Green Tea Can Loosen Weight

Green tea – a product of brewing from the leaves of a plant named Camellia Sinensis. This kind of tea is said to have multiple health benefits that is very advantageous to the human body. One of the many benefits of green tea is that it can enable to enhance metabolism inside the body, thus, burning fat faster than usual. With daily consumption, there is a hundred percent possibility of losing weight in no time. So you can eat all you want without feeling guilty on gaining additional adipose tissues because with just one cup of green tea, it washes away your worries.

But wait, there's more.
The beauty about green tea is that is not fermented unlike other teas. Which is a good thing because it doesn’t take away the most important elements that is essential for keeping the body healthy. That would include the fat burning compounds.

There are three steps in the processing of green tea namely heating, then rubbing and lastly, drying. There are also different kinds of tea like: baked green tea, dried green tea, fried green tea and steamed green tea.

Nowadays, green tea is becoming more popular in coffee shops or in grocery stores because of its major benefits that consumers are discovering. Even coffee shops are including a wide variety of natural green tea flavors in their menu for greater choice. Green tea has become an alternative to orange pokoe. Why all the changes and consideration in favor of green tea? Because you’re pouring the way for a healthier longer life.

Green tea is one of the active ingredients that is used in numerous weight loss products. According to researches, thermogenesis, fat oxidation and increased energy expenditure are just some of the result of what green tea can do to your body as an effective product for weightloss.

What’s in a tea?

Green tea possesses anti-oxidation effects which are highly effective. This antioxidant is called as epigallacatechin gallate which is a compound that is also know as EGCG. EGCG is from polyphenol that has the capacity to burn fat effectively. According to a research from Switzerland, drinking at least three cups of green tea regularly can cause 80 percent of calories burned without even increasing the rate of heart activity and ruling out the caffeine content.

Antioxidants?

If you still have no idea what an antioxidant is, read on. An antioxidant is a kind of “good” chemical that can be found in plants. Antioxidants are kinds of substances that can protect a person’s body from free radicals. Free radicals are fragments of special molecules that damage the body in its cellular level. Hurting the body through the cellular level will have great negative effects by making the body more vulnerable to diseases that are degenerative like heart diseases and cancer. Antioxidants work by deactivating free radicals thus, minimizing the amount of damage that it can do to the body.

For centuries now, green tea has become the pride of China because of the many benefits it can contribute. No wonder the Chinese take pride in their tea. It is now considered as one of the most popular medicinal beverage that the world has recognized.

Green tea can refresh, enlighten, soothe, promote inner happiness, calmness, stimulate and more importantly, promote a healthy lifestyle.

Read More

Green Tea Diet Facts

More and more are exhibiting likeness of green tea. Some are already incorporating it into their diet. How do people see green tea? It’s a miracle drug that can enhance youthfulness, beauty, and a strong and healthy body. It is also considered as the protector of the human body from numerous diseases. For the fitness world, it serves as an agent in losing weight. These are just some of the benefits of having green tea diet.

Working out a natural diet

By incorporating at least 3 cups of green tea in your meal daily, you are enhancing a more balanced diet. Together with exercise, green tea has turned out to be more effective than ever. There is no such thing as how many servings every meal can green tea be incorporated. No exact doses. Just one cup every breakfast, lunch, dinner and even during midnight snacks is sufficient enough to be part of your daily diet.

Green tea preserves all its important compounds like antioxidants because it is brewed and not fermented, It is advisable to drink green tea while it’s still hot because live antioxidants are very prominent and its valuable nutritional affects are also preserved. It’s better to purchase and brew loose green tea leaves than the bottled or powdered ones because they are not as effective as brewing.

Black tea versus green tea
Black tea is not similar to green tea at all. While green tea is typically brewed, black tea is fermented. The fermentation process of black tea tends to eliminate the important vitamins and nutrients that are beneficial to health. Therefore, it is concluded that green tea is proven to be more effective than black tea.

