Green Tea: Miracle Infusion?

First cultivated in China as long as 5000 years ago, today tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, second only to water. Enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people around the world, there has been a great deal of research surrounding the effects of drinking this steaming hot infusion, and  studies suggest that drinking green tea offers many health benefits.

The three main varieties of tea (Camellia  sinesis) are black tea, oolong tea and green tea, and the differences lie in the processing of the leaves. Green tea is made from unfermented tea leaves, and contains the highest concentration of powerful antioxidants called polyphenols. Antioxidants are agents that combat free-radicals, damaging compounds in the body that alter cells, damage DNA, and cause cell death. Many scientists believe free radicals play a major role in aging and the development of many serious health problems, including cancer and heart disease.

Check out the diseases and health problems that drinking green tea can help fight.

Kick the Can(ned Foods)

If you think you’re safe from the effects of BPA (Bisphenol A) because you tossed your old Nalgene bottle and traded it in for a newer, toxin-free model, think again.

BPA Gets the Boot…. Kind Of

It’s been a few years since BPA was flagged as a potentially toxic, hormone-disrupting chemical, prompting many retailers to withdraw products containing polycarbonate plastics containing BPA. In a sweeping response to consumer concern of BPA’s potential endocrine-disrupting effects on infants and young children — including adverse negative developmental and neurological effects — and its association with obesity and diabetes in adults, manufacturers pulled plastic baby bottles containing BPA, and its use in baby bottles was officially banned  in the European Union and Canada.

In 2010, a report from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) amplified these concerns regarding exposure of fetuses, infants and young children, and in that same year, Canada became the first country to outright declare BPA a toxic substance.

But that doesn’t mean you won’t find it in a grocery store near you. Or in the linings of the canned goods in your kitchen. Or in your body.

Learn how to protect your family from the potential harmful health effects of BPA.

6 Steps to Softer Lips

Dry, cracked or sore lips are more than just a beauty blunder. In addition to detracting from an otherwise healthy complexion, chapped lips can also interfere with talking, smiling, eating and kissing comfortably.

Lip skin is unlike skin anywhere else on the body: it’s is exceptionally thin (revealing the capillaries below creating a rosy hue) and has no oil glands (skin’s natural barrier), making the lips especially delicate and prone to dryness and chapping.

Although anyone can find themselves with dry lips from time to time, there are specific things you can do to avoid the irritating condition.

Soften your lips for a more kissable pout with six easy steps!

Bottled Water vs Tap Water

The cost of bottled water is obviously higher than the water running from your tap, but most consumers can’t tell the difference when it comes to taste. In fact, many bottlers simply use reprocessed water from municipal water supplies, with reprocessed water making up as much as 40 percent of the bottled water market.

For example, Pepsi’s Aquafina and Coca Cola’s Dasani bottled waters use artistic packaging to give the impression that they come from crystal clear mountain springs, instead of bottled at plants using processed water from municipal sources.

The Importance of Safe Drinking Water

The human body is made up of about 70 percent water, and we need to continuously consume water to keep our systems healthy, but do our bodies know the difference between tap and bottled water?

Is Tap Water Safe to Drink?

Tap water in Canada is known to be fairly safe to drink and clean in comparison to other countries. However, water quality does vary based on time of year and location, and can change on a daily basis. According to Arthur von Wiesenberger (creator of Bottled Water Web) , one problem associated with tap water is the use of chlorination. In his article Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Bottled Water, von Wiesenberger explains that tap water containing chlorination kills bacteria but can produce trihalomethanes, which are found to be carcinogenic.

Federal regulatory agencies in Canada determine the standard for a chemical in drinking water based on “reasonable risk”, whereby if one million people drank water for a period of seventy years with the amount of chemical in it equal to the standard, one person would probably get cancer from the drinking water — what my regional water commission considers “a very small risk”.

Is Bottled Water Safe to Drink?

On the other side of the spectrum, we are faced with the choice of many varieties of bottled water that claim to contain minerals to enhance one’s health. Nonetheless, this seemingly pure alternative to tap water also has repercussions. Bottles that have been scratched or that are exposed to heat can cause the plastic to leach chemicals like phthalates and bisphenol-AAlso called BPA. In 2010, a report from the United States FDA raised concerns regarding exposure of fetuses, infants and young children to BPA. In September of that year Canada became the first country to declare BPA as a toxic substance. BPA is now banned for use in baby bottles in the European Union and in Canada. ; these are also chemicals that have been linked to cancer, early puberty, neurological problems, obesity and birth defects in humans.

