Green tea (especially matcha) and cacao have some things in common. And these can be used to help heal your injuries, burn fat, increase strength and kill cancer cells.
But it’s probably going to take large quantities.
Green tea contains something called EGCG.
And this study says (if I understand correctly) that EGCG found in green tea helps grow new bone.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6485322/
If it can help bones and skin maybe it can help cartilage.
Matcha since it’s the whole plant is considered by some to be 3x higher in that compared to normal green tea.
Also…
Green tea and cacao both contain epicatechins which are said to be good for arthritis, building muscle strength and burning fat.
Yet the amount in both is much lower than in supplement form. I’ve heard doses ranging from 150mg to as high as 500mg (said Tailormade Compounding) of epicatechin will show some results in strength and fat depletion.
I’ve read that some studies show that consuming 150mg of epicatechin could improve your strength (possibly grip strength) by 7%.
Maybe if I consume that much my judo and jiujitsu game will improve since your grip game in grappling is so important.
Or if you’re a carpenter it might improve your hammer game.
I read a cup of green tea contains about 10mg.
So you would have to drink 10-15 cups of green tea or maybe 5 cups of matcha.
Matcha might contain 3 times as much. So a cup might get you 30mg.
Cacao is high in epicatechins too.
Cacao powder is the best form.
So can you eat a bunch of chocolate?
Cacao (not chocolate) is what is good for you. Chocolate contains sugar and milk+.
Milk chocolate contains the least amount of epicatechins.
A dark chocolate bar might contain 46mg.
“…these effects are ‘markedly reduced’ when the chocolate is consumed with ‘milk’ or if milk is incorporated as milk chocolate.” – Source
As a test one day I ate the whole box of these cacao bits (95%) as an experiment which is a total of 60 grams and the next day I felt kind of hung over.
But that’s probably not epicatechin.
There’s caffeine and theobromine and other things in cacao.
I’ll have to try it again sometime.
I do think it’s kind of addictive so I don’t eat it everyday and I sometimes vary the amount because if I eat the same amount everyday and then suddenly stop I feel withdrawal.
Other benefits of cacao and green tea:
- Good for your brain
- Good for vascularity
- Good for killing cancer cells
- Reduce inflammation
- Prevent alzheimers
So maybe supplementation with epicatechins is the best way to get high consistently high quantities.
I love green tea and drink it everyday.
I probably easily drink 10-15 glasses a day recently although I reuse the tea and probably get 5-6 small cups out of the same tea so maybe not close to a 150mg of epicatechin.
And recently in the same day I will drink both matcha and green tea.
Recently I haven’t but in the past I would pour off the first cup to reduce the caffeine, but when you do that you also reduce the epicatechins and phenols.
How does cacao compare to green tea?
Green tea is an infusion and cacao is a whole food.
This PDF says cacao has 3 times the phyto chemicals, but it’s not an equal comparison.
A more equal comparison would be cacao vs. matcha powder. Matcha is green tea leaf powder.
It’s the whole plant.
I also read grape seed extract contains epicatechins too.