Did you contact the company about your questions regarding the amount of green tea in each bottle? My family thinks this is a great alternative to traditional soda and we highly recommend it. Perhaps you should do your research before posting negative comments on the internet. All of my kids and their friends have tasted Steaz since it is sold at local stores in our area. They prefer it to Coke, Pepsi, etc. any day.

Emailed response:

Thank you for reading iateapie.net and choosing to comment on the Steaz green tea entry. I am sorry you felt that I was posting negative comments on the internet. I re-read my review and feel that I was very fair to this product and all the products I have reviewed. I used the words "flavor was very good" and "good because no preservatives and organic." I did not contact the company about how much green tea is in the product as I am sure they would not divulge their product formulation to anyone.

As per your statement "you should do your research before posting negative comments on the internet" I in fact do check up on my facts before I speak or write about anything. In fact, I am not sure if you have read the "about" page on the website, but in case you didn't, let me reiterate the fact that I am getting a PhD in Food Science and Nutrition. This means that I am not only knowledgeable about processing and ingredient functionality in food products, but I am also very well educated on nutritional quality and it's destruction in food products. As to this product specifically, I am sure of the fact that any antioxidants present in this product is negligent due to my own training, but I went even further as to discuss it prior to writing this article with a professor of nutrition who also concurred with my assessment.

Thanks for taking the time to discuss our brand Steaz. All anyone has to do is call our company and inquire about the ingredients or the amounts of ingredients we use. We get a ton each week and I try to answer most of the technical ones myself, as I created the formulations. All of the ingredients are certified 100% natural under the USDA Organic program and the green tea and cane juice are certified organic. As for how much green tea is in each bottle - roughly the equivalent of one gram, which would equate to roughly the equivalent antioxidant and health benefits one receives in a brewed 6 oz. cup of hot green tea. It's not pixy dust, and it not just for marketing. We use a powdered green tea extract, which unfortunately shows low on the ingredient list, mainly because the heavier ingredients are liquid, and naturall weigh more than powder.

Cheers,

Eric Schnell
Steaz Green Tea Soda

In all fairness to Steaz,if you truly checked your facts prior to commenting, then you would have contacted the company to inquire about the content of green tea in each soda. Although you gave Steaz a positive comment regarding "taste", I feel it is in poor "taste" to judge something without all the facts.We love that Steaz has introduced a healthy alternative to Coke and Pepsi and applaud their efforts to introduce a healthy alternative to us and our children!

Diet Steaz is awesome. I work outside and it's great to have a tasty, low-cal, and most importantly, organic beverage that can be drank all day. I drank 4 diet Black Cherry sodas yesterday, 120 calories total, and no chemical sweeteners. That kicks ass, instead of widening it. In fact, I've had 2 today. I just wish I knew where Tanya (the reviewer) bought hers 'cause I pay $1.89 a bottle. In fact, that's the only bad thing about Steaz, it costs more than micro-brewed beer. If anyone knows where I can get it cheaper (Philly) please tell me or I'll have to drive to the factory in Newtown.

Steaz is Awesome!..and I'm seeing it all over Fairfield County.I'm officially addicted

MSNBC.com
Face facts: Too much sugar causes wrinkles
But these 5 steps can help you eat right and keep your skin looking its best
By Karyn Repinski
Prevention
updated 2:05 p.m. ET, Sun., Oct. 21, 2007
If the promise of a slimmer waistline hasn't curbed your sweet tooth, maybe the desire for smooth skin will. It's a bitter pill to swallow, but experts now believe that a lifetime of overeating sugar can make skin dull and wrinkled.

At blame is a natural process that's known as glycation, in which the sugar in your bloodstream attaches to proteins to form harmful new molecules called advanced glycation end products (or, appropriately, AGEs for short). The more sugar you eat, the more AGEs you develop. "As AGEs accumulate, they damage adjacent proteins in a domino-like fashion," explains Fredric Brandt, MD, a dermatologist in private practice in Miami and New York City and author of "10 Minutes 10 Years." Most vulnerable to damage: collagen and elastin, the protein fibers that keep skin firm and elastic. In fact, collagen is the most prevalent protein in the body. Once damaged, springy and resilient collagen and elastin become dry and brittle, leading to wrinkles and sagging. These aging effects start at about age 35 and increase rapidly after that, according to a study published in the British Journal of Dermatology.

Besides damaging collagen, a high-sugar diet also affects what type of collagen you have — another factor in how resistant skin is to wrinkling, says Brandt. The most abundant collagens in the skin are types I, II, and III, with type III being the most stable and longest lasting. Glycation transforms type III collagen into type I, which is more fragile. "When that happens, the skin looks and feels less supple," says Brandt. The final blow: AGEs deactivate your body's natural antioxidant enzymes, leaving you more vulnerable to sun damage — still the main cause of skin aging.

