Showing posts with label heart disease. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heart disease. Show all posts

Sunday, December 14, 2008

The Health Benefits of Drinking Green Tea and Coffee

The Chinese have used green tea to treat disease for many centuries. Today, Western culture is beginning to appreciate the benefits of green tea.
Recent research has revealed some of the health benefits of using green tea including the possible prevention of rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, cataracts and even cancer.
Studies have shown that drinking green tea helps you burn more calories. Green tea aids weight loss programs.
Green tea can help fight food poisoning, as well. It also helps kill bacteria that cause plaque and subsequent tooth decay. This gives your immune system a boost.

One of the best benefits of green tea is its ability to fight bacteria.
In addition, green tea can help lower blood sugar and cholesterol. It even helps slow the aging process!
Why is green tea so beneficial? It has to do with the way it is processed.
Steaming the leaves keeps the antioxidants intact. Fermenting oxidizes the antioxidants in the leaves and renders the antioxidant much less effective. Black tea and oolong tea are fermented, but green tea is steamed.
One thing is certain: more is better, so drink as many cups as you like! Recommendations vary from 3 to 10 cups a day. How much green tea do you need to reap all of the great benefits?
Even though green tea has lots of great benefits, many of us are not about to give up our morning cup of coffee. Guess what? No problem!
You will be glad to hear that new studies have shown there are some healthy benefits of coffee drinking.
Coffee seems to offset some of the damage caused by bad habits such as smoking or heavy drinking. Some smokers who also drink coffee have been shown to have less heart disease than other smokers. Some heavy drinkers who also drink coffee regularly have less incidence of liver damage than expected.
Besides the caffeine in coffee, there are other ingredients that are beneficial to our health.
Coffee contains antioxidants including quinines, chlorogenic acid and tocopherols as well as essential minerals such as magnesium. All of these aid glucose metabolism and may, as a result, reduce the risk of diabetes.
Animal studies published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry suggest coffee antioxidants boost the activity of enzymes which may protect against colon cancer.
Trigonelline is another beneficial ingredient in coffee which may help prevent tooth decay. Other benefits of coffee include reducing the risk of Parkinson's disease, helping relieve asthma symptoms and tension headaches, and inhibiting the formation of gallstones.
Now you can enjoy your morning brew with no sense of guilt!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Make the Switch! Coffee to Tea

Research shows that green and black teas have up to 8-10 times the antioxidants as fruits and vegetables which can add significantly to your health. The health benefit of drinking tea is chalked up to one explanation, antioxidants. Evidence shows by switching to tea you can add some significant health benefits. Having a hard time giving up your 4 cups of coffee each day?
Beware of doctoring up your tea with too much milk because this has been found to decrease the antioxidants. You can find these benefits in black, green, oolong and even iced teas! The research has found that regular tea drinkers - people who drink two or more cups per day - have less heart disease and stroke, lower cholesterol levels, and they may recover from heart attacks faster.
Don't despair coffee lovers! There are some teas out there that you may find match up to your love of coffee. For instance, Chai tea uses ginger and cardamom which overpowers the taste of the black tea but offers a rich, full bodied taste which is perfect for coffee consumers! Vanilla nut teas also tend to override the black tea taste for a richer flavor. Try some tea today to better your health!
©, 2005 Meri Raffetto
About the Author

Monday, November 24, 2008

Drinking Tea Can Actually Help You Lose Weight

The following are the ones that have some scientific research behind them. Although experts are divided on exactly how healthy green tea, there is no doubt that it has some health benefits.
Tea can help reduce your chances of getting heart disease by up to half, as well as fight dental plaque and cavities (although it will also stain your teeth if you don't make sure to drink plenty of water and brush regularly, so watch out). Firstly, green tea shares all the health benefits that are thought to come from black tea, except in a more effective form, as the tea is fresher.
Drinking tea also burns more calories than it contains, meaning that could potentially help you to lose weight if you drink enough of it.
Black tea will make it a little redder - it sounds too far-fetched to be true, but many women swear by it, particularly in India. Strangely enough, tea is also thought to affect the colour of your hair if you drink it in sufficient quantities.
Unfortunately, there is also no shortage of people willing to claim that green tea will help you with whatever condition is fashionable at the moment. For that reason, read this list with some scepticism - it's up to you if you want to believe in green tea, or if it makes you personally feel better, but little has been proven scientifically either way. Green tea has been mooted as a cure for cancer, Alzheimer's, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, cardiovascular disease and HIV. But if it worked, surely we'd all be drinking it by now?