TreeHugger touts the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for tap water as being more stringent than the Food and Drug Administration’s standards for bottled water, mounting another safety strike against drinking bottled water in the United States.

Bottled Water and the Environment

The effects bottled water has on the environment are astounding. Imported water, for example, takes a particularly damaging toll on our world. Bottled water from places like Fiji or the Swiss Alps has thousands of miles to travel to reach consumers in North America. The planes, trains, automobiles and ships used to transport bottled water from far off locales use millions of gallons of gas each day.

Another bleak fact is that, despite the availability of recycling bins, nearly 90 percent of empty water bottles end up in the trash — not the blue bins — resulting in junk heaps filled with buried water bottles that can take up to one thousand years to biodegrade.

The Economics of Bottled Water

“Bottled water has experienced double digit growth world-wide over the past decade. This is a global phenomenon unlikely to abate in the foreseeable future,” says Henry R. Hidell, author of Bottled Water: What Makes It Work?

“Private industry players such as Nestle, Coke, Pepsi, and Danone have gained a foothold in Asia, Africa, and many other markets.” Hidell explains that bottled water sales are at an all time high in both Canada and the United States and this rapid economic growth shows no sign of slowing down. Consumers are being bombarded with options ranging from nutrient-added, mineral, sparkling, and flavored water to choose from.

A Better Option for Safe Drinking Water: In-Home Water Filtration

So, if both tap and bottled water have the potentially negative side effects, what do we do to resource clean, sustainable, and economically affordable water?

An alternative option to drinking bottled water or tap water “straight up” is to combine easy home water filters with portable stainless steel, or glass containers. Spending money on faucet, under-counter or pitcher filters as opposed to bottles of water will save consumers an enormous amount of money each year, while sparing the environment from further damage.

Of course, in the end, the choice is up to the consumer. Knowing all the facts is key to making an educated decision on water consumption. Read labels closely to uncover exactly goes into the processing of your favorite bottled water and compare it to your region’s filtering system and added in-home filtration accessories. Inevitably, we must face the facts that bottled water is environmentally hazardous as well as expensive.

Clean and safe drinking water should be available to all persons, but looking beyond the fancy labels and slickly-designed bottles may lead us to a truth that is hard to swallow.

The Raw Food Diet

Frustrated with excess weight, highly processed, chemical-laden foods, and food sensitivities, many women are setting goals to lose weight, detox and get healthy.  With its focus on whole, unprocessed nutrition and optimal health, some people are turning to the Raw Food Diet as a way to lose weight, energize their bodies, and reduce their environmental footprint.

What Can You Eat on a Raw Food Diet?

So, you can’t cook your food; but what can you eat? Raw foodists may eat all fruits, vegetables, sprouts, nuts, seeds, grains, sea vegetables and other unprocessed organic or natural foods. The raw food diet is vegan, which means that all animal and dairy products are a no-no.

To drink, raw foodists consume such liquids as purified water (not tap), freshly-made juices, and milks made from almonds and coconut. To avoid pesticides and herbicides, as well as to consume food with higher nutritional value, raw foodists aim to eat all organic food, as local (or wild) as possible.

Is Cooking Food Really Such a Crime?

No, it isn’t, but raw foodists believe that heating food above 115 degrees F (45 Celsius) and eating foods which need to be cooked (such as meats and animal products) have negative impacts on the human body and the environment.

Cooking Food Destroys Enzymes

The cooking process kills enzymes naturally present in raw foods which are necessary to properly digest food. Consequently, your body is forced to exert additional energy manufacturing its own enzymes to digest food, which can make you feel tired and sluggish after eating a cooked meal. The enzymes produced by your digestive tract are not as efficient as the ones present in raw food, which means that typically food is not adequately digested; this can lead to food sitting undigested and rotting in your intestines, causing gas, indigestion, and potentially leaving you open to attack from harmful parasitesThe issue of parasites is a tricky one when considering eating only raw food, since cooking kills many parasites and harmful bacteria. Raw foodists practice strict food hygiene and refrigeration to avoid contracting parasites or food poisoning..

Cooked Food is More Acidic

Cooking food also changes the pH of food, making it more acidic. Ideally humans should eat more alkaline foods since an acidic body may be more susceptible to disease.

