Showing posts with label Black tea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black tea. Show all posts
Green Tea- a Healthy Alternative to Soda
| In the hot days of summer it is easy to reach for a soda to help you cool off. However sodas do not really quench your thirst and there are some other healthier more refreshing alternatives. One of the most refreshing ways to cool off on a hot summer day is drinking a tall glass of iced tea and what better than making it green tea? People from the Orient have long known the benefits of drinking green tea. In fact so important is this drink in these countries that there is special tea drinking rituals associated with this beverage. Japan is especially famous for this. Green tea: Is made from the leaves of the Camellia Sinensis tree. The best green tea is grown in Japan and is harvested in the spring months. Now Australia is trying to cultivate it so that green tea can be available in other months and supply the increasing need for this beverage. Recent research is revealing that this tea is particularly beneficial for your health. It is higher in antitoxins than the traditional black tea drunk in the West. Green tea has also been found to have vitamin C and fluoride. Green tea has more of these properties than the traditional black teas because of the way it is processed It goes through little or no processing (fermenting or oxidizing) this brings out the antioxidants and vitamins but will reduce the stimulant quality (caffeine) of this tea. The best way to make green tea hot or cold is to make it with loose leaves. These are easily available in many grocery stores and most health food stores. When making iced tea it is good to steep the tea for about 20-30 minutes. You can just pour the hot water on it and let it cool slowly. Fast cooling will not allow the full taste to come out; so slow cooling at room temperature is best. You can also make some good tea pops. Just fill an ice cube tray with green tea (cooled) and put toothpicks in each square and enjoy when fully frozen. You can also make regular cubes of green tea to add to beverages. If you want to spice up your tea you can add citrus peel as it steeps. Anise and chicory are also added for a change in taste. Citrus peels are especially refreshing with iced green tea. You can also add ginger as a real thirst quencher for those hot days. However you chose to drink your green tea it is a nice refreshing change from soda and good for your health. It will not only quench your thirst but rejuvenate you too. As our world grows smaller we are becoming more aware of different types of foods and beverages. As more research is being done on this increasingly popular drink we will see even more benefits to our health. It is recommended to drink at least 3 cups or more per day to enjoy the health giving properties of green tea. |
| Author Resource:- Zach Thompson is a Natural Zeolite Representative. His clients range from actresses to pro athletes. You can get a free consultation on Waiora by visiting his web site. |
| Article From New Ezine Articles |
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Caffeine in Green Tea
How true is it that one disadvantage of green tea is insomnia because of its caffeine content? You may put it as a “disadvantage” but people who works on a night shift will disagree. True, green tea contains caffeine but compared to coffee and other tea, it has a lesser level but has a very incredible amount of antioxidants.
What is caffeine?
It is a kind of drug that acts as a stimuli that basically stimulates the central nervous system and the heart. A person having caffeine in his system can instantly increase his blood pressure but not having any evidence of definitive long-term effects in the blood pressure itself. Long term increase of blood pressure are still taking excessive amounts of green tea.
Caffeine content in green tea stays unless it is decaffeinated. According to studies, green tea is more likely to be higher than coffee but with preparation, a person can greatly reduce the caffeine that the body takes in. how? Through the infusion length of hot water and how many times you have used the leaves.
Surprisingly, caffeine in green tea is more beneficial than the caffeine taken from coffee. It works through the body in a slighter difference than coffee. Aside from caffeine, green tea has other constituents that work perfectly with caffeine namely vitamins, oils and tannin.
Caffeine difference
As mentioned, compared to coffee, the caffeine content in green tea can have a different approach in the human body. By its own substance, it doesn’t have to trigger increase heart rate and blood pressure unlike what caffeine can instantly do. Typically, green tea is more applicable to drink for those who wanted to lose weight but are caffeine sensitive.