Green tea diet benefits

• Reduce the risk for hypertension and high blood pressure

• Destroy free radicals

• Maintain healthy fluid and electrolyte balance that can help relieve fatigue and stress

• Lower increased amount of cholesterol level

• Toxin prevention in the liver

• Antiviral and antibacterial properties

• Reduce incidences of cancer in parts of the body like colon, pancreas, esophagus, rectum, bladder and stomach by up to sixty percent

• Increased metabolism

• Strengthen immune system

• Stops thrombosis formation which is the cause for heart attacks

Caffeine content

Thoughts about the caffeine content in green tea have bothered and quite alarmed avid drinkers of the beverage. Although, there are ways to lessen the caffeine content in your green tea by adjusting yourself in the effects and observing the tolerance of your body.

Warning on green tea caffeine

• If you have a medical condition or you’re pregnant, be sure to consult your physician first before consuming the beverage.

• Drink moderately. Caffeine is not the only thing that can do negative effects when increased. Higher concentration of polyphenols can damage the kidney and liver. Don’t drink 8-10 cups of green tea a day. That can be very harmful especially if you have a low tolerance level. The more acceptable intake is at least 3-4 cups a day.

• Don’t be fooled by energy drinks made from green tea. Aside from diminished or very less antioxidants, energy drinks have high sugar content. Drinks like these have already undergone a lot of processes that may lose important nutrients upon reaching your body.

Read More

Expressive Therapies in Mental Health

Many people who are diagnosed with mental issues show an extreme liking for or talent in the creative arts. It only makes sense that some of the alternative treatments incorporate this natural tendency. Below I cover three such alternative treatments. Often each is combined with more traditional methods, but not always.

Art Therapy:

Drawing, painting, and sculpting help many people to reconcile inner conflicts, release deeply repressed emotions, and foster self-awareness, as well as personal growth. Some mental health providers use art therapy as both a diagnostic tool and as a way to help treat disorders such as depression, abuse-related trauma, and schizophrenia. You may be able to find a therapist in your area who has received special training and certification in art therapy.

Dance/Movement Therapy:

Some people find that their spirits soar when they let their feet fly. Others-particularly those who prefer more structure or who feel they have "two left feet"-gain the same sense of release and inner peace from the Eastern martial arts, such as Aikido and Tai Chi. Those who are recovering from physical, sexual, or emotional abuse may find these techniques especially helpful for gaining a sense of ease with their own bodies. The underlying premise to dance/movement therapy is that it can help a person integrate the emotional, physical, and cognitive facets of "self."

Music/Sound Therapy:

It is no coincidence that many people turn on soothing music to relax or snazzy tunes to help feel upbeat. Research suggests that music stimulates the body's natural "feel good" chemicals (opiates and endorphins). This stimulation results in improved blood flow, blood pressure, pulse rate, breathing, and posture changes. Music or sound therapy has been used to treat disorders such as stress, grief, depression, schizophrenia, and autism in children, and to diagnose mental health needs.

Read More

Hobbies for the Elderly to Maintain Mental Health

Elderly people respond to mental health differently than younger people. They are prone to developing more psychological disorders and can cope less effectively to triggering factors of mental impairments.

Let's first take a look at how an old person lives-

Retiring could be one of the most enjoyable but dreaded years in the life of a person. Anybody who no longer has definite roles to take apart from being an older member of the society begins to question their own importance, sometimes even existence. Since a retired person no longer holds a job, he is free to use his time on any activity he chooses. The problem though is that he cannot establish a certain activity that would make life for him enjoyable for the rest of his life. He also feels that he is no longer important since his children who used to depend on him have already taken up their own lives, sometimes living him without company.

On most cases, people who are old are alone. They sulk into life without purpose, without direction, without the sense of worth. Slowly, they will have experiences that would negatively affect their mental health. They then become depressed, lonely and more prone to developing psychological disorders. Since the society give too little importance to the elderly people, it tends to disregard them. Until they become debilitated enough due to sickness, disorders and old age that the society begins to notice them. But then, by that time, it is already too late.

The usual life of the elderly is marked by the lack of support that will introduce them to activities that will revitalize their lives. They can no longer put up with their old activities since their bodies, by nature, are deteriorated enough to hinder them from moving and performing like they did before. However, old age should not always be like this. Old people should try to look for newer activities in their lives that would make the rest of their days enjoyable and worthwhile.

