For many years, green tea was only frequently seen in the "Heath Nut" sector, but wasn't mainstream. Americans preferred Coffee over tea, and green tea wasn't really even a consideration until the late 90's when it started to break out from the health food stores into mainstream markets. Now you can hardly go anywhere without seeing green tea, many restraunts are serving it, and its on the shelf of every grocer.
Why the focus change? There is a wealth of significant, long term data that show that green tea, next to water, is the most significantly healthy liquid humans can ingest. This comes to no surprise to many, asians have known its benefits for thousands of years. In many asian countries, its common for people to live to 100 years old or more. I'm sure much of this is because of their general diet and exercise, but there is evidence that the antioxident effects of green tea play a major role in this.
When the transcontinental railroad was being build in the United States, the conditions for workers was terrible. The mortality rate was huge, so the companies working on the project brought in chinese workers. It was soon discovered that the chinese workers were much healthier, had incredibly low mortality rates, and weren't catching the ailments that the American workers were.. It wasn't until much much later, we discovered why. It was two fold really, Chinese drank only hot green tea, which was created by boiling water - which in turn killed the germs in the water. American workers were drinking cold water, with the germs in it. However, there is also a wealth of evidence that show that green tea was a major factor as well. It simply kept them healthier, for years and years while working on the project.
Bottom line, put aside those sodas, and drink tea - and better yet - green tea! Green tea has one major problem - if you leave the teabag in the water for too long, it becomes bitter. I recommend no more than 60-90 seconds of dunking the bag in your cup. I love to make green tea in advance, and then put it into a large jug in the refridgerator for daily drinking. Its much easier to open a can of soda, but it's sure unhealthy!