Lose weight with caffeine
Base on studies, caffeine has the capacity to increase metabolism inside the body which results to helping out the body in burning excess calories. Caffeine content in green tea is undoubtedly more prominent than other beverages but you can lessen it based on the kind of green tea that you have chosen to drink. Contrary to what other people know, oxidation doesn’t have the capacity to raise the caffeine content in the body. Truth is, some studies were made and is found out that the longer the oxidation is, the lower the content of caffeine will be present.
Green tea without caffeine
For medicinal purposes, green tea is sometimes made caffeine free. Green tea that is decaffeinated has a more pleasant taste and has an impressive antioxidant activity. It is very effective in the prevention and even treatment of cancer, decreasing cholesterol levels, collagen formation, decreasing triglyceride levels and preventing arteriosclerosis.
Therefore, with caffeine present in green tea, it can decrease the metabolic processes going significantly inside our body but not having any effect on blood pressure and heart rate.
Caffeine content
Compared to the caffeine found in black tea, green tea is only composed by the half of it. And compared to coffee, green tea only has quarter amounts thus, making it the perfect beverage you can include in your meals. But there are precautions that should be followed. One which is the moderate amount of green tea that should be consumed within a day. It should only be at least 4 cups. More than that will generate negative reactions that is felt inside the body.
The introduction of decaffeinated supplementary green tea, benefits were further provided ruling out any unwanted effects.
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Facts You Must Know About Your Green Tea
Facts about Green Tea
• Reduces the risk of having cancer by inhibiting the growth of cancer cells especially on the colon, pancreas, rectum, bladder, esophagus, and stomach without harming healthy cells
• Helpful for those who have rheumatoid arthritis
• Reduce the risk of having hypertension and elevated blood pressure
• Reduces the cholesterol level in the body
• Increases metabolism
• Helps body to fight viruses and bacteria by improving the defense action of the immune system
• Reduces the process of thrombosis which helps reduce heart attacks and strokes
• Green tea also helps destroy free radicals
• Helps in reducing fatigue and stress due to its calming action
• Fights cardio vascular diseases
• Green tea is also known for its antibacterial anti viral properties
• The secret of green tea is its catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin (EGCG) which is a powerful anti oxidants
• EGCG is twice as powerful as reservatol whose action is to lower the incidence of heart disease
• Green tea comes from Camelia sinesis plant
• What sets green tea apart from other tea is the way it was processed, green tea leaves are steamed which prevents the important contents from being oxidized
• By contrast other tea brands are made from fermented tea leaves; as a result the other components are converted into other compounds that are not as effective as that of green tea
• New evidence suggests that green tea helps dieters by eliminating fat from the body and helps the body burn more calories compared to caffeine or a placebo
• Green tea can even help prevent tooth decay
• The bacterial actions of green tea can help prevent food poisoning
• Wide variety of beauty products now contains green tea are available in the market that claims to have great effect in beauty and wellness
• Green tea capsules are now available in health stores for those who don’t want to drink tea
• A cup of green tea contains caffeine level of 20 to 70 milligrams
• There are several kinds of green tea that are available in the market they differ on the amount of caffeine content
Harmful effects
To the present study and research green tea have proven a lot of benefits and medicinal properties but when it comes to harmful effects of green tea had been reported to contribute to insomnia or difficulty of sleep experienced by users. Green tea is advised to be taken at least 3 to 4 cups daily and not to be taken as substitute for water.
Caffeine is the ingredient found in green tea that contributes to sleeping difficulty but its caffeine contents is less compared to that of coffee and black tea. Other components of green tea must also be controlled for it can contribute to liver problems.
For pregnant mothers and for under medications it is important to ask your doctor before consuming the beverage for some components of green tea might have reactions with other compounds found in medications.
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Greatness on a Cup of Green Tea
How to make a cup of green tea
• Brewing green tea is similar with other tea. Whether it is bagged or loose green tea. It is important to remember not to use boiling water. Brewing with water that’s just about to reach its boiling point is the right temperature; this is for the reason that green tea is more delicate than other tea.
