Is green tea healthy or unhealthy?

Is iced green tea as healthy as hot green tea?

• I'm buying green tea in a jug, very lightly flavored with honey, in place of drinking soda. I hope I'm getting some health benefits but am not sure. Opinions?

• Answer:

  I love that kind of green tea! I get the Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey all the time when I'm out and about. As far as health benefits go, you're better off brewing your own but there is no difference between the home brewed iced tea and the home brewed hot tea, nutritionally speaking. The commercially made teas in the bottle tend to have a lot more sweeteners in them than you would use on your own. Also, brewed tea has the health benefits, whereas instant teas do not. So, make your own. Will save you money and then you can control how much sweetener, and what kind, go into your tea. I make iced tea in the summer with my coffee pot. I just put the tea bags in the basket where the coffee filter goes, fill with water and brew it just like I'm making coffee. I add my sweeteners while it's still hot so it dissolves easily. Then I put it in a pitcher and chill it in my fridge. During the summer I've always got a pitcher of tea made that way in my fridge. I also freeze some of it in ice cube trays so I don't have to use "plain" ice to keep my drink cold. The plain ice will water your tea down too much, IMO. I do the same thing for coffee and make coffee ice cubes so I can use them while making my homemade blended iced coffees.