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Teas good enough to be compared to the Mona Lisa!

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By HARRY HAYDON
Published: Today

A woman flipped out and hurled a mug of hot tea at the Mona Lisa — because she is believed to suffer from a disorder triggered by culture.

Picture courtesy of www.creativityspot.com

Stunned security guards at the Louvre Museum in Paris watched in horror as the Russian woman attacked the priceless portrait with the steaming brew.

The guards wrestled the lady — believed to be in her 30s and suffering from Stendhal Syndrome which causes confusion and irrational behaviour when exposed to fine art — to the ground after the attack on Sunday.

The Masterpiece:

She was immediately arrested and examined by doctors.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s priceless masterpiece is surrounded by bulletproof glass and was not damaged in the attack.

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Provided by the NIH News in Health

Compounds in coffee may actually lower the risk of developing Parkinson's disease and liver cancer. (©Julius Schorzman)

Because it tastes so good, you may assume coffee is bad for you. Maybe you’ve heard rumors that your morning brew causes everything from heart disease to cancer. But researchers are finding that coffee poses little to no health risk for most people. Not only that, coffee drinking might have some health benefits.

Early research hinted that coffee might have some harmful effects. But most of those studies searched for links between people’s habits and their overall health. In such studies, it’s hard to know which effects come from coffee and which just show up by coincidence. Heavy coffee drinking sometimes goes hand in hand with unhealthy habits, like smoking and a less active lifestyle.

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Visit our Pu’erh Tea section – for your health!

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Saturday, August 01, 2009 by: Zephyr Faegen, citizen journalist

Earthy, rich and smooth with the comforting aroma of autumn leaves. Grade 1.

(NaturalNews) For over 2000 years, a special tea that originates from the Yunnan Province of China has been coveted for its preventative and curative properties. This tea is known as Pu-erh or Yunnan Tuocha. The tea’s cultivation can be traced as far back as the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE) and was made from the leaves of da ye or broad leaf tea. The leaves of this variety of old wild tea tree when picked, are taken and put through a process of delicate maturation that ends in the creation of what is called maocha.

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We now have a new phone number and service! Google Voice finally sent the invitation that we have all been waiting for, so we have set up our new contact number!

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Featuring over 100 coffees, teas, syrups, mixes, barista supplies, AND MORE!

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Release Date: July 14, 2009

By Christe Bruderlin-Nelson, Contributing Editor

Health Behavior News Service

Lifestyle choices are pieces of the cancer prevention puzzle, but exactly which steps to take remain unclear, even to scientists. Still, more and more individuals are incorporating small changes into their daily routine — such as drinking green tea — in hopes of keeping cancer risk at bay.

Is it working? A large new Cochrane review of studies that examined the affect of green tea on cancer prevention has yielded conflicting results.

Researchers looked at 51 medium- to high-quality studies that included more than 1.6 million participants. The studies focused on the relationship between green tea consumption and a variety of cancers, including breast, lung, digestive tract, urological prostate, gynecological and oral cancers.

The comprehensive review analyzed studies conducted from 1985 through 2008. Many of the reviewed studies took place in Asia, where tea drinking is widespread and part of the daily routine for many.

The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, which is a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.

“Despite the large number of included studies the jury still seems to be out on the question of whether green tea can in fact prevent the development of various cancer types,” said lead review author Katja Boehm, Ph.D. Since people drink varying amounts of green tea, and different types of cancers vary in how they grow, it is impossible to state definitively that green tea is “good” for cancer prevention.

“One thing is certain…green tea consumption can never account for cancer prevention alone,” said Boehm, a member of the Unconventional and Complementary Methods in Oncology Study Group in Nuremburg, Germany.

Three types of tea — black, green and oolong — come from the plant Camellia sinensis, and all contain polyphenols. Catechins, a subgroup of the polyphenols, are powerful antioxidants. Some say the polyphenols in green tea are unique, preventing cell growth and thus having the potential to prevent cancer.