• The best tasting green tea is brewed under one minute and let it steep for a short period of time, it is recommended not to prepare it with boiling water and longer time of steeping because it will make the tea bitter to the taste.
• However increased level of polyphenols in green tea is directly proportional with water temperature and time of steeping. It means that the longer time it was brewed under boiling water and the longer it is steeped means a greater concentration of polyphenols on every cup of green tea making it more potent than that of shorter time to brew and steeped. Polyphenols are the anti oxidants found in green tea which contributes to the green teas’ medicinal properties.
Suggestions on how to boost antioxidant concentration of your green tea:
• Temperature- studies proved that with the use of boiling water more of the polyphenols, the anti oxidants on green tea is extracted from the tea leaves. The higher the temperature used for brewing tea leaves the greater is the concentration of polyphenols to be found, thus making a more effective tea against diseases and illness.
• Steeping time- in order to attain more of the goodness in a cup of tea, longer steeping time is advised. Longer steeping time allows more polyphenol presence. Tea should be steeped 2 to 5 minutes to allow more polyphenol to emerge. Shorter steeping time means less or the polyphenol and greater caffeine content in your tea.
• Size of tea leaves- the smaller the leaf is, the better, even in size, green tea has proven the power of small things to create wonder. Studies have shown that small loose green tea leaves infuses quickly compared to that of tightly curled and large tea leaf which requires more or longer infusion time.
• Loose leaf versus Tea bags- it is more preferable to use leaves compared to tea bags. By simply allowing the green tea leaves to float on the water more of the polyphenol are being extracted while in order for tea bags to produce this anti oxidant, the tea bags must be continuously dunked in the tea pot.
To this day, green tea has already proved to help cure and protect people against a lot of health problems. In order to attain optimum protection against illness proper nutrition, healthy lifestyle plus a cup of your favorite green tea will do the job.
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Green Tea and Caffeine
It seems that despite the good things about green tea, the modern community was able to prove that it also has a negative effect. Well, before you decide whether you will continue drinking green tea or not, read on and discover some amazing facts about the intake of green tea.
Some of the harmful effects of caffeine intake in people are heart palpitations, jitters, insomnia, and many other unwanted effects. Because of this realization, manufacturers of green tea are now producing decaffeinated extracts to cater to the needs of those who can't take caffeine.
In fact, there are now supplements which are also decaffeinated. You should get this type of green tea and supplements especially if you're not allowed to take beverages with caffeine. Although the caffeine content in green tea is much less than coffee, a person who is extra sensitive to caffeine will experience the same unwanted effects by drinking the tea.
For every eight ounces of tea, the caffeine content is about forty milligrams. Are you already computing your tea intake and the caffeine that you're getting? The caffeine contents are relatively smaller in green tea and if you can can get away with it without any bad effects, you will also benefit in other health areas.
Even if green tea contains caffeine, it also contains antioxidants like polyphenols which can benefit the body. The antioxidants can help in preventing certain types of cancer, lowers the bad cholesterol in the body, and it can enhance the immune system. The health benefits are truly amazing and this may the very reason why even the ancient Chinese continued to serve green tea at home and to their guests.
The modern world enjoys advanced medical technology and so it is no longer a surprise if scientists and researchers discover the good things about green tea. More and more advanced clinical studies and lab tests are conducted to prove the tea's healing properties. If you think that the positive effects of green tea outweighs the negative, then there's no reason for you to stop taking it.
In truth and in fact, caffeine occurs in cocoa beans, tea, and coffee. Cola drinks also contain caffeine because manufacturers use it to enhance the drink's flavor. Green tea and black tea defintely has caffeine because the plant (Camellia sinensis) itself contain caffeine.
If you're afraid of the effects of caffeine, you can just purchase the decaffeinated green tea. Even if the tea no longer contains caffeine, it would still taste the same; you will still get the great 'kick' in taste when you drink it. Most of the tea's caffeine are removed in the decaf process. However, some studies show that because of the decaf process, the healing properties are ruined.
