Real Leaf... Really Healthy?

There is a trend of a healthier lifestyle that is currently sweeping the market. Consumers are becoming more conscious of what they eat and they want food that offers the most health benefits. Companies such as Nestle and Coca Cola have been exploiting this trend. They are launching green tea beverages which would hopefully grab market shares from once popular soda industry.

Green tea is believed to offer the most benefits since it is rich in antioxidants and other disease-preventing ingredients. But are all of the green tea products in the market really that healthy? Let's take Real Leaf for example. The advertisement claims the product to be rich in Theanine, a type of amino acid that is proven to boost the immune system and reduce stress. But when I checked the nutrition facts, it has 28 grams of carbohydrates per 240 mL serving. Although it is not explicitly stated, I assumed that the carbohydrate count is equivalent to its sugar content. That is around 0.12 grams of sugar per mL of Real Leaf. It may not sound much but if you look at other green tea products, their sugar content is significantly lower. For example, URC's C2 original green tea variety only has around 0.04 grams of sugar per mL (or 10 grams per 240 mL serving). As for the calorie count, Real Leaf has 0.46 calories per mL while C2 has 0.19 calories per mL. So if you're calorie conscious, diabetic or just simply want to reduce your sugar intake, then you may want to give this beverage a second thought.

I'm not saying that Real Leaf is inherently bad nor is it inferior to C2. It's just that some of us may be led to believe some things and miss out on the other half of the story. This just goes to show that some products are not always what they are cracked up to be. We must be wise consumers and we cannot be persuaded to believe everything we see on ads.