The review found that green tea had limited benefits for liver cancer, but found conflicting evidence for other gastrointestinal cancers, such as cancer of the esophagus, colon or pancreas. One study found a decreased risk of prostate cancer for men who consumed higher quantities of green tea or its extracts.

The review did not find any benefit for preventing death from gastric cancer, and found that green tea might even increase the risk of urinary bladder cancer. Despite conflicting findings, there was “limited moderate to strong evidence” of a benefit for lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancer. None of the studies that simply observed a group of people over time found a benefit for breast cancer prevention. However, both of the case control studies — which compare people without a condition to people with it — found a positive association between green tea consumption and a decreased risk of breast cancer.

Nagi Kumar, Ph.D., director of Nutrition Research at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., is optimistic about the potential for green tea in cancer prevention. “The substances found in green tea are certainly promising,” Kumar said. “The field now has progressed to where we [can]…test the effectiveness and safety of green tea polyphenols using a drug form similar to the constituents in tea to see if we can prevent cancer progression. Time will tell.”

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10 Health Benefits of Drinking Tea

*by Amy Bell

Black, green, white, and oolong teas all come from the same plant known as Camellia Sinensis.

The more processing the leaves of the plant undergo, the darker they will turn.  (Green and white being steamed quickly, black and oolong being dried and fermented.)

Regardless of the processing method, brewed tea not only tastes good, but can have many health benefits as well;

1. Tea contains antioxidants. Antioxidants can help slow down the aging process, and help cells regenerate and repair.  Many studies suggest antioxidants also assist our bodies in preventing cancer.

   » Read more on Eat.Drink.Better
   » See peer reviews of Sustainable Drinks at Green Home

2. Tea can lower stress hormone levels. Black tea can reduce the effects of stressful events by lowering the amount of the stress hormone cortisol in the body.
3. Tea fights cavities and reduces plaque. Compounds in tea are capable of killing or suppressing growth and acid production of cavity causing bacteria in our mouths.
4. Tea keeps you hydrated. Every cup of tea you drink, especially low or no caffeine varieties, counts as a cup of water with the added bonus of providing antioxidants as well.
5. Tea may reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack. Tea can help prevent formation of dangerous blood clots which are often the cause of strokes and heart attacks.
6. Tea can help lower blood pressure. Drinking green tea daily can reduce your risk of hypertension by up to 50%.
7. Tea aids your body in digestion. Tea has been used for thousands of years as an after-meal digestive aid.  It can also help relieve stomach cramps.
8. Tea may help prevent diabetes. There is some evidence to suggest that green tea might help to lower the risk of getting Type 2 Diabetes.
9. Tea can help beat bacteria. An Egyptian study testing the effects of green tea on antibiotics found the tea to enhance the bacteria killing effects of the drugs.
10. Tea aids your immune defenses. A study comparing the immune activity levels of coffee drinkers vs. tea drinkers found the tea drinkers to have levels up to five times higher.

Aside from these ten, there are many more benefits to drinking tea.  Find a variety you like, and enjoy a cup or two daily.

*Source: http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/01/24/10-health-benefits-of-drinking-tea/

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I found this on another tea lover’s blog (link at the bottom) and loved it. I hope everyone who drinks coffee and tea can read this and appreciate the knowledge it contains!
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Green Tea Why Drink It?

*Kanko

*24 January 2009

Its so good we should all be drinking it!

“Every medicine is the only medicine for a specific disease, but tea is the medicine for all causes,” – Chen Zang

Green Tea has had no shortage of good press in recent years. Anyone with the slightest interest in Fitness/Nutrition will have heard some of the good stuff that Green Tea has to offer. It has been touted as a Miracle Fat burner, and hyped for its calming effect thanks to its L-Theanine content.

One thing that I figured out with Green Tea a while back is that Quality Matters. I had been drinking the standard “Tea Bag” stuff for years and truth be told I never really noticed the benefits, nevertheless I continued to drink the stuff thinking it was doing me a world of good…..