If you do have extreme problems with caffeine, then most probably you will go for the decaf green tea. For people who don't have any problems connected to caffeine, it is advisable to drink the original green tea so that you can benefit from its healing properties.
All in all, the benefits of drinking the original tea preparation outweigh the negative effects. It is up to you whether you drink the decaf green tea or the original one. There's black, green, and red tea. Green tea is obviously in the middle in terms of caffeine content. So what's it's gonna be? Decaf, original, or no tea at all?
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Green Tea Diet Facts
Working out a natural diet
By incorporating at least 3 cups of green tea in your meal daily, you are enhancing a more balanced diet. Together with exercise, green tea has turned out to be more effective than ever. There is no such thing as how many servings every meal can green tea be incorporated. No exact doses. Just one cup every breakfast, lunch, dinner and even during midnight snacks is sufficient enough to be part of your daily diet.
Green tea preserves all its important compounds like antioxidants because it is brewed and not fermented, It is advisable to drink green tea while it’s still hot because live antioxidants are very prominent and its valuable nutritional affects are also preserved. It’s better to purchase and brew loose green tea leaves than the bottled or powdered ones because they are not as effective as brewing.
Black tea versus green tea
Black tea is not similar to green tea at all. While green tea is typically brewed, black tea is fermented. The fermentation process of black tea tends to eliminate the important vitamins and nutrients that are beneficial to health. Therefore, it is concluded that green tea is proven to be more effective than black tea.
Green tea diet benefits
• Reduce the risk for hypertension and high blood pressure
• Destroy free radicals
• Maintain healthy fluid and electrolyte balance that can help relieve fatigue and stress
• Lower increased amount of cholesterol level
• Toxin prevention in the liver
• Antiviral and antibacterial properties
• Reduce incidences of cancer in parts of the body like colon, pancreas, esophagus, rectum, bladder and stomach by up to sixty percent
• Increased metabolism
• Strengthen immune system
• Stops thrombosis formation which is the cause for heart attacks
Caffeine content
Thoughts about the caffeine content in green tea have bothered and quite alarmed avid drinkers of the beverage. Although, there are ways to lessen the caffeine content in your green tea by adjusting yourself in the effects and observing the tolerance of your body.
Warning on green tea caffeine
• If you have a medical condition or you’re pregnant, be sure to consult your physician first before consuming the beverage.
• Drink moderately. Caffeine is not the only thing that can do negative effects when increased. Higher concentration of polyphenols can damage the kidney and liver. Don’t drink 8-10 cups of green tea a day. That can be very harmful especially if you have a low tolerance level. The more acceptable intake is at least 3-4 cups a day.
• Don’t be fooled by energy drinks made from green tea. Aside from diminished or very less antioxidants, energy drinks have high sugar content. Drinks like these have already undergone a lot of processes that may lose important nutrients upon reaching your body.
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How to Brew Green Tea?
Reason # 1 – Brewing doesn’t eliminate the important nutrients, vitamins and components that comprises green tea. On the other hand, fermentation wastes there components leaving other beverages with nothing but the idea that it is tea and people can get something from it.
Reason # 2 – Brewing can bring out the best in catechin and theanin for these two elements contribute to a lower level of caffeine in your green tea.
Reason # 3 – Enhance taste and aroma. Indeed, brewing has a very enticing smell that can’t be found in fermented beverages.
If you wanted to have a good green tea, brew it. Although, if you keep on wondering why you’re green tea tastes a bit strange compared to other great tasting brewed green tea, maybe there’s something terribly wrong with how you prepare your tea.
Brewing green tea is easier contrary to what people think. To learn more on how to brew the best green tea, read the instructions below.