They say "you cannot teach old dog new tricks". This is a myth. An old person who is willing to learn will learn by all means regardless if his body or his mind limits him. Here are some of the hobbies that an elderly could do to increase his mental health:

Keeping your brain active will make you feel healthy

For some people, the mere fact that they are thinking and can still conceptualize thoughts drive them to be crazy about life. It is never too late to learn to write and for people who used to enjoy writing during their younger years, it is never too late to bring back their attitude towards literature.

Reading could also be a fun activity that would easily let the time pass. Old people who enjoy reading are apparently happier than those who sat idly on their couches throughout the day.

The music of your life

Your fingers may not have the same dexterity they had when you were younger but this doesn’t mean that you can no longer enjoy music. You can learn to play music instruments. The piano, for example, requires too little energy output but the internal satisfaction it provides is high. Also, listening to music could make you think of familiar thoughts that would drive you through the memory lane. This would allow you to meditate on your life. For most people, knowing the fact that they have lived their life well make them satisfied and at peace with themselves. Internal peace is central to achieving the right balance in life.

Pick up your old hobbies

Did you enjoy gardening as a kid or collecting things as a teenager? You can bring back those old hobbies. After all, you already have enough investments in the past that it would no longer be hard for you to start again.

It is often the case of losing the zest for life when one gets old. But through regaining your appetite for life through hobbies for elderly, you might find again that life is worth living for.

Read More

Caffeine in Green Tea

How true is it that one disadvantage of green tea is insomnia because of its caffeine content? You may put it as a “disadvantage” but people who works on a night shift will disagree. True, green tea contains caffeine but compared to coffee and other tea, it has a lesser level but has a very incredible amount of antioxidants.

What is caffeine?

It is a kind of drug that acts as a stimuli that basically stimulates the central nervous system and the heart. A person having caffeine in his system can instantly increase his blood pressure but not having any evidence of definitive long-term effects in the blood pressure itself. Long term increase of blood pressure are still taking excessive amounts of green tea.

Caffeine content in green tea stays unless it is decaffeinated. According to studies, green tea is more likely to be higher than coffee but with preparation, a person can greatly reduce the caffeine that the body takes in. how? Through the infusion length of hot water and how many times you have used the leaves.

Surprisingly, caffeine in green tea is more beneficial than the caffeine taken from coffee. It works through the body in a slighter difference than coffee. Aside from caffeine, green tea has other constituents that work perfectly with caffeine namely vitamins, oils and tannin.

Caffeine difference

As mentioned, compared to coffee, the caffeine content in green tea can have a different approach in the human body. By its own substance, it doesn’t have to trigger increase heart rate and blood pressure unlike what caffeine can instantly do. Typically, green tea is more applicable to drink for those who wanted to lose weight but are caffeine sensitive.

Lose weight with caffeine
Base on studies, caffeine has the capacity to increase metabolism inside the body which results to helping out the body in burning excess calories. Caffeine content in green tea is undoubtedly more prominent than other beverages but you can lessen it based on the kind of green tea that you have chosen to drink. Contrary to what other people know, oxidation doesn’t have the capacity to raise the caffeine content in the body. Truth is, some studies were made and is found out that the longer the oxidation is, the lower the content of caffeine will be present.

Green tea without caffeine
For medicinal purposes, green tea is sometimes made caffeine free. Green tea that is decaffeinated has a more pleasant taste and has an impressive antioxidant activity. It is very effective in the prevention and even treatment of cancer, decreasing cholesterol levels, collagen formation, decreasing triglyceride levels and preventing arteriosclerosis.

Therefore, with caffeine present in green tea, it can decrease the metabolic processes going significantly inside our body but not having any effect on blood pressure and heart rate.

Caffeine content

Compared to the caffeine found in black tea, green tea is only composed by the half of it. And compared to coffee, green tea only has quarter amounts thus, making it the perfect beverage you can include in your meals. But there are precautions that should be followed. One which is the moderate amount of green tea that should be consumed within a day. It should only be at least 4 cups. More than that will generate negative reactions that is felt inside the body.

The introduction of decaffeinated supplementary green tea, benefits were further provided ruling out any unwanted effects.

Read More