types of tea

6 Healthy “Types of Tea”	It’s the world’s most popular drink, next to water—and it’s steeped in health benefits. Here, what six top brews can do for you. By Amanda Pressner
1 Black Tea The scoop: Black tea is the most common variety and accounts for about 75 percent of global tea consumption. Like many of the teas here, it’s made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant, which are typically rolled and fermented, then dried and crushed. Black tea has a slightly bitter flavor and contains the most caffeine—about 40 milligrams per cup. (A cup of coffee has 50 to 100.) Health benefits: Black tea has high concentrations of the antioxidant compounds known as the aflavins and the arubigins, which have been linked to lower levels of cholesterol, says Rebecca Baer, a registered dietitian in New York City. Research has shown that people who drink three or more cups of black tea daily may cut their risk of stroke by 21 percent.	2 Green Tea The scoop: Green tea has a more delicate flavor than black. The leaves are dried and heat-treated soon after they’re picked, which stops the fermentation process. It contains about 25 milligrams of caffeine per cup. Health benefits: Green tea is full of antioxidants called catechins; a subgroup known as EGCG may ward off everything from cancer to heart disease, says Karen Collins, a registered dietitian and a nutrition adviser at the American Institute for Cancer Research, in Washington, D.C. One study found that each daily cup of green tea consumed may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease by 10 percent.
3 Oolong Tea The scoop: Oolong is similar to black tea, but it’s fermented for a shorter time, which gives it a richer taste. It contains about 30 milligrams of caffeine per cup. Health benefits: It may aid in weight loss. “Oolong activates an enzyme responsible for dissolving triglycerides, the form of dietary fat that’s stored in fat cells,” says Baer. One study showed that women who drank oolong tea burned slightly more calories over a two-hour period than those who drank only water.	4 White Tea The scoop: These leaves are picked when they’re very young, so white tea has a much milder flavor than any other variety, not to mention less caffeine—about 15 milligrams per cup. Loose tea may also contain more antioxidants than tea in bags, because the leaves are less processed.   Health benefits: White tea is another health multitasker. It offers the same potential cardiovascular and cancer-fighting benefits as other teas, says Joe Simrany, president of the Tea Association of the USA, in New York City. And some research suggests that it may offer benefits to people with diabetes. An animal study published in the journal Phytomedicine found that consuming white tea resulted in improved glucose tolerance and a reduction in LDL cholesterol. Some experts believe that this may eventually have implications for humans.
5 Flavored Tea The scoop: In this category, aromatic extras, such as cinnamon, orange peel, and lavender, are paired with black, green, or white tea leaves. Health benefits: Flavored teas have the same levels of antioxidants and the same health benefits as unflavored ones. Those flavored with superfruits, such as blueberries, may contain even more antioxidants, says Lisa Boalt Richardson, an Atlanta-based tea expert and the author of The World in Your Teacup ($18.24, amazon.com). But skip the sweetened varieties in bottles: You’re better off without that extra sugar, says Baer, who also cautions that flavored tea drinks are often watered down. “Some have such a low amount of antioxidants that you would have to drink 20 bottles to get the amount you would in a single brewed cup,” she says. One good antioxidant-rich, low-sugar bottled brand: Honest Tea.	6 Herbal Tea The scoop: Technically, herbal teas are not teas at all—they’re usually some combination of dried fruits, flowers, and herbs. Herbal varieties contain no caffeine. Avoid herbal weight-loss teas, which may contain dangerous laxatives. Health benefits: There has been less research on herbal blends than on traditional teas, but one study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that drinking three cups of hibiscus tea daily could help lower blood pressure in people with hypertension. And evidence suggests that chamomile tea may promote sleep and that peppermint tea may calm the stomach.

fat loss tip 9

How To Repair A Damaged Metabolism

By Tom Venuto

-If you've caused metabolic damage as a result of following starvation diets or losing weight too rapidly in the past, it can be extremely difficult to achieve any further fat loss at all. The good news is, metabolic damage can be repaired. All it takes is the right combination of metabolism stimulating exercise and metabolism stimulating nutrition (NOT just a diet), all done consistently over time.

-The big irony is that most of the diet programs that claim to help you get rid of excess weight, only end up making it harder for you in the long run because they use harsh metabolism-decreasing diets and not enough exercise (almost never any weight training).

-It may take a little longer if you have really messed things up with severe starvation dieting in the past, especially if you've lost a lot of lean body mass, but it is never hopeless. Anyone can increase their metabolism.

-Most people get an almost immediate boost in metabolic rate when they start the Burn The Fat program. However, the results are not going to be "overnight." Give it a little time...

-Within 3 weeks your metabolism will already be more efficient. Within 6-8 weeks, it's burning hot. Give me 12 weeks of consistent diligent effort, sticking with all the metabolism boosting strategies I teach, and your metabolism really will become like a turbo charged engine, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that.

