Why you shoud never add Milk and Sugar in you Tea? Like the chinese

In the Ancient time the practice of drinking tea began in China as a prescription medication and was very valuable and scarce in china that ancient Emperor even gave royal decree that only royalties is entitled to have tea.(Now you know why tea is so important to the Chinese people)

Today you can find tea everywhere around the world from powder to tea leave and Tea Based product. Beside that Tea is second only to water in worldwide consumption.

According to numerous health studies that have been done , the nutrient that we receive by the practice of continuously drinking tea reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and control high blood pressure as tea help regulate blood pressure by improving blood flow and the ability of the arteries to relax.

Studies also found that tea can reduce the risk of diseases such as Parkinson's, but also to improve memory.( Japanese studies found that Japanese people who practice the green tea have a better memory on average than those who rarely drank tea.)

And why you shouldn't add Milk in your tea?

FACT:

This is because researchers at the Charite Hospital at the University of Berlin, Germany, in January 9th Tuesday, 2007 found out that even thou tea can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke but only if milk is not added to the brew as milk eliminates the protective effect against cardiovascular disease.

“The beneficial effects of drinking black tea are completely prevented by the addition of milk, said Dr. Verena Stangl, a cardiologist at the hospital.

“If you want to drink tea to have the beneficial health effects you have to drink it without milk. That is clearly shown by our experiments,” she told Reuters.

Dr. Mario Lorenz, who helped a study in Berlin, says that the benefits of 'tea' that is important is to increase the ability of arteries to work with a more relaxed and blood flow.
Stangl and her team discovered that proteins called caseins in milk decrease the amount of compounds in tea known as catechins which increase its protection against heart disease.

They believe their findings, which are reported in the European Heart Journal, could explain why countries such as Britain, where tea is regularly consumed with milk, have not shown a decreased risk of heart disease and stroke from drinking tea. The researchers compared the health effects of drinking boiled water and tea with and without milk on 16 healthy women. Using ultrasound, they measured the function of an artery in the forearm before and two hours after drinking tea.

Black tea significantly improved blood flow compared to drinking water but adding milk blunted the effect of the tea.

“We found that, whereas drinking tea significantly increased the ability of the artery to relax and expand to accommodate increased blood flow compared with drinking water, the addition of milk completely prevents the biological effect,” said Dr. Mario Lorenz, a molecular biologist and co-author of the study.

Tests on rats produced similar results. When rodents were exposed to black tea they produced more nitric oxide which promotes dilation of blood vessels. But adding milk blocked the effect.

Tea has also been shown to have a protective effect against cancer so the findings could have further implications.

“Since milk appears to modify the biological activities of tea ingredients, it is likely that the anti-tumor effects of tea could be affected as well,” said Stangl. “I think it is essential that we re-examine the association between tea consumption and cancer protection, to see if that is the case,” she added.

Minor reason why you shouldn't add sugar to you tea.

According to the study of Pr. Christine Wu of the University of Illinois, the content of polyphenols in tea can reduce the bacteria in the mouth that cause cavities and gum infection. Indirectly, it can also reduce bad breath. However it will not work if you like to drink tea added sugar, milk or any preservatives.