Road to Enlightenment

One Saturday afternoon while visiting my local organic food store I ran into a Japanese man promoting his brand of Green Tea. He was presenting small cups of Green Tea for customers to try out. What struck me about the tea was the color; instead of the foggy yellow/green color of the bags I would buy and steep myself the green tea had a beautiful vibrant green color to it, so bright in fact it almost looked unnatural. Next was the taste it tasted totally different to any tea I had ever tasted. In spite of it being so delicate in flavor it was actually enjoyable and had depth to its taste, something I could see myself looking forward to drinking rather than chugging down for the health benefits.

I spoke to the gentleman for a while and asked him various questions on Green Tea and he let me in on a few pretty cool secrets when it comes to picking your green tea…..

• Always buy loose, Green Tea needs space to open up and release its goodness and flavor.
• Never use boiling water, tip the water between cups a few times before putting it onto the tea leaves.
• Good Green Tea leaves can be eaten and they will have a tasty complex flavor and texture.
• Bad Green Tea Leaves will taste bitter and leave water murky and pungent tasting.
• To gain the full benefits steep the green tea leaves several times. This allows for a full release of the anti-oxidants.
• After Steeping and drinking, the left over leaves can be used to add to salad’s or eaten for the health benefits.

So after years of messing around with green tea I finally started to know what I was looking for, I bought a small pit of his loose leaf green tea which is Japanese and supposedly comes from the highest quality manufacturers in Japan who treat there tea leaves with care to ensure they retain vitality.

What I Noticed

Over the next few days I started steeping a pot/cup of green tea and recycling the leaves for several brews. I would drink this throughout the afternoon. Otherwise I would try and sneak in a few cups before work. The first effect was the level to which the stuff heated up my body I felt pretty warm and induced a calm relaxed feeling of well-being which I can only say I have gotten from having a good brew of fresh Yerba Mate. I can only put this down to the thermogenic effect of the Green Tea plus the Theanine which acts to calm the mind, an awesome combination.

The next main benefit I noticed was how much it ramped up my appetite, it would literally feel like my body was chewing up food. For some this is not a benefit but I personally like to feel hungry so long as I’m not starved. It shows me that digestion is robust and my body is functioning well. This is probably thanks to the metabolic boosting effects of the EGCG in the tea…..

Lastly I have actually really started to “crave” green tea. When you drink the good stuff and brew it correctly the taste is amazing, in spite of it being so plain its extremely tasty to drink and blows away the bitter old tea bags I used to drink. Plus I have been using the old tea leaves to throw over salads. So apart from my morning coffee, quality green tea has definitely become a staple in my diet. Green Tea when brewed correctly should have flavor full of depth and variety.

“Enjoy life sip by sip not gulp by gulp.”

Why Is It So Good?

Green Tea has loads of scientific proof to back up its benefits. I am almost certain though that you need to drink the high quality stuff in order to attain these; It is thought that the health benefits come from EGCG which is a catechin and powerful anti-oxidant which is abundant in green tea and has been shown to:

• Inhibit Cancer Cell Growth
• Reduce risk of heart disease and stroke
• Promote Fat Loss
• Prevent Gum Disease and stop bad breath
• If your caffeine sensitive don’t worry it has 1/3 that of black tea and loads of calming theanine which counteracts the stimulating effect.

Some pretty cool stuff …, there must be a reason why the Japanese who drink the stuff all day are some of the healthiest and longest living people around. As well as this green tea shouldnt be expensive I picked up a batch of high quality stuff for about £5 or $10 which will last me for 2-3 weeks drinking it daily. Just make sure you buy a high quality loose leaf Japanese green tea. Check this link for Green Tea’s to explore…..

So to sum up Green Tea is pretty much the only fat burner you need or that has proven truly effective, it will also act as a powerful anti-oxidant detoxifying your body. The other main advantage is the calming effect it has there is nothing better than a peaceful mind and good Green Tea will get you on the right track!

“Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world.”

*Source: http://zentofitness.com/green-tea-why-drink-it/