Step 1 – Water
Choosing what kind of water to use is a very important detail that you have to take note of. Ideally, manufacturers would prefer brewing green tea using soft mineral water or natural water. If you can’t afford purchasing bottled water daily, you can take into consideration tap water. Here, you would know how tap tasteless water can be converted into one soothing beverage. If you’re planning to use European bottled water, don’t. It’s because this kind of water are considered as hard water that is not suitable for brewing green tea.
Step 2 – Chlorine-free
Chlorine must not be mixed with the process. To remove it, just leave your water in your pot for a couple of hours before finally boiling it.
Step 3 – Boiling process
Depending on how much water you have put will be the time it will boil. The more water, the more time it will take to boil. When you have noticed that the water is already boiling, take off the lid of the pot and let it boil continuously for a few minutes more.
Step 4 – Temperature
It is said that correct temperature of boiling water will vary on the kind of tea that you are about to use. This is the moment when extraction of polyphenols take place.
Step 5 – Steep
Let your tea leave steep for about three to five minutes. With longer steeping time, the polyphenol level increases while if steeping time takes only for a couple of seconds, it will result to bring about more caffeine in the tea. The moment the caffeine content in your green tea is increased, it will result to a decreased polyphenol content which is one of the main reasons why antioxidants are made.
There is an additional knowledge regarding brewing.
Tea leaves
Research shows that it is better to brew green tea leaves that are smaller because of the fast infusion. Choosing large leaves or ones that are tightly curved can have a longer infusion time.
Teabags or loose leaves?
It is more advisable to use loose green tea than green tea teabags. Loose green tea enables polyphenols to freely float inside your cup of green tea instead of locking them inside your teabag.
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Top 10 Green Tea Benefits
Drinking green tea is a traditional treatment. But even so, it’s paving its way into helping out a lot of people regarding their weight, diet and health. There are a lot of studies that shows how green tea has inhibited or reduced the growing risk of cancer.
China’s health history was pretty much a breakthrough because of green tea. It is considered as a very important historical plant that can from the leaves of the Camellia Sinensis and is produced through special processing.
What so special about green tea? The secret lies in catechin polyphenols which contains a very powerful antioxidant called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCE). This specialized antioxidant not only inhibits cells causing cancer but also kills it in the process without even harming adjacent healthy tissues. It has also been proven that green tea can be very effective in decreasing cholesterol levels and inhibits the abnormal accumulation of blood clots.
Aside from those mentioned above, here are some of the numerous benefits derived from green tea.
1. Researchers have claimed that green tea can be the reason for cancer prevention and even the treatment of disease.
2. Can be able to teat cardiovascular diseases and rheumatoid arthritis.
3. Reduces the risk of the effects of esophageal cancer.
4. Used traditionally to treat multiple sclerosis.
5. Treat immune function that is impaired.
6. Used to prevent having Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
7. It is claimed through intensive research that daily consumption of green tea can prevent tooth decay. It is found out that green tea can fight and kill bacteria that are one of the leading causes of plaque.
8. It can result to decreased risk of heart attacks and heart diseases by reducing thrombosis formation.
9. Improves the ratio of good cholesterol against bad cholesterol.
10. Lastly, it is said to increase fat oxidation and metabolism inside the body. That is why it is used by many who wanted to lose weight without even compromising the health.
The difference of green tea apart from other Camellia Sinensis plant extracts is the way it is processed. Leaves of green tea are steamed or brewed that gives more reason for EGCG not to be oxidized. Black tea, on the other hand, is made through fermentation. The process of fermenting the leaves of black tea can covert EGCG into compounds that aren’t even close to the effectiveness of the original compounds found in green tea in terms of fighting and preventing numerous diseases.
Caffeine in green tea?
Aside from its many advantages, green tea can have one slight so-called "disadvantage" and that is its caffeine content. Caffeine can cause a sleeping disorder that makes a person experience difficulty in sleeping which is also known as insomnia.
However, compared to coffee, green tea has less caffeine. With proper consumption, people can decreased the undesired caffeine content in their green tea.
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