Raw Food Can Be More Nutritious

Raw foodists also believe that cooking food destroys many important vitamins present in raw foods and can make minerals more difficult to absorb. However, some nutrients such as the antioxidant lycopeneLycopene is a non-essential phytochemical found in tomatoes and other red fruits and vegetables, such as red carrots, watermelons and papayas (but not strawberries or cherries), which has high antioxidant power and may reduce the risk of developing cancer. found in tomatoes actually increases in concentration the more you cook and process tomatoes.

The Life Force of Food

Some people who adopt a raw food diet do so for philosophical reasons, believing that cooked food is dead food, robbed of its life force, which in turn leaves the consumer feeling heavy and tired. By contrast, they believe that raw food has vital energy which is conveyed onto the person who eats it.

Preparing Raw Food

Raw foodists prepare their food using techniques such as soaking seeds, grains and beans so that they sprout and become “living,” juicing fruit and vegetables, soaking nuts and dried fruit, blending, and dehydrating food.

Benefits of Eating Raw Food

Raw foodists say they experience physical and mental improvements such as increased energy levels and feeling less tired, better digestion, weight loss, detoxification, enhanced cognitive function, a strengthened immune system and a clearer complexion. And a raw food diet has little to no saturated fats, is low in sodium, and high in potassium and fiber.

Raw Food for the Planet

In terms of global impact, raw foodists contribute to a cleaner world since they choose to eat food that is not processed, sprayed with herbicides, pesticides or genetically modified.

The Union of Concerned Scientists lists meat-eating as the second-biggest environmental hazard facing the Earth, second behind fossil-fuel vehicles. Because the raw food diet is vegan vegetarian, raw foodists do not rely on the vast food, water and land resources dedicated to raising, feeding and slaughtering animals for food. And then there’s the animal waste; according to the Environmental Protection Agency, raising animals for food is the world’s number one source of water pollution.

The Raw Food Diet Review

Registered dietitian Laurie Barker Jackman says sticking to a raw food diet is a ton of work. She also says followers of this diet could be protein deficient and that it’s easy to lack nutrients such as calcium, iron and vitamin B12 in such a restrictive diet, so it’s important to get
high quality supplements, and always consult a dietitian, nutritionist or medical professional before beginning a diet as restricted as vegetarian, vegan or raw food diets.

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Grow Stronger, Longer Hair

Your physical and emotional health have an impact on the quality of the hair you grow, and professional hair stylist Dorothe Charles says there are two main things you can do to grow stronger, longer hair:  eat a nutritionally balanced diet and cut the stress out of your life.

“People come to me saying, ‘I’m stressed, I work two jobs, have a marriage that’s breaking up, and I have children who are driving me crazy,’” says  Dorothe. ”They never believe that this will have an impact on their hair. It does!”

If for vanity’s sake alone, make an effort to detox and de-stress your life.

Nutrition & Vitamins to Improve Hair Growth

Vitamins for Hair Growth

Exercising, eating a balanced diet and taking multi-vitamins are all essential to helping your body to grow healthier hair. If you’re looking for a supplement designed specifically with growing stronger, longer hair in mind, check out Philip Kingsley PK4 Hair Dietry Supplement, fortified with amino acidsAmino acids are the building blocks of the protein that hair is made up of, called Keratin. PK4 Hair enhances the production of Keratin. that are particularly beneficial to hair.

Hair Fortifying Foods

In addition to other health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids and B-vitamins, Dorothe suggests that people should eat foods rich in these nutrients to grow fortified hair. Specifically, she advises people to a healthy dose of nuts, fish, and green vegetables, “”I find a lot of people don’t eat enough fish or nuts. They have misconceptions about nuts and avocados being too fatty — those are the good fats that we need!”

Also, she prescribes whole wheat and other foods rich in fiber because they help the body flush out toxins, which can manifest themselves in unhealthy hair.

Can You Make Your Hair Grow Faster?

Human hair grows at an average rate of about half a millimeter per day, or about half an inch every month. Your hair will grow at its own constant rate, which varies for everyone, since genetically everyone is different.

“Some people produce growth, but it ends up breaking, so it seems like their hair is not growing at all,” Dorothe explains. “In terms of patch breakage, most of the time I see hair breaking off in the back of the scalp, the temples, the center, or even at the hairline. That’s from producing poor quality growth due to stress and a lack of nourishment in your body.”

