Green Tea - Home Remedies

| Saturday, January 28, 2012

The claims for green tea include reducing the risk of cancer, preventing or alleviating rheumatoid arthritis and eliminating heartburn. But green tea is perhaps best known for its high levels of anti-oxidents. This is especially of use to those with active lifestyles as anti-oxidents help reduce the level of damage caused by free radicals.
However, if you try it, you will find that green tea is more than just a tasty, hot beverage. Green teas have become an integral part of home remedies everywhere, from skin and teeth care to general preventative measures.


Enjoyment
Perhaps the most important benefit of green tea is the sheer enjoyment that goes along with a soothing cup of green tea. It has a light, delicate flavor and its ability to complement breakfasts, lunch and dinner make this drink a favorite.

Energy
In addition to enjoyment, another benefit of green tea is the energy factor. Like coffee, green tea has caffeine. Although there is less caffeine contained in green tea, the tea can still go a long way to getting you over that late afternoon hump. In actual fact the reduced dose of caffeine is yet another benefit of green tea -- while the caffeine is just enough to give you a boost, for many people it does so without creating the jittery, anxious feeling that other caffeinated beverages can cause. So the next time you make your way to the coffee machine in your office, consider instead pouring a hot cup of water and dipping in a bag of green tea. 

Essential Health Benefits
Enjoyment and energy are two of the great benefits of green tea.  But perhaps the greatest of the green tea benefits are the health benefits that are becoming increasingly more associated and recognized in general with drinking green tea. Green tea is chock full of antioxidants, those wild little particles that counterbalance free radicals. Free radicals are produced as a result of our bodies’ natural metabolic processes, and can cause damage to our cells. By counterbalancing these free radicals, antioxidants prevent some of this damage. 

Green Tea and Weight Loss
Perhaps unusual to think of green tea as having weight loss properties but there now exists a green tea diet and many people swear by green tea extract as part of their weight loss programme. In fact you will find that green tea extract is contained in proprietary fat burning supplements. The green tea extract is used to increase metabolism without increasing your heart rate. A common side effect  of other weight loss supplements.



 Green Tea and Skin Care
Green teas have been found to have positive effects in the arena of skin care. Two specific areas include acne and eczema. For acne, this tea makes a great, cheap alternative to expensive toners or astringents. Simply drinking green tea has also worked for some to decrease the presence of acne, although you do have to be careful of increasing the intake of caffeine in your diet, as this has been linked to an increase in breakouts. 

 Homemade Mouthwash
In addition to skin care, another benefit of green tea claimed by manufactuers is that it can be used as part of a homemade mouthwash. So what property of this light drink helps keep your teeth healthy? It’s the presence of fluoride that helps prevent tooth decay and strengthens your teeth and gums.

More Health Benefits of Green Tea
A regular daily intake of green tea or green tea extract is also thought to help your overall health and well-being. The tea is full of antioxidants that bind free radicals in our bodies; these free radicals can often cause damage to cells.

Chemicals in fast food wrappers show up in human blood

| Friday, January 6, 2012

Friday, January 06, 2012 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer


Toxic chemicals used to line fast food wrappers migrate easily into human blood, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Toronto and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Oily foods such as fast food and microwave popcorn are regularly packaged in paper or cardboard coated with polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters (PAPs), which prevent water or grease from leaking through the packaging. A prior study by the same research team confirmed that PAPs can migrate from packaging into food, and thereby be ingested. This is an issue of particular concern, because the body can metabolize PAPs into a highly toxic class of chemicals called perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs). 

The most infamous PFCA is perflurooctanoic acid (PFOA, also known as C8) the active ingredient in Teflon. PFOA and other PFCAs have been linked to a wide variety of health problems including changes in cholesterol and sex hormones. They have produced tumors and even infant death in animal studies.

"PFOA used in non-stick pans (fast-food containers, carpets, furniture and a host of other everyday household products) accumulates in the umbilical cords of babies and is retarding their growth and brain development, according to two new studies published in the prestigious journal Environmental Health Perspectives (August 2007)," notes Andreas Moritz in the book Timeless Secrets of Health & Rejuvenation.

"Babies whose umbilical cords had the highest concentrations of PFOA were born lighter, thinner and with smaller head circumferences than others."
In the new study, researchers exposed rats to PAPs and confirmed that they were indeed metabolized into PFOA.

"This discovery is important because we would like to control human chemical exposure, but this is only possible if we understand the source of this exposure," researcher Scott Mabury said.
He noted that the findings refute attempts "to locate the blame for human exposure on environmental contamination that resulted from past chemical use rather than the chemicals that are currently in production."