One group that knows all too well sugar's ravaging effects: people with diabetes, who — because they can suffer from years of undetected high blood sugar — often show early signs of skin aging. "Depending on how well their disease is controlled, diabetics can have up to 50 times the number of AGEs in their skin as those who don't have diabetes," says Karyn Grossman, MD, a dermatologist in New York City and Santa Monica, CA, and chief of the division of dermatology at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica.

The good news about sugar-damaged skin: It's never too late to turn back the clock. One way is to build new collagen with products that contain retinoids — look for retinol in OTC serums and lotions or prescription creams such as Renova, Avage, and Differin. To keep this new collagen supple, prevent AGEs from forming by taking steps to minimize the damage sugar causes to your skin. Here, five steps to eat right and keep your skin looking its youngest:

1. Cut back on the sweet stuff in your diet. It's not easy to eliminate sugar completely. Even whole grains, fruits, and vegetables turn to glucose — the type of sugar that fuels glycation —when digested. But limiting added sugar can help. Some guidelines:

Keep added sugar to no more than 10% of total calories. If you're a 45-year-old woman of average height (5-foot-4), that's 160 calories (or 10 teaspoons) from added sugar — about the number in one 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola or six Hershey's Kisses. By comparison, the average American consumes 31 teaspoons per day of added sugar, or the equivalent of 465 calories.

Watch for hidden sugar in food. Many prepared foods contain hefty amounts of sugar — but it's hidden under aliases — including barley malt, corn syrup, dextrose, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, maple syrup, molasses, and turbinado — on ingredient panels. The key is determining how many teaspoons of sugar each serving contains. Doing this is easy: Check the nutrition label for sugars, which are listed in grams under total carbohydrates, and then divide that number by 4 (each teaspoon of sugar is equal to 4 g) to convert it to teaspoons. For example, if sugars are listed as 12 g, you're getting 3 teaspoons of sugar per serving.

Avoid high fructose corn syrup. This type of sweetener, which is made by changing the sugar in cornstarch to fructose (another form of sugar), is believed to produce more AGEs than other types. Because HFCS extends the shelf life of foods and is sweeter and cheaper than other sugars, it's a popular ingredient in soda, fruit-flavored drinks, and packaged foods such as breads, crackers, and other snacks. You can spot it in ingredient lists on nutrition labels.

2. Supplement your diet with at least 1 mg of vitamins B1 and B6 a day. These vitamins proved to be potent AGE inhibitors in a number of published studies, says David J. Goldberg, MD, a New York City–based dermatologist and a clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. B1 and B6 are plentiful in food, but taking a multivitamin — most of which deliver at least 1 mg of both Bs — ensures you're getting the daily value of 1.1 mg for B1 and 1.3 mg for B6 (1.5 mg after age 50).

3. Wear broad-spectrum SPF 30 sunscreen every day. Significantly more AGEs occur in sun-exposed skin than in protected skin, according to the British Journal of Dermatology study.

4. Employ an inside-outside approach to antioxidants. These free-radical fighters help keep sugar from attaching to proteins, so replenishing their supply — both by eating more antioxidant-rich fruits, nuts, and vegetables, such as cranberries, walnuts, and red bell peppers, and by applying topical antioxidants such as green tea and vitamins C and E — is a real skin saver. "It seems to be the best way to ensure that they reach the dermal layer of skin, where collagen and elastin are located," says Goldberg.

5. Use new ingredients that protect skin from sugar. A growing number of products contain compounds like aminoguanidine and alistin, which have been shown to block the formation of AGEs. "Aminoguanidine attaches to molecules that start the glycation process and prevents them from binding to collagen and elastin," explains Grossman. "Alistin acts as a decoy, so it gets damaged instead of the proteins in your skin." In a study on Prescriptives Anti-AGE Advanced Protection Lotion SPF 25, which contains both ingredients, skin treated with the product had 21% fewer AGEs after 8 weeks than untreated skin. Sweet!

Copyright© 2007 Rodale Inc. All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Rodale Inc.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21257751/

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My dermatologist told me about glycations and sugar. He said cane juice is really just sugar.

So even though something is organic, it still can have debilitating health effects - like soda!

I was drinking Steaz because I thought that the green tea would be good for my skin. Live and learn - I'll stick with real green tea and water and leave the liquid candy to the wrinkled diabetics of the future.

Nice, informational post. Thank you.

it is bad enough that adults drink soda but now they trying to sell this product that loaded with sugar in schools I guess steaz found a loophole in the Clinton school nutrition program.this stuff is no Honest Tea.

I recently read that these sodas are sold in Iowa schools where Sen. Harkin who is an advocate of school nutrition is from.