Wonderful | Health Benefits | Of White Tea

Are you a big tea drinker?

Everyone basically knows about black tea (regular tea bags) and green tea, but what about white tea? It’s said that white tea has more health benefits vis-a-vis black or green tea.

Simply put,white tea is a kind of tea that has silvery white hairs on the buds giving it its name. White tea is highly revered in the Orient, it’s prepared for maximum health effect. White tea buds are picked in the early spring and great care is taken to pick the best of the best leaves and buds for the tea production. And picking is prohibited during inclement weather.

There are several white tea varieties, each of a different quality. The best is Silver Needle. Other types include White Peony, Long Life Eyebrow and Tribute Eyebrow. The process to create white tea involves much less processing than either black or green tea so it maintains more of its integrity in terms of health benefit. Drinking a daily cup or two of white tea is said to be filled with life-preserving antioxidants. Moreover, the tea has a naturally sweeter taste juxtaposed with the other types.

One of the central reasons that people drink green tea is its antioxidant properties and its contributions to weight loss. White tea is filled with many kinds of antioxidants like catechins and flavonoids. Antioxidants are substances that fight free radical damage in the body.

Free radicals are produced from pollution, exposure to the sun, the foods we eat and chemicals. They attack healthy cells and cause premature aging as well as diseases like cancer. Antioxidants surround free radicals and neutralize them before they can do any more damage to your body.

White tea uses these antioxidant properties to promote health in the body. For one, the flavonoids in white tea work to prevent the growth of cancerous cells. Antioxidants boost the immune system so that invading viruses, bacteria and other organisms are defeated by immune system cells.

White tea antioxidants also protect the heart and circulatory system. They lower cholesterol levels and prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). Clearly,a heart that has to pump harder to move blood throughout the body is certainly at an increased risk for heart attacks.

Catechins help by lowering the level of bad LDL cholesterol; they eliminate the formation of hard cholesterol plaques which narrow blood vessels and lead to blood clots. Strokes are a possible result of blood clots that break off and travel through the body and lodge in a vessel in the brain.

The Cherry on the sundae...In keeping with its high level of antioxidants, white tea contains minerals that help build healthy bones and teeth. Both of these are important as we age.

So if you wanna switch it up, then you might wanna try white tea for a change.

A Simple, But delightful Tea Recipe:
I used to do this back when I bought a big thing of white and green tea from my local oriental store …

Simply boil some water, enough to fill a large tea container
Get 3 of each type of tea bag, so 3 white teas, 3 green teas
Steep both in the same water, and pour into the tea container.
You can lightly sweeten if you’re still trying to kick the sugar habit (you could use a natural sweetener with less calories than sugar, or even artificial sweeteners if you’d like) … OR … you can just leave it be with no sweetening and eventually your taste buds will get used to the subtle tastes of different teas.

If you make tea like this and drink it all the time, you’ll be doing a world of health for your body for sure! You’ll be getting scores of antioxidants and other good stuff to boot from two of the most healthy types of teas out there. Better yet,it tastes pretty good too! Click here to learn more...

How To | Eat Fast Food | And Lose Weight

If you’re out and about and you want a meal fast, sometimes the only viable option is fast food.
Other times, you just feel plain lazy and you don’t want to cook. Either way, fast food seems like a sound option.
Deal is, eating out too much can really help you screw the pooch, so to say when it comes to your diet … there are healthy alternatives mixed in among all the fattening choices. Your best bet is to learn some common sense guidelines about what makes each item unhealthy and choose one of the healthy items.
It’ll also help if you study the menus of some of your favorite fast food restaurants. You’ll most likely be able to look up their nutrition facts online. Do that and you’ll know for certain how many calories are baked into your favorite fast food meals.
Now here’s your quick guide to eating healthy and keeping those unwanted pounds off while eating fast food …

Some Quick Guidelines:

