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Health

Green Tea – Part II

May 29, 2014
Green Tea - Part II

The long-awaited sequel to my first post on green tea has finally arrived!

Green Tea – Part II

Green Tea - Part II

Sorry about the long wait .. I have been so busy these past few months and I have had so many idea’s for posts which I just had to share with you. So I kept on pushing this post to the next week, and the next week .. So I do apologize and I hope you thoroughly enjoy part II of my post on green tea!

Part I focused on what exactly made green tea so healthy, and this post will focus on how much green tea we should be drinking to reap the full benefits, and my own experience with green tea consumption.

As we learned from part I, green tea contains catechins, which is a naturally occurring antioxidant, in addition to a slew of other health benefits. Green tea has a fairly bitter taste that can take a while to get used too. I never found the taste too overwhelming although I still find it a little bitter sometimes, although I honestly quite like the bitter taste of it. Which brings us to the question of ‘How much green tea do we actually need to drink to reap the full benefits?’

Good question – There have been several studies on this and it is quite confusing as they all say different things .. the only thing they can seem to agree on is that you should be drinking green tea! The studies vary greatly – an article written in 1999 stated that 10 cups of green tea a day helped delay the onset of cancer whereas a follow-up study found that patients with stage I and II cancer saw a longer disease free period and a lower recurrence rate when they drank over five cups a day than those who drank less than four cups a day. I found a more recent article written in 2012 by the same man who wrote the 1999 article which basically confirmed the idea that drinking 10 cups of green tea a day was significant in preventing cancer. The only problem with the fact that the two articles are from the same author is the fact that the author could have a bias … I mean come on, why would anyone willing refute their life’s work?

Honestly, it would be safe to say that drinking green tea, whatever the amount is better than drinking none. I would aim to have at least 3 cups a day but you know, don’t stress it if you just had one. I typically like to start my day with a cup of green tea and I have started bringing green tea bags to work so I can have some throughout the day. Do remember that green tea does contain a small amount of caffeine, so if you are sensitive to caffeine, start with one cup of green tea a day and increase it slowly and take not of how you feel.

Green Tea - Part II

In terms of steeping the green tea, I have read several (non-scientific) articles claiming that the longer you steep the tea bag, the more antioxidants will get released into the water. If anyone has links to scientific articles about this, please link me to them in the comments 🙂

All in all, I hope my green tea post series has made you want to give drinking green tea a go and/or has educated you about its health benefits. I love drinking green tea and I have found that it helps me control my cravings to a certain extent and because it is a diuretic, it does help debloat me if I have eaten a little bit too much! Any feedback or comments would be much appreciated!

Honestly yours,
Alice

References

Cooper, R. (2012). Green Tea and Theanine: Health Benefits. Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, 63(S1), pp.90-97.

Fujiki, H. (1999). Two Stages of cancer prevention with green tea. Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology, 125(11), pp.589-597.

Fujiki, H., Imai, K., Nakachi, K., Shimizu, M., Moriwaki, H., & Suganuma, M. (2012). Challenging the effectiveness of green tea in primary and tertiary cancer prevention. Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology, 138(8), pp.1259-1270.

Friday Fare, Health

Valentine’s Day Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate

February 7, 2014

Ahhh, Valentine’s Day; you either love it orrrr you hate it. I happen to quite like it, but the fact that I have a boyfriend and have had the same (awesome) one for the past 5 years may have helped with that 🙂

Unlike other special days though, when one thinks of Valentine’s Day, you tend to think of two things: the color red and chocolate. These two factors directly influenced what I made for you all today. Which is …… Valentine’s Day Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate!!

Valentine’s Day Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate

Okay okay, I know they are not completely guilt free, but hey. Gotta live a little once in a while. Plus, raspberries are high in fiber and low in calories, whilst dark chocolate (when eaten sparingly, not every day people!) allows our bodies a greater capacity to absorb antioxidants found in chocolate, whereas the milk in normal milk chocolate actually interferes with our bodies absorption of antioxidants from chocolate. I added in cacao as well because that has also been shown to have a high amount of antioxidants. Reality check though people, eating mass amounts of dark chocolates will not necessarily ward off disease .. it will more likely make you gain lots of weight, so be sensible and eat it in moderation pleeeease 🙂

Alright, so let’s get down to making this stuff! You will need the following:

Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate

Alice Williams
A perfect Valentine's Day Treat!
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Ingredients
  

  • 1 bar of unsweetened dark chocolate
  • 1 bar of dark chocolate or cacao
  • 1 6 ox box of raspberries

Instructions
 

  • Step 1: Start boiling a pan of water (fill your pot about 1/4 to half way full) with boiling water. Get two bowls out. Fill one bowl with your raspberries and then put them aside as you will come back to the bowls once you have melted your chocolate.
  • Step 2. Once you have your water boiling, quickly turn down the temperature of the flame to low. Too high of a heat will cause your chocolate to melt. Get a big metal bowl, or a bowl that fits easily on top of your pot and is heat resistant. Break up the bar into small pieces and slowly add them into the big metal bowl (it will not melt well if you just chuck the bar in).
  • Step 3: Merrily stir the chocolate slowly until it melts. it really does not take long, it took me a grand total of 3 or 4 minutes.
  • Step 4: Mmmm, the best part. Get a towel or something to grab a hold of the bowl with and then scrape out the chocolate into your bowl (that I told you to get in step 1, remember). Then, get your skewer (thank you Alyssa!) or fork, whatever, and pierce one of the raspberries and simply … dip into the bowl of hot chocolate!
Valentine's Day Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate

Valentine's Day Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate

Ahh, it melted so fast!!!

Valentine's Day Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate

Valentine's Day Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate

Valentine's Day Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate

And there you have it, the finished product!! If you find that you would like it sweeter than this, feel free to add some honey, stevia or brown sugar and let me know how that makes it taste. If you have celiac’s disease use pure unsweetened chocolate and pure cacao (mine is 75% so not pure). If you want it completely sugar-free  .. I am afraid that will not happen, because fruits have naturally occurring sugars in them.

Nutritional Details (for whole bowl of chocolate and raspberries)
Calories: 1222 (as you can see it is NOT low calorie, so eat sparingly)
Carbohydrates: 122g
Sugar: 81g
Fat: 79g
Protein: 9g
Fiber: 22g

I know these numbers seem daunting, and I could’ve chosen not to include them. But you know what? I do not want you to be ignorant. I hate how people have gotten the notion in their head that healthy automatically means that you can eat as much as you want … NO. No foods should ever be abused in this way (except perhaps celery). Eat too much of anything and you will gain weight, although the quality of the foods you eat will certainly make a difference. I have said this a lot: eating 500 calories of grilled chicken and quinoa is so much better for you than eating 500 calories of ice-cream and pizza. Okay, rant over guys, sorry!!! Love you really, I just want you to be aware 🙂

I hope you have all enjoyed this weeks Friday Fare!! If any of you make this, please let me know how it goes. And feel free to make any suggestions as to things you would like to see in the future. Hope you all have a great Valentine’s Day next week.

Honestly yours,
Alice