Prevent Hair Breakage

If you are stressed or malnourished, you will grow hair that is more delicate, brittle and dry. When it comes to general styling care, people with chemically processed, texturized or relaxed hair should avoid tying their hair back in an oh-so-easy ponytail, as the tension and stress induces hair breakage. Wrapping shorter styles at night keeps hair smooth and straight, thus reducing the amount of (damaging) heat styling necessary, while also lessening the likelihood of tangles and other wear and tear.

Exercise & Scalp Stimulation Help Make Hair Strong

As with the rest of our bodies, our scalps also need a good workout. This can be achieved along with regular forms of exercise which increase your overall blood circulation, thus delivering extra blood and nourishment to the scalp as well.

“Stimulation is the key to adding a bit more to your natural rate of growth. Stimulating your scalp by brushing very often, massaging and rotating your scalp in circular motions.” Dorothe admits the increased growth will not be drastic, but it adds up over time.

John Masters Organics Deep Scalp Follicle Treatment & Volumizer for Thinning Hair is a leave-in solution that promotes healthy hair growth by improving the condition of your scalp.  This unique combination of organic herbs and essential oils work to improve nutrient intake, stimulate scalp circulation, and balance sebum production for optimal scalp and hair growth.

Keeping Your Hair Trimmed Trims Stress

Ever feel as though your hair dresser just loves the sound of his or her scissors snipping away at your hair? They’re just trying to rid you of excess stress, really!

“The constant, ongoing battle I have with clients is about trimming. I am really doing it for the clients; there’s really no self-interest involved. I’m trying to do something positive for them.

“As far as trims are concerned, this is how it works: Once it gets to a certain age, our hair seems like it gets brittle and dry, and starts to split. If you have four year-old hair on your head that’s never been trimmed, at least six months of that has to go. The older the hair, the more tarnished it is.”

People should place emphasis on moisturizing and protecting their ends from damage. Specially formulated to repair damaged ends, Phytokeratine reparative serum for split ends acts like a capillary bandage for your hair, and helps repair the internal structure of weakened, damaged hair.

In addition to treating the ends with moisture, Dorothe insists that trimming away dead, straggly ends is essential, “That’s why your diet and health are so important, because if four years ago you had a traumatic experience, it’s all up in your hair!”

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Natural Stress Relief

So many of us today are over-stressed and anxious as a result of our busy, demanding modern lives. All this stress is toxic!

Not only does it have negative implications on our mental health, but stress also has physiological effects, causing our bodies to be under constant attack from cortisol, the hormone our body produces in response to stress.

You see, we humans were designed to experience only short, transient exposure to acute stresses during “fight or flight” events: such as chasing down tigers or running from a herd of woolly mammoths.

And small bursts of cortisol can be good: a surge of cortisol can result in a quick burst of energy for survival reasons, increased cognitive function, decreased sensitivity to pain, and boosts in immunity.

Stress Overload is Bad for Your Health

But we modern humans are exposed to so many different types of stress so much of the time that we live our lives “on edge” and are consistently pumping heaps of this stress hormone. And in the case of cortisol, if a little is good, a lot is not. High, prolonged levels of cortisol in the bloodstream can have the negative effects of:

• Impaired cognitive function: slower thinking, reduced ability to learn & memory problems
• Decreased muscle tissue and bone density
• High blood pressure
• Suppressed thyroid function
• Blood sugar imbalances
• Reduced immunity and ability to heal wounds
• Increased abdominal fat (which may put individuals at risk for cardiovascular disease)

Relax! It’s Good For You

To maintain optimal health, it is critical that the stress response is followed and countered by a necessary relaxation responseThe relaxation response decreases muscle tension, lowers heart rate and blood pressure, induces a deeper breathing pattern, calms the belly and digestion, and generally brings about a peaceful, content mood..

Simple Ways to Reduce Stress

Exercise is one of several ways that we can manage our stress in a healthy way, and naturally induce the relaxation response. Dancing specifically is a fantastic, healthy way to let go of stress, literally shake off the worries and cares of the day (if only for 60 minutes), giving your body and mind the much-needed break from the stresses we all have in life: release your inhibitions and lose yourself in the movements and music of a night out on the town or in an exercise fitness class or program such as a belly dance class or Zumba Fitness.

Plus, studies have shown that exercise releases endorphins (the body’s natural pain relievers) in the brain, giving you a sense of euphoria. So, get moving to keep your body and mind fit, and that added totally natural, totally safe moment of bliss.

Other things you can to to de-stress include:

• Getting enough sleep: aim for 8 hours per night
• Eat a healthy diet with plenty of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, protein and healthy fats
• Meditation, relaxation or breathing exercises
• Get some green: get out in nature to listen to the birds, feel small next to a giant tree, and breath in fresh air

Make Time For Yourself

If somebody asks you what you’re doing when you’re headed out for a hike, or doing 60 seconds of deep breathing at your desk, tell them you’re activating your parasympathetic (relaxation) response. That should buy you a few more seconds of “me” time.

Metabolism Boosting Foods

Need to lose weight and tired of dieting? Learn how to increase your metabolism, burn fat and lose weight by these healthy, fat-burning foods.

 

Eating the Right Foods to Increase Your Metabolism

Everyone knows that exercise is an excellent way to increase your metabolism and burn excess fat. What most people don’t know is that you can also stay in shape by eating certain foods which help to burn away unwanted fat and ramp up your metabolism.

Taking advantage of the body-slimming side-effects of certain foods is all matter of balance; consuming a diet with the proper amounts of carbohydrates, protein and fat.

Weight Loss, Weight Gain & Your Metabolism

Gaining a basic understanding of your metabolism and how your body uses food for fuel will allow you to navigate wisely through the endless stream of fad-diets toward healthy nutritional and lifestyle habits that work for you in the long term.

Step outside of yourself for a moment (away from judging how you look and what you just ate) and think of your body as a machine, a highly sophisticated group of inter-related systems with inputs and outputs that are balanced in their healthy state. When any one of our systems becomes imbalanced the entire human machine experiences stress and will eventually malfunction, which may result in greater susceptibility to injuries and (eventually) the development of disease.

Metabolism consists of all the chemical reactions in the body that are responsible for producing energy and growth. Metabolism consists of two types of processes, those which release energy (fat-burning) and those which store energy (fat-forming).

Storing Energy & Fat

Anabolic processes are those which build complex molecules from simpler ones for the storage of energy; in simple terms, anabolic processes promote the storage of fat (the human body’s most efficient form of stored energy).

Releasing Energy by Burning Fat

Catabolic processes are those which break down complex molecules into simpler ones for the release and use of energy – in simple terms, catabolic processes help burn fat to provide your body with a source of accessible fuel.

On a macro scale, eating is anabolic and exercise is catabolic — the healthy body keeps both types of metabolic processes in balance.

Weight Control & Blood Sugar

Blood sugar regulation is a critical factor when balancing our metabolic processes since sugar is the most accessible form of energy for immediate use by human body. Energy is used (calories are burned) for obvious large expenditures such as an hour at the gym, but energy is also required to perform all of our body’s chemical reactions as well as maintenance, growth and repair.

In a healthy, balanced metabolism, energy introduced into the system equals energy expended, resulting in a steady weight and normal quantities of body fat. Your blood sugar (glucose) level is a critical factor in metabolic (and therefore weight) control, and will affect not only your energy levels, but also your appetite, cravings and general mood.

How to Lose Weight

Food is delicious, as well as socially and culturally significant, however when managing one’s weight, it helps to think of food as energy. When you consume more energy (food) than your body expends, the excess energy is stored by anabolic processes as body fat.

Body Fat Will Not Be Burned When Blood Sugar Levels Are High

The body will not burn fat stores as long as blood sugar levels remain high; body fat is broken down by the body only as a last resort. But remember, we’re striving for balance – having blood sugar levels that are too low is also very unhealthy and dangerous, as the body lacks sufficient energy to function properly, especially once fat stores have been depleted. Balancing blood sugar levels allows the body to burn up calories & use energy more effectively.

Fat-Burning Foods

What is so special about these fat-burning foods which are said to make our bodies work quicker and burn up fat?

Complex carbohydrates require your body to break them down (as opposed to simple sugar and refined foods), causing sugar to be released into the bloodstream more slowly, reducing spikes (and subsequent dips) in energy, and resulting in a longer-lasting source of energy. Foods high in fiber also help normalize blood sugar levels, since they cause your body to absorb less sugar.

15 Fat-Burning Foods:

• Almonds
• Apples
• Chick Peas
• Cottage Cheese
• Kidney Beans
• Lean Chicken
• Lentils
• Oranges
• Porridge, Oats & Oat Cakes
• Pumpernickel & Whole Grain Bread
• Soy Beans
• Sunflower Seeds
• Tuna
• Tofu
• Whole Grain Pasta

Eating these foods doesn’t mean you can eat whatever you want; but as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle they will help you convert your body into a more efficient, more energetic machine!