1. Grilled Meats. Grilled meats are a much healthier way of cooking rather than deep fried, breaded meats. If the fast food place you’re visiting has the option of choosing crispy or fried chicken versus a grilled patty, choose the grilled one. If the place is like KFC, and the grilled meat isn’t really grilled, then just eat the deep fried, breaded meats and avoid the side carbs (biscuits, etc).
2. Skip the Fries. (Almost) Always. This one was SO HARD for me to get over because I so love the way fries taste. I imagine kicking the heroin habit is easier than this. But I’ve probably had about a handful of fries in the last 1.5-2 years so I’m doing good! Nothing but starchy carbs and trans fats here.
3. Healthier Sides. Some fast food places will offer alternatives to a side of fries. You may be able to opt for some healthy fruit or salad instead. Or you could do the healthiest side option–don’t get any!
4. Don’t Super Size. Less calories = less fat. And they only supersize the fries and the soda! What's up with that? I want a super sized cheeseburger man!
5. Diet Soda. I used to laugh in my sleeve at the fat guy who orders the big greasy meal and then orders a diet soda, as if it’ll make a difference. Well it does make a difference, but, not if your packing fries into your mouth too! Big sandwich, skip the fries or chips, and a diet soda can go a long way towards filling you up and helping you not eat as much … Water or unsweetened tea is a sensible choice too …

Examples Of Healthy Meals At Popular Fast Food Joints

Here’s a list of some healthy choices you can make at some of the most popular fast food restaurants:

1. Taco Bell. Taco Bell has come out with a “Fresco Style” menu that allows you to choose popular menu items in a lower calorie style. A menu item ordered fresco style will come back with a special healthier salsa and it’ll also lack cheese. (I personally don’t take this option since the only time I eat Taco Bell is when I’m blotto anyways, but it’s worth noting)
2. McDonalds. They now offer an extended list of “premium salads”. However, it’s still easy to get fooled into thinking something is healthy when it really isn’t. Make certain you use a low fat dressing on your salad (half a pack if you can) and opt for the grilled chicken. If you grab the ranch and crispy chicken, you may as well be ordering a Big Mac! A burger or two with no sides and a diet coke/unsweet tea will fill you up with less calories too.
3. Subway. As healthy as they claim to be, there’s still a boatload of empty bread carbs here. Try a salad, add some protein in there with some chicken, avoid those chips, you should be home and dry.
4. Wendy’s. My all-time favorite fast food joint. If you do order a value meal you can definitely opt out of the fries. You can substitute for a baked potato, mandarin oranges, and more. If you’re fasting, the Triple Baconator is the uber ultimate one burger per day — 1300 calories of fat and protein goodness. That’ll be it sir!
5. Burger King. Like the rest of the popular fast food chains, Burger King has followed suit and made changes. You can opt for healthier alternatives like salads, chicken, etc. You can also do the one big burger thing with their whoppers if you’re fasting.
6. K.F.C. Has actually got a GREAT menu item — the Double-down sandwich. Low carbs. High protein and only 500 calories. Fills you up and keeps the calories down. I bet you could lose 20lbs on an all Double-Down Diet.
7. Chipotle. Not really fast food, but an excellent restaurant and probably the best choice for eating healthy. Some whiny punks complain about oversized portions but if you order the right stuff, it’s good portion sizes of good food. Skip the extra 1500 cals of empty carbs that comes with the tortillas, get a bowl instead, fill it with meats, salsa, fajita peppers, mounds of guacamole and lettuce and you’re kickin’ serious Bootay. Use the Chipotle Fan Nutrition Calculator to see the different macro-nutrient and calorie profiles of your food combos and enjoy!

For all other restaurants, you can make an educated decision about the healthy items from the menu. If you’re unsure, use some common sense guidelines:

• Avoid empty carbs (fries, tortillas, chips, biscuits, etc)
• Layoff the transfats (deep fried foods, fries, etc)
• Avoid the sugar (no sodas, no sweet tea, no ice creams, etc)
• Try not to cram so much of it in your mouth a.k.a. watch your portion sizes

Follow the tips in this short article and you’re sure to lose weight while eating fast food. Read more...