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In Remembrance
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: about 45 minutes to anywhere!
Posts: 3,086
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In Remembrance
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: about 45 minutes to anywhere!
Posts: 3,086
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the wonders of tea~
The wonders of tea
Tea comes in many different varieties and shopping for the healthiest brand is quite a bewildering experience, but rest assured that whatever tea you put into your trolley, regardless of what type it is, will have the following health benefits:
Antioxidants – Tea leaves contain even more natural antioxidants than most fruit, vegetables and red wine. Antioxidants neutralise free radicals – incomplete cells that attack healthy cells and cause oxidative damage that can lead to heart disease and cancer. In so doing, antioxidants have significant disease-fighting properties.
Tea is rich in a powerful type of antioxidant compound known as flavonoids.
Flavonoids are more effective antioxidants than vitamin C and E and beta-carotene. They have been found to improve the blood vessels' ability to relax and therefore stop the arterial blockage that leads to heart attacks and strokes. Flavonoids also stop "bad" cholesterol from oxidizing and hardening the arteries.
Because flavonoids have a short life, you need to continuously ingest flavonoid-rich foods, such as fruit, vegetables and tea to experience their full health benefits.
As long as you don't overload your tea with sugar or high-fat milk, it's a low-calorie way to increase your antioxidant level with almost no downsides. Tea cannot replace but can supplement the recommended flavinoid-rich five fruits and vegetables a day.
Both black and green teas contain cancer-fighting polyphenols. Also known as tea tannins or catechins, polyphenols seem to be the most potent therapeutic plant-derived chemicals because of their triple function – they are antiseptic, antioxidant and detoxifying. Polyphenols that have antioxidant properties seem to help inhibit the growth of cancerous tumours.
Tea and vitamin C
Both green tea and herbal teas are sources of vitamin C.
Ethylamine, found in black and green teas, also targets pathogens including parasites, viruses and perhaps, tumours.
A recent experiment by the National Academy of Sciences in the US found that the immune system blood cells from tea drinkers responded five times faster to germs than the blood cells of coffee drinkers.
Tea has antioxidant, antibacterial, antiseptic and detoxifying properties. What more can you ask for in a drink?
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Types of tea
There are three base types of tea that are classified according to the way that they are processed, namely black, green and oolong tea. All three come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. However, black tea comes from African, Indian and Sri Lankan plantations, whereas green tea comes from the Far East.
These three teas are often classified by their region of origin, for example, Ceylon, China and Darjeeling.
Further sub categories of tea include scented tea, decaffeinated tea, organic tea (like Rooibos or Honeybush), herbal infusions (made from flowering plants) and Earl Grey ( a black tea and bergamot mix). Manufacturers may flavour their teas with flowers or herbs, but, if the tea does not contain one of the three main bases, then it isnot really a tea in the true sense of the word.
Black tea is the product of the cutting, withering, rolling, fermenting and drying processes that result in brownish black tea leaves.
Green tea is steamed to preserve the green colour of the tea leaves and in doing so prevents fermentation as the veins of the leaves are not broken. The green leaves are then crushed and dried. Oolong teas are semi-green teas that are partially fermented.
Comparing the three: Black tea Fermented Fully oxidized Lowest amount of tannin Most caffeine
Green tea Unfermented Not oxidized Highest amount of tannin Least caffeine
Oolong tea Semi-fermented Partially oxidized Average amount of tannin Average amount of caffeine
All three types of tea come from the same plant and therefore share many of the same health benefits, such as antibacterial and antioxidising properties. But the efficacy decreases slightly the darker the tea leaf becomes.
http://www.health24.com/dietnfood/He...18-181-653.asp
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with much love,
lou_lou
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pd documentary - part 2 and 3
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Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and the wrong. Sometime in your life you will have been all of these.
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