-What’s most important for upping your metabolism is CONSISTENCY in applying the Burn The Fat nutrition and training principles every single day.

-That Includes:

1.    Meal Frequency: eat 5-6 small meals per day	2.        Meal Timing: eat approximately every 3 hours, with a substantial breakfast and a substantial post workout meal.	3.        Sufficient Caloric Intake: maintain a small calorie deficit and avoid starvation-level diets (suggested safe levels for fat loss: 2100-2500 calories per day for men, 1400-1800 calories per day for women; adjust as needed)
4.   Food Choices: Select natural, unprocessed foods with high thermic effect (lean proteins like chicken, turkey, egg whites and fish are highly thermic, as are all green vegetables, salad vegetables and other fibrous carbs)	5.        Cardio Training: Push up the intensity a bit if you really want to get a metabolic boost. Walking and low intensity cardio is fine, but higher intensity is more metabolism-stimulating	6.       Weight Training: The basic exercises that include the largest muscle groups or even call into play the entire body as a unit (squats, front squats, split squats, deadlifts, stiff legged deadlifts, overhead presses, all kinds of rows and core-activation exercises) will have a much greater metabolism stimulating effect than isolation exercises (concentration curls, calf raises, etc)

 

-The weight training is extremely important in cases of "metabolic damage" because this is the stimulus to keep the muscle you have and begin rebuilding new muscle tissue, which is the engine that drives your metabolism.

-The men don't usually have a problem with the weight training, but I still hear women say they don't want to lift weights as part of their fat loss programs. Well, people who wont lift weights can expect a very, very long metabolism "repair process" if they achieve it at all.

-CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY.

-Nothing will undermine the "re-building" of your metabolism like inconsistency. If you stop and start, or skip meals and workouts often, you will not even get off the ground.

-After your metabolism is back up where it should be, it takes continued "stoking" of the metabolic furnace to keep it there. Once you get your metabolic engine running, you've got to keep feeding it fuel or the fire will die down.

-Picture an old fashioned wood burning stove...

-Imagine you're in a cabin up in the mountains in the winter. It's cold in there and you want to keep the cabin warm. Can you achieve this by feeding the fire once or twice per day? Nope. Not enough fuel to burn, so not much heat is generated.

-What if you just toss an entire pile of wood in the stove all at once? Will that work? Nope. Lots of fuel, but can't all be used at once... it just smothers the fire and the excess just sits there.

-How about if you throw some tissue paper or crumpled newspaper in the stove, will that work? Nope - too quickly burning.

-You have to keep putting small amounts of wood (the right type of fuel) on the fire at regular intervals or the fire burns out.

-It's also difficult to get the fire lit again. In the case of metabolism, it's like going through that initial few weeks of overcoming inertia all over again.

-Your goal is to get your metabolism burning hot and keep it burning and this cannot be achieved by missing meals, missing workouts or with sporadic, infrequent training.

-I have only seen a handful of cases where all these things were done properly and there was still a longer "repair" process.

-For example, one case was former ballet dancer. At 5' 5", she was previously 110 lbs and had increased to about 145 or so. She didn’t want to reach her previous 110, but find a happy medium of about 125 lbs.

-I figured with 20 lbs to cut, this would be a simple and predictable process, but she had a challenging time (and I didn't know why at first).

-I later found out that she had been anorexic and bulimic for many years. This had caused a lot of damage, and although she did reach her goal, it took about twice as long as we had anticipated.

-The good news is, even in this extreme case, the same nutrition and training principles worked! It just took a little longer. And by the way her program included some serious training with free weights and she ate a lot more (clean) food than she had ever eaten before. No "starvation!"

-That’s the power of burning the fat and feeding the muscles... Trying to starve the fat with crash diets is what causes the metabolic damage in the first place!

-If you’re interested in the healthy, sensible way to take off the fat, while keeping all your muscle and actually increasing your metabolism in the process, then my Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle program can teach you how. No gimmicks or false promises. Just the truth - you have to work at it and you have to be patient. Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.

TOM VENUTO
Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

TOM VENUTO is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.

fat loss tip 8

The Double-Edged Sword of “Healthy” Fast Food

By Tom Venuto

-What’s on the menu at the big fast food chains lately? Oddly enough, the answer is… “health food!” Even more incongruous, many are marketing their food for weight loss. Healthy weight loss food at Taco Bell and McDonalds? Is this a noble move to be applauded, is it a big corporate money grab, or is it a double edged sword?

-Remember Jared Fogle, the Subway guy? He lost 245 pounds while eating at Subway regularly. He simply picked the lower calorie menu items. Seeing an opportunity, the local store owner pitched Subway corporate with an idea. ---Before long, Jared was the company spokesperson in their nationwide advertising campaigns which became known as The Subway Diet.