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Green Tea and Polyphenols

What are Polyphenols?
Polyphenols are compounds found in nature. More specifically they are found in plants and provide coloring for some. Their purpose appears to be a potent, natural antioxidant. There are many plants that we consume that contain polyphenols. Concentrations are high in Olive oil and Green Tea and have been the subject of many health articles and promoted to enhance your health.
How do Polyphenols work?
These antioxidants eliminate free radicals, unstable molecules that are the major cause of both aging and disease, in both plants and humans. Free radicals continually attack the body. Free radicals are a normal product of metabolism and result in a process called oxidation. Polyphenols and other antioxidants, including beta carotene (a vitamin A precursor), vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium, scavenge these free radicals and help to prevent formation of unstable oxygen molecules, known as oxidation. Oxidation can damage healthy cells in the body and have been linked to many diseases including cancer, heart disease and stroke. Polyphenols not only work to prevent diseases but may also help to reduce abnormal cells and inflammation; get rid of cancer causing agents and restore cells back to normal health.
What foods contain Polyphenols?
Unfortunately, polyphenols have a quick life span (short half life) of about 3 hours, thus the scientific reason behind researchers' recommendation to drink green tea a minimum of 8 times a day. EGCG, the most abundant and powerful of green tea's 5 main catechins, is dubbed the 'super antioxidant' because it is 200 times more powerful than the popular antioxidant vitamin E. Just one example is a subgroup of polyphenols, exclusive to green tea, called catechins. These extremely high levels of polyphenols deliver green tea's unique results in several ways.

Green Tea is the #1 source of polyphenols. They include red wine, olive oil, black and green tea. There are many but there are only a few, which contain particularly high levels.
And, research at the University of Geneva, in Switzerland, indicate that green tea raises metabolic rates In addition to caffeine, green tea's catechin polyphenols raise thermogenesis (the rate at which calories are burned) and hence increases energy expenditure. And, research at the University of Geneva, in Switzerland, indicate that green tea raises metabolic rates and speed up fat oxidation. In addition to caffeine, green tea's catechin polyphenols raise thermogenesis (the rate at which calories are burned) and hence increases energy expenditure. And, research at the University of Geneva, in Switzerland, indicate that green tea raises metabolic rates and speed up fat oxidation.

In addition to caffeine, green tea's catechin polyphenols raise thermogenesis (the rate at which calories are burned) and hence increases energy expenditure. And, research at the University of Geneva, in Switzerland, indicate that green tea raises metabolic rates and speed up fat oxidation. In addition to caffeine, green tea's catechin polyphenols raise thermogenesis (the rate at which calories are burned) and hence increases energy expenditure. Not only may green tea protect and heal the body from disease but also clinical trials, conducted by the University of Geneva, in Switzerland, indicate that green tea raises metabolic rates and speed up fat oxidation.
Research is still continuing with green tea and more health benefits continue to be discovered. For instance, EGCG's may one day play a role in treatment of mad cow disease (Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, DOI:10.1038/nsmb743). And the formation of unstable oxygen molecules in the body is unavoidable. Aging, smoke, and environmental pollutants are all sources of the damaging free radicals. Japan and China have benefited from drinking green tea vs. black tea, like the rest of us, for centuries. The west is just now catching on to the benefits of green tea. With green tea being no more harmful than a cup of coffee (and actually containing less caffeine) there's no reason why you shouldn't begin today to benefit from green tea too.
Chemical name:
Various
Also known as:
Green Tea Polyphenols, Green Tea Water Extract, Black Tea Polyphenols, Black Tea Water Extract, Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG), Polyphenon E (Mitsui-Norin, Ltd.), Topical Polyphenon E (Epitome Pharmaceuticals Ltd.)
Category:
Phytochemical
More information on the benefits of green tea can be found at
http://www.natural-weight-loss-programs.com/greentea.htm
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green tea
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Friday, August 29, 2008

Green Tea And Some Of Its Benefits

Three to five cups of green tea a day can do you a lot of good.
Tea, especially green tea has long been known for its medicinal benefits. It helps digestion, boost metabolism and even wards off cancer and heart disease.
According to whether it is fermented or not, tea can be divided into 3 types:
green tea - not fermented;
oolong tea - partially fermented;
black tea - fermented.
While people may prefer black tea or oolong tea, green tea has more healthy benefits. As it's dried straight after picking, it keeps most of its valuable polyphenols while its cousins - black tea and oolong tea lose most of theirs in the process of fermentation. Green tea has a lot more polyphenols than black tea or oolong tea. What's the deal of those polyphenols things, you may wonder? They are known as powerful antioxidants, which remove free radicals from the body. Free radicals in the body's cells are very bad. They very unstable and tend to react negatively with other important molecules like DNA, causing malfunctions and injury on the cellular level. They produce destruction that may therefore pave the way for diseases like heart disease and cancer. Green tea contains rich polyphenols that play an active role in removing the free radicals from the body.
Studies show green tea drinkers have 50% lower risk of developing stomach or esophageal compared to non green tea drinkers. As a result, that can help lower blood pressure and reduce stress on the heart. Antioxidants in tea are also known to prevent death from second heart attack by helping blood vessels relax, thus blood can flow through more easily.
One final benefit of green tea drinking can help lose some weight. It's believed some of its polyphenols and caffeine work together to boost the body's metabolism, thus boost our energy burning system.
Generally, three to five cups a day is fairly enough for us to get its medical benefits. How much tea shall we drink?
Shall we have a cup of tea now?
Then drop by Interested in more information about healthy diet food?
http://helthydietfood.info/

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