Mg's of green tea in one tea bag?!

A typically tea bag tends to contain about 2 grams of tea--this varies, some contain more, many contain slightly less, but 2 grams is a good ballpark figure. However, when you steep it, you're not getting the full weight and chemical content of the tea. You get much of the caffeine and many of the antioxidants, but many other chemicals are left behind. So in a sense you get more by taking the green tea capsules. BUT, this isn't necessarily better for you. Because the capsules are concentrated and you get everything, including stuff that you wouldn't normally get, they can be a bit harsher on the body.

Honestly, I tend to avoid green tea supplements. Why?

For one, it's healthiest to space out drinking the tea. When you drink a cup of hot tea, you drink it slowly...this helps keep your body in balance. When you pop a pill, you don't get this benefit and it's rougher on your body, and you also may be less likely to absorb the beneficial chemicals.

Also, the health benefits of tea are not strictly limited to the chemicals in the tea itself. The process of drinking tea can improve health. Part of this is that you're drinking fluids, which are good. It's important too that it's a hot liquid: the warmth relaxes the body and puts you in a "rest and repair" mode that is better for digestion and for the immune system. But the flavor and aroma of the tea are also important for two reasons.

One is that the flavor and aroma of a tea are a good indicator of its freshness and quality. Not all green tea is created equal. Green teas vary hugely in their caffeine content, as well as antioxidant content and other beneficial chemicals like L-theanine. Most of these chemicals are things you can taste in some form or another.

I also think that because tea is primarily bitter and aromatic, it helps to train your taste buds to prefer bitter and aromatic foods -- which tend to be healthier than sweet and salty foods and foods with a flat or mild aroma. I wrote a blog post about this some time ago: http://cazort.blogspot.com/2010/06/does-… -- it's just my opinion but I've found that for me, drinking unsweetened tea really helped me get into eating healthier foods!

If you want to learn a little more about green tea in general, I maintain a fairly extensive series of pages on them: http://ratetea.net/style/green-tea/4/

I'd especially recommend looking into loose-leaf tea. It can be a bit intimidating but it is really higher quality (and offers better value) than most tea bags.

I hope this is helpful!