Is Chai Green Tea A Diet Tea?

Chai is the word for tea for several different countries. Chai tea is typically made with heavy milk or cream, spices and sugar. It is, however, possible to make a chai green tea that is also a diet tea. What makes anything a diet product is the product's ingredients. By substituting the high calorie ingredients in your typical chai tea, you can create a diet tea.

Chai

Although the term chai means tea, chai tea or masala chai is a drink that contains tea in combination with other ingredients. The exact ingredients in chai tea depend on the manufacturer and geographic location. So you may find a chai tea in the United States very different from a chai tea in India. Typically you will find western chai variations much sweeter and less spicy than the eastern chai tea varieties.

Calories

Typically, chai tea drinks contain green tea. According to Livestrong.com MyPlate, a 100 ml serving of green tea contains 2 calories and 0 g of fat. Therefore, the active ingredient in chai tea would qualify it as a diet tea due to its low calorie and fat content. However, the ingredients added to the green tea can make a chai tea beverage a poor diet choice. For example, Starbucks' Tazo Chai Tea Latte contains 240 calories and 4 g of fat per 16 oz. serving.

Substitute

The primary ingredient in many chai teas that gives the tea a high caloric content is sugar. However, you can use many sweeteners instead of sugar to reduce the caloric content. Examples of low calorie sugar substitutes include Splenda, NutraSweet and Stevia. Artificial sweeteners typically contain zero or very few calories. Additionally, you can replace the milk or cream in chai tea with either non-fat milk or a soy alternative. This will reduce both the calorie and fat content of the chai tea. The spices in chai tea do not add any calories or fat.

Benefits

According to the "Encycolopedia of Natural Medicine," many cultures use green tea as an herbal medicine. Some chai tea recipes date back to Ayurvedic texts. Scientific research has found health benefits of drinking green tea. Therefore, by making a low calorie variation of chai green tea, you can create both a diet tea and a tea that can benefit your health.