I know my tea. I understand that "sweet tea" comes between a Southerner's Birthright and a Religious experience. But, I was raised drinking "iced tea" in the summers because my dad thought that Coke was only useful for cleaning whitewalls. Fill your container with ice. Make a pot of hot tea equal in size to about half the volume of the container. I use four teabags for a quart or so of tea. Put one lemon, sliced 1/4" thick on top for every quart of tea (so you'd need two quarts of hot tea, a gallon of ice and two sliced lemons). Let the tea steep until its really dark (almost like weak coffee). Pour the hot tea over the lemons and ice. Make up the difference with cold water to fill the jug. Take the lemons out after about two hours (otherwise it will make the tea bitter). Try that. After a week you will wonder why you wanted sugar before.

Fred

[tnthudson]

I may be a newbie, but I know my tea. I understand that "sweet tea" comes between a Southerner's Birthright and a Religious experience. But, I was raised drinking "iced tea" in the summers because my dad thought that Coke was only useful for cleaning whitewalls. Fill your container with ice. Make a pot of hot tea equal in size to about half the volume of the container. I use four teabags for a quart or so of tea. Put one lemon, sliced 1/4" thick on top for every quart of tea (so you'd need two quarts of hot tea, a gallon of ice and two sliced lemons). Let the tea steep until its really dark (almost like weak coffee). Pour the hot tea over the lemons and ice. Make up the difference with cold water to fill the jug. Take the lemons out after about two hours (otherwise it will make the tea bitter). Try that. After a week you will wonder why you wanted sugar before.

Fred

Right on. Just my experience and opinion, but I feel that unsweetened tea quenches my thirst as well as anything. I'm only drinking less of it now to make room for more water, which I'm drinking because I feel like I have to.

[mikieson]

Right on. Just my experience and opinion, but I feel that unsweetened tea quenches my thirst as well as anything. I'm only drinking less of it now to make room for more water, which I'm drinking because I feel like I have to.

I use to drink probably a gallon or more of water a day. Trying to lose weight. Everyone always says.."cut out soda alone and you will drop weight"...LIES..all lies..I think water is severely over rated when it comes to this issue. Sure I like water, but I like soda more. So I drink soda if I want. I only drink about one cup of water a day now. Maybe people are not the same?? I know I dont drop weight very easily so it might just be me..

[Robosco]

That being said, I love sweet tea. Southern tea is something I really really don't see a problem with while working out. I use a gallon pot to make my tea, 7 lipton tea bags, and add anywhere from 1/2- 1 cup of surgar to that gallon of tea and then add as much ice as possible or cool water to cool it down.

That's a lot of sugar even if you consume it for 3 days. Have you tried using half the amount of sugar and use splenda/stevia for the other half?

[discdoggie]

There is nothing wrong with sugar except the empty calories, which of course is a problem if you're trying to shed fat. From what I can see, the problem with sweet tea vs. soda is that sweet tea drinkers tend to DOWN that stuff like crazy. I guess the carbonation and fizz in soda slows people down a little. Eons ago when I used to be a server, sweet tea drinkers were despised because they needed their refills and average of 4-5 times during a single meal. More than soda, water, or coffee even. At what is probably averaging 100-125 cals a glass; my guess is that your average southern sweet tea drinker is ingesting over 600 cals a day on the stuff. Who else but the extreme ectomorph afford that? The sht just ain't that good to make it worth it. I'd rather save it for a glass of Pinot Noir.