-Sales doubled to 8.2 billion. How much the increase came from the weight loss ads is unknown, but there’s little doubt that using weight loss as a marketing platform was a boon for the sandwich maker. Other fast food chains picked up the weight loss torch where Subway left off.

-The latest is the Taco Bell Drive through diet, with their own skinny spokesperson: Christine! The ads, which are admittedly conservative, perhaps due to more stringent FTC laws, say Christine lost 54 lbs over 2 years by reducing her calories to 1250 a day, and choosing Taco Bell’s new lower calorie “Fresco” items.

-These include “7 diet items with 150 to 240 calories and under 9 grams of fat.” For example, there’s a chicken soft taco with only 170 calories and 4 grams of fat.

-For people who refuse to give up eating at fast food restaurants, this is arguably a positive thing. Take my brother for example, He’s not a total junk food junkie, but left to his own devices, he WILL make a beeline to Taco Bell and McDonalds.

-I went to McDonalds with him a few months ago (I was dragged there), and he was about to order a bacon cheeseburger. I glanced at the menu and said, “That’s 790 calories!” I glanced down at his belly then continued, “Look, they have chicken wraps. Why don’t you have one of those?” Without questioning me, he agreed, apparently happy to get any McDonalds fix.

-Right there at the counter they had the nutrition information sheets:

-McDonald’s honey mustard grilled chicken wrap: 260 calories, 9 grams fat, 27 grams of carbs, 18 grams of protein.

-That saved him 530 calories. Am I happy there was something with only 260 calories on the menu? Absolutely. Do I applaud the fast food restaurants for offering lower calorie choices? You bet. But the big question is: are these really “healthy choices?”

-A few journalists and bloggers recently answered, “These fast food diet items are NOT healthy, they’re only ‘healthi-ER.’”

-I think they’re both mistaken. I think this food is not healthy nor is it healthier. It’s only lower in calories. If you eat lower calorie food, that can help you lose weight and if you lose weight, that can improve your health. But what if your definition of healthy food includes nutrition, nutrient density and absence of artificial ingredients?

-Let’s take a look at that very low calorie chicken wrap. Is it really healthier just because it’s got 1/3 the calories of a bacon cheeseburger?

-Here’s the ingredients straight from McDonald’s website:

-McDonald’s Grilled Chicken Breast Filet (wrap):

Chicken breast filets with rib meat, water, seasoning (salt, sugar, food starch-modified, maltodextrin, spices, dextrose, autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed [corn gluten, soy, wheat gluten] proteins, garlic powder, paprika, chicken fat, chicken broth, natural flavors (plant and animal source), caramel color, polysorbate 80, xanthan gum, onion powder, extractives of paprika), modified potato starch, and sodium phosphates.

CONTAINS: SOY AND WHEAT. Prepared with Liquid Margarine: Liquid soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, soy lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservative), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color). (and don’t forget the 800 mg of sodium).

-HOLY CRAP! Shouldn’t chicken breast be just one ingredient… chicken breast?

-This is not food. It’s more like what author Michael Pollan would call an “edible food-like substance.”

-What about the honey mustard sauce? The first ingredient after water is… SUGAR!

-The flour tortilla ingredients? Enriched bleached wheat flour, also made with vegetable shortening (may contain one or more of the following: hydrogenated soybean oil, soybean oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, hydrogenated cottonseed oil with mono- and diglycerides added), contains 2% or less of the following: sugar, leavening (sodium aluminum sulfate, calcium sulfate, sodium phosphate, baking soda, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate), salt, wheat gluten, dough conditioners, sodium metabisulfite, distilled monoglycerides.

-Trans fats? Sugar? Aluminum? Stuff you can’t pronounce and have to look up to find out it’s preservatives and disinfectants?

-Don’t confuse the issues: weight loss and health…. Calories and nutrition. There IS a difference, and that is what makes “healthy” fast food a double edged sword at best.

-Some people, like my brother, simply aren’t going to give up fast food completely. If I can get him to make better bad choices, that could help him control his weight. If that works, then I’m pleased that the fast food restaurants have such choices to offer.

-But if you wanted to make a good choice - a healthy choice - you’d forget about “driving through” anywhere on a regular basis. You’d shop for whole, fresh, natural real food, keep a well-stocked kitchen… and learn how to cook.

-The Subway diet, the Drive Through diet, or the Weight Watchers approved McDonalds menu (yes its true, what a pair that is!) Don’t kid yourself – this is not only not healthy, it’s not healthier – it’s lower calorie junk food.

“Welcome to our restaurant sir. Would you like a large plate of dog poo or a small plate of dog poo?”

“No thank you, I will take neither. No matter what the serving size, crap is still crap.”

>>Train hard and expect success!

TOM VENUTO
Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

TOM VENUTO is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.

°Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle Is Available For Mobile Devices.