Food For Thought: Tea Is A Satisfying Part Of A Healthy Diet
News Canada

(NC)Tea news continues to stir the pot in Canada. Records show we drink as many as 7 billion cups of tea each year and those who study it as a dietary factor are now telling us not to put on the brakes. Both black tea and green tea contain antioxidant plant compounds called flavonoids, which are thought to be important cancer fighting agents. This, combined with its potential benefits against heart disease plus zero calories and comparatively low levels of caffeine is a sound reason to treat oneself to one or more cups of tea every day.

And while those who drink the 7 billion cups don’t seem to need advice, still connoisseurs insist on preparation precision to make the “tea treat” even better. Here, courtesy of the Tea Association of Canada, is a 5-step process for the perfect cup of tea:

Make A Perfect Cup of Tea

1. Start with fresh-drawn cold water and bring it to a rolling boil.

2. Warm the teapot to help keep your tea hot longer.

3. Use one teabag for each two cups of tea desired. Be sure to choose a quality blend.

4. When the water has boiled, take the warmed teapot to the kettle and pour over the teabags. Stir, cover and let steep for 3 to 5 minutes.

5. Remove teabags and pour.

And don’t forget, you can get a perfect cup of tea when on the run too. In a restaurant, ask for your pot of boiling water with the “tea bag in”. Always allow your tea, no matter where you are, to steep for at least three to five minutes. Indeed, continuously dunking the tea bag may increase the flavonoid content as much as five times.

Remember, in addition to antioxidant properties, tea is an all-natural beverage with no additives, artificial flavourings or colours. It has no calories when enjoyed without milk, sugar or honey. Here are a few innovative ways to include tea in your daily meals:

At breakfast, discover how delicious a bran muffin can be with your favourite blend like Orange Pekoe, Earl Grey and English Breakfast and many more.

At lunch, use tea to flavour dressings on fruit, green, and pasta salads.

At dinner, use brewed tea as a marinade for chicken or fish and also to stir-fry vegetables. Try ice cream flavoured with a splash of tea.

At snack time, discover how green tea is an ideal refresher.

More information is available online at www.tea.ca.

– News Canada

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You need all the help you can get to shed all those extra pounds, right? Have you heard about water help to loss weight? Some people believe it can, so let’s take a look at this theory to see if it holds any merit.

Weight loss is all about consuming fewer calories each day than what you burn up. This sounds simple enough doesn’t it? So where does water come into play?

Water contains zero calories so you can literally drink as much water as you like without putting on weight. However, you should realize you can drink more water than is good for you. If you should happen to have a water retention problem; it is best to check with your Doctor before going overboard with your water drinking.

But in contrast to any other beverage, you do not need to think twice before drinking water. In fact it should become a regular part of your day as drinking lots of water assists in overall health and well being too.

Water flushes out your system and is simply the best liquid you can drink. If you are trying to lose weight, then ultimately you should totally eliminate any sugar based drinks from your diet. A good example of these types of drinks would be carbonated soft drinks.

These drinks contain nothing of substance and are full of artificial ingredients, not to mention sugar and calories. If you drink two cans of soda per day, it could be just those extra calories that are causing your weight gain. So substituting these with water can eliminate the cause of your weight gain. How simple is that!

Some people dont like the taste of water. Water lovers cant understand this, but its a fact. In all likelihood, people who say they don’t like water probably have only tried plain unfiltered tap water. Tap water also tastes different depending on where you live and even on a house by house basis. If youre a person who dislikes the taste of water based on what comes out of your tap, then try buying spring water.

The taste of spring water even differs by brand, so keep trying them all until you find one you like. Spring water, in some cases, is more pure than tap water and doesn’t contain any harmful bacteria. Some of the best quality spring water tastes absolutely delicious, so make sure you find one to your liking.

Back to water help to loss weight; keep in mind that water is never a substitute for food, but it should simply complement your healthy diet. Instead of a soda or sugar fruit juice at dinner, have a glass or two of water. It is also recommended to start the day off with a refreshing glass of water as it gets your brain active.

Drinking water throughout the day also enhances brain function and keeps you alert. You may start noticing that if you don’t drink water, for most of the day, you’ll suffer from headaches and tiredness.

Water is a wondrous natural substance that all humans need. Water help to loss weight may be the best help you can get, when you are shedding all those extra pounds.

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In this day and age, it really isn’t surprising that half of all Americans are overweight to some degree. Most people in this day and age have busy, hectic schedules, which mean that sticking to a diet is not easy, and neither is trying to work out on a regular basis. Still, this does not mean that all hope is lost. Here is some basic advice that should help you drop off those unwanted pounds by following easy diets and implementing exercise in your life.

The first piece of advice that you need to consider has to do with exercising. In fact any diet, much less an easy diet, should include exercising. You should always have your physical workout first thing in the morning when your stomach is still empty. There are a lot of different exercises that you can try such as walking on a treadmill, or going around the block a couple of times. Ten minutes of exercise is all you need to burn stored energy, especially fat, but you can also go for longer if you feel comfortable exercising for longer periods.

The next most useful tip that you should consider is to pay attention to when you snack. You should avoid snacking late at night, and stop eating all together at least three hours before you go to bed. This way you will burn off all the calories you consumed before bed, rather than storing those calories as fat when you go to bed. This simple step can have incredible results if you are serious about implementing it.

The third suggestion that you should consider has everything to do with coffee. If you absolutely have to drink coffee, make it black! Fancy coffee drinks with cream and sugar are fun and tasty, but they are also loaded up with calories. Just one of these bad boys will blow any easy diets your on right out the window. A good old simple cup of black coffee has nearly zero calories if any at all, so this is clearly a much wiser choice, and while black coffee is an acquired taste, you will get used to it with practice.

The next tip is to break your normal three meals a day into four or five smaller meals a day. Your metabolism requires constant fuel in order to burn fat. If you feed it several small amounts every day, your metabolism will stay much higher, much faster, and will burn more calories in the end.

Finally, you should cut down on your carbohydrate intake. This is going to have a very large impact on how quickly you lose weight using easy diets. By eliminating unnecessary breads, pastas and other starches, you will see a serious difference next time that you step on the scale. Take this advice and you will see what easy diet weight loss is all about.

There are no “easy diets” per say, but there are easy tips and steps that will help you lose weight. Forget those fad diets and crazy starvation diets and follow the aforementioned tips and hints instead.

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