June 16, 2025

346: Green Tea Fail? The Antioxidant Absorption Secret!

346: Green Tea Fail? The Antioxidant Absorption Secret!

Send us a text Are you pouring your time (and money) into drinking green tea and matcha, only to feel…nothing? What if the powerful antioxidants you're counting on are being minimized or destroyed before they can even reach your cells? In this insightful episode of Power on Plants, we’re revealing a simple science-backed strategy to easily maximize the benefits of your green tea and matcha. Discover the natural "helper" nutrient – found in common, affordable whole foods – which acts a...

Send us a text

Are you pouring your time (and money) into drinking green tea and matcha, only to feel…nothing? What if the powerful antioxidants you're counting on are being minimized or destroyed before they can even reach your cells?

In this insightful episode of Power on Plants, we’re revealing a simple science-backed strategy to easily maximize the benefits of your green tea and matcha. 

Discover the natural "helper" nutrient – found in common, affordable whole foods – which acts as a shield, protecting and enhancing the absorption of those precious antioxidants. Learn how this one simple pairing can boost your energy levels, sharpen your focus, reduce inflammation, and support long-term well-being, all without complicated routines or expensive supplements.

If you're leary of quick-fix wellness trends and crave sustainable, faith-centered guidance for nourishing your body, this episode is for you. We're offering practical, easy-to-implement tips that seamlessly integrate into your busy life, empowering you to feel your best, naturally.

If you’re a purpose-driven Christian woman who wants her body to cooperate with her so that she can fully live her God-given goals and dreams, tune in now and discover how this one powerful act of self-care, can unlock a world of vibrant health and sustained energy. We can’t wait to help you feel good, so you can fully live the amazing life you were created to enjoy! 

💃🏻 Ready to learn how to actually enjoy eating whole plant foods so you can finally feel great and fully experience life? Inside Accelerator, we'll take you by the hand & walk you step-by-step through our proven 5-Step WFPB Framework so you can heal naturally & actively live your God-given dreams. Join the Waitlist Here... the Doors are Opening Soon!

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00:00 - Green Tea's Missing Sidekick

02:38 - Vitamin C: The Ultimate Wingman

05:15 - Two Strategies for Better Tea Benefits

08:07 - The Power of Green Smoothies

10:17 - Invitation to Join Accelerator Program

12:43 - Weekly Challenge and Final Thoughts

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But studies show that these antioxidants often get destroyed in your gut before they can get used by your body, unless you pair them with their ultimate wingman, which studies have identified.

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And I want Jared to tell you what is the ultimate wingman.

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The supreme sidekick is hey sister, welcome to the Power on Plants podcast podcast.

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Are you tired of staring into the fridge wondering what to eat so you can just feel better?

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Do you want to avoid spending hours in the kitchen making complicated meals in the name of health?

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Would you love to leave fatigue behind and finally have the energy to do all the things you want to do?

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Hi, we're chairden and nita rusell, christ followers, health care professionals, parents of four and big fans of great tasting food.

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We, too, tried exercising more, eating natural and clean foods, but we still found ourselves struggling with what we thought were changes that come with age or bad genes, and we weren't finding answers the traditional route.

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So we dug into the research and created our secret nutritional weapon sustainable plant-based living.

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The truth is, you can eat more whole plant foods and it's not hard.

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You just need the way.

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That's realistic and delicious so you never feel deprived If you're ready to enjoy your meals.

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No longer be held back by your health struggles and actively live your life, then you're in the right place.

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So grab your favorite plant-based cup of happy pop in those earbuds and let's get started.

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Hey there, sunshine, raise your hand.

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If you've ever sipped green tea or matcha latte, thinking this is going to make me feel like a superhero, only to wonder later why don't I feel any different?

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Well, this episode is for you because your tea might be missing a secret sidekick, and today we're going to fix that.

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Here's the thing Green tea and matcha are great for you, and one reason is because they're packed with catechins like EGCG, which are very powerful antioxidants that fight inflammation, fight cancer, boost brain health and even help you burn fat naturally.

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Who doesn't love that?

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But studies show that these antioxidants often get destroyed in your gut before they can get used by your body, unless you pair them with their ultimate wingman, which studies have identified, and I want Jared to tell you what is the ultimate wingman.

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The supreme sidekick is vitamin C, but not just any vitamin C, vitamin C from whole plant foods.

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Imagine that.

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Imagine that.

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Who would have thunk it right?

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But vitamin C from places like citrus fruits could be lemon, could be lime, could be green leafies, could be bell pepper.

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Any natural source of vitamin C is going to be better.

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And what does it do?

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It helps to protect the catechins, which are things like EGCG.

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There are a few others that are in that category, but it helps to protect them when they're in that digestive environment in our GI tract, so that way they stay around longer, they get absorbed and then they can have their health benefits.

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So the catechins, like EGCG, are located inside the green tea or matcha, right?

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So you're saying when we pair these two things green tea or matcha which, by the way, you should be drinking these every single day and, don't worry, we're going to show you ways to get more of them?

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But these amazing antioxidants are in green tea and matcha and you can actually boost the amount of them by just pairing your green tea and matcha with vitamin C and, as Jared says, the studies show when that vitamin C comes from whole plant foods, it greatly boosts the amount of these antioxidants that are available to be absorbed from the green tea and the matcha.

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It's so exciting and how simple these things are to do.

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And it may be tempting to say well, what if I just take a vitamin C supplement when I have my cup of green tea?

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Well, that's been studied and it helped, but did not do nearly as well as the whole plant foods.

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And you're here to optimize, right?

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That's why you're here.

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And I'm going to add I'm here to enjoy and I think you might be there to enjoy too, and popping pills is not enjoyable.

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It may be many things, but enjoyable is not one of them.

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We know that the activity of the natural vitamin C when it's with everything else in the plant is superior than just a plain vitamin C.

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When it's with everything else in the plant is superior than just a plain vitamin C because it doesn't have all the other cofactors and the molecules and the goodness that God put in that plant.

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So are we against supplements?

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Do we believe you should never take supplements?

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No, we don't.

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There are some supplements that are super beneficial and can help you, so we want you to eat the foods, when you can, that are available, that have a high potency of these nutrients that, when you get them together, are going to literally fuel your body well, and in this case it's green tea mixed with vitamin C.

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So how do you make this work in real life situations when you're a busy woman or busy man on the go and you're trying to feel your absolute best?

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Here are two real life strategies you can use to get more nutrients out of your green tea every single time that you actually enjoy.

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First, you can add lemon or orange juice to your green tea.

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Of course, that's what we think of when we think of vitamin C.

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Right, lemon juice juice, maybe lime juice?

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Okay, lemon and orange could be really good when paired with green tea.

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So squeezing only a half cup of lemon, which is about a tablespoon of lemon juice, into your green tea provides enough vitamin C to stabilize the catechins that are in the green tea.

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So do not fear adding in just the right amount, because studies show that any amount of extra vitamin C is going to help you increase your catechin absorption with green tea.

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But here's a pro tip you can cold brew your tea to reduce the bitterness and preserve even more antioxidants.

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And that tip makes me think of one of my favorite drinks, which is going to be your step number two my daily green smoothie.

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It is so cold and refreshing and it's great for the warmer months, especially Now.

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I know I know you've heard it's best to chew your food, don't drink your nutrients, but the truth is that green smoothies are incredible for health Incredible.

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So what does this have to do with matcha?

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Well, I'm glad you asked, because strategy number two is, if you add just one teaspoon of matcha powder to your green smoothie, along with the leafy greens like kale or spinach that you've packed into that smoothie, you'll be providing your body with a load of these inflammation, fighting brain health, boosting fat, fighting powerhouses, catechins by simply adding matcha powder to your green smoothies.

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Why does this work?

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Because, and this may surprise you kale and mustard greens have more vitamin C in them than oranges and lemons.

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So if you add your matcha to your leafy greens in your smoothie, you're bumping up the ability of that vitamin C to increase the catechins in your green tea.

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So you would hear this tip and think I want to add citrus.

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Vitamin C equals citrus in our minds, but I want you to wrap your mind around again the fact that we don't understand what all nutrients are in our food.

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You're eating all these leafy greens.

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Hopefully you're eating more and more the more you listen to our podcast and understand how healing they are, and you're getting those on a regular basis, but do you understand that when you do that, you're greatly increasing your vitamin C load?

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That's incredible.

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So eat four leafy greens and don't just think for one nutrient of one food, because God has placed these incredible life-giving, disease-reversing nutrients into so many whole plant foods.

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So get a wide variety and eat lots of them.

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And this is why we say don't worry about each individual nutrient, yes, concentrate on just getting a good, wide variety, because you will get what you need.

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We think oranges are the only source of vitamin C, but then it turns out that the leafy greens first have vitamin C Probably didn't know that and it has more than the orange that we thought was the only source of vitamin C.

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But if you use your mental energy on being sure to get a wide variety but get it in the absolute best, most delicious, fastest way possible, well that's enjoyable than worrying about zinc and vitamin C and this nutrient and that nutrient.

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On and on it goes.

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And you think I don't have time to figure all this stuff out.

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I don't have time to figure out that Kayla has more vitamin C than this, and how to eat this and what I should be eating, and am I eating it and am I not?

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Then you need to be inside accelerator because it is going to change your life.

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Take it from someone who, several years ago, could not even walk up one flight of stairs to tuck my children into bed at night, would have tears regularly streaming down my face in the shower because I could not wash my hair.

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And I would be in there washing my hair, crying, thinking literal thoughts, like there are people who are washing their hair right now that aren't even thinking about it and they're not hurting.

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And you're in that situation and you feel like no one understands what you're going through.

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But we understand.

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Get yourself into a group, into a community of people who do understand, and inside Accelerator you're going to find your brothers and sisters in Christ who are trying to build a business, who are trying to do all these things that the Lord's put on their heart.

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Trying of living his will on this earth must be optimally fueled.

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We must feel good in order to be able to do good right.

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If we want to do the good things, we have to feel good.

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We cannot walk around constantly exhausted, wasting all our time running from appointment to appointment trying to figure out what's wrong, with us crying in the shower, googling our latest symptoms, like it's no way to live.

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And we get it.

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I've been there.

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I am so sorry.

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I'm giving you a virtual hug if you're there, but I want you to understand you do not have to stay there.

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You have someone who understands and I want you to go right now to powerimplantscom forward slash accelerator.

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Get inside.

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The group of people who care about you will rally around you and show you the no fluff way to finally feel better, naturally, so you can start not only preventing some of these diseases the most common disease of our time but actually reverse them.

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They don't tell you that they give you X days to live or they tell you you're going to have this forever and all of a sudden you start eating this way and find that you're reversing these things.

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That's why Jared and I love what we're doing.

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You know we used to spend our days helping our clients manage their diseases.

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Now we spend our days helping our clients reverse them, and that, to me, is life.

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We love it.

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That's why we love what we do.

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And God did not call you to run the race as a 1960s Winnebago.

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He called you to run it as a finely tuned Ferrari.

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You are not going to even finish the race as that old Winnebago puttering down the street.

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So do this for yourself and for your loved ones.

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And here's your challenge for this week On top of getting yourself on the accelerator wait list or if the doors are open, get on the inside.

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The next thing I want you to do is take action on what you've heard today.

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Pick just one of these strategies and run with it.

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Maybe you're not drinking matcha or green tea at all.

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Why not?

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The benefits are incredible.

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You are going to feel better drinking it on the regular, and now you have two simple ways to do that.

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If you're a tea drinker, grab a lemon or orange wedge tomorrow morning and just squeeze it into your green tea.

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And if you're a smoothie person, toss a teaspoon of matcha into your blender with all those other amazing green smoothie ingredients, like a handful of kale.

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Or into your blender with all those other amazing green smoothie ingredients, like a handful of kale or spinach, that are high in vitamin C.

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Do this for just seven days, and I want you to pay attention to how you feel.

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Do you notice a little more energy?

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Maybe less brain fog?

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That's not a placebo.

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That is real.

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God created compounds doing real work inside your body, as you've given them more than a fighting chance to succeed by eating more of them every single day together.

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And if you're thinking but I'm not a nutrition expert, you don't have to be.

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That's why we're here for you, to cut through the noise and hand you the exact steps that science says matters.

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Friends, share this episode with someone who, you know, is tired of riding the wellness roller coaster and is ready for the straight facts that are easy to implement with real life.

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And until next time, stop chasing perfection and step into real results, one simple step at a time.

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You've got everything you need to get started today, so do not wait.

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You are loved, you are prayed for and we look forward to spending time with you again very soon.

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Thank you.