L-Theanine in Tea

So I've long been a fan of tea, as you may well already know, but now I've found more of a reason to love it, or at least I've found the very reason I love it, besides the taste. It's l-theanine. L-Theanine is an amino acid which is said to help with anxiety by increasing dopamine and GABA in the brain, and is also a powerful antioxidant, as a bonus. 

I've been suffering from anxiety since I was about 16 years old. Prayer and meditation have always helped, but low-level anxiety remains. I think a cup or two of tea a day isn't enough to get the recommended amount of l-theanine (200 mg) dosage, so I've been drinking about four cups of tea per day. I'm fast going through my stash.

Black tea is said to have the greatest amount of l-theanine, while green tea is said to have the least. I can't drink four cups of black tea a day, or the caffeine would outperform the l-theanine in my system and reverse the effects. So I drink two cups of black tea (mine is Assam; I simply prefer its taste) and either two cups of green tea or one cup of green tea and one cup of oolong. Oolong I don't believe has as much caffeine in it as black tea.

Black tea is said to have roughly 24.2 mg of l-theanine, while green tea has about 7.9, give or take a few mg here and there. So I'm not getting 200 mg of l-theanine per day, but a little over 64 mg. It's better than nothing. I would have to drink twelve cups of tea per day in order to get 200mg. No thanks.

I say, every little bit helps. I also don't know if I'm getting the same amount of l-theanine in each cup, because I'm re-steeping the tea leaves. Sometimes I add milk or honey to the tea, and I don't know if that has an effect on the chemical makeup of the tea. Black tea just tastes better with milk. The British have it right. 

So on this uncharacteristically cloudy summer day (thank goodness), I am enjoying my second cup of black tea. With milk. There's just nothing like it. I have to be careful not to take tea with a meal, because the tannins in tea reduce iron absorption (binds to iron). With meals, I drink milk, sometimes water. But never tea. After-dinner tea must wait until I've digested. I've read that adding milk to tea can reduce the effects of the antioxidants, but I don't know its effect on l-theanine specifically. I can't imagine it would be too detrimental, but it may have some effect.

All in all, the point is, drink tea! As much as you can handle. It's good for you, and it's a calming ritual as anything. I also bring tea with me in a thermos when going hiking on a cool day. Even on a hot day. People in warm to hot climates drink hot tea, as it is said to assist in producing perspiration, so as to actually cool the body down. Same idea as the fact that lots of people in cold climates eat ice cream. The body's reaction is to warm itself up. Anyway... tea. It does a body good.