I want a healthy lifestyle

[Blarg]

Well, there is no real substitute for water. Water does everything it should and nothing it shouldn't, so you can't go wrong with it, and with other things, you can. But other things can add good things, too.

Tea has both caffeine and tannin in it, which are both stimulants. However, both are actually good for you in reasonable amounts. But you can can get addicted to caffeine or have all the usual negative effects.

Green tea has been shown in some studies to be quite good for you, serving as an anti-oxidant, which keeps your cells from picking up as much daily damage through normal metabolic processes. There are some studies that say maybe it doesn't, but from my bit of reading about it, more say that it does. If you are going to drink tea and like green tea, you might be doing yourself some real good to drink some every day.

What I think is important in this issue really is first of all, are you getting hydrated enough, and second, what would you be doing if you weren't doing this?

Tea will hydrate you fine. As to the second question, if you would be drinking soda or sugary drinks of any kind rather than tea, you're far better off drinking tea, unless you get so caffeinated it raises your blood pressure or does whatever bad things caffeine might do to you personally.

So if you are sick of water and want a little flavor, tea is so much better than the alternatives that you should go for it. Seltzer water might be better, if you can handle the carbonation and they don't put things like sugar, aspartame, or other weird chemicals in it.

One thing though, is that tea can do a great job of staining your teeth. So do a good job of brushing, and get something like Plax, to rinse with before brushing, if you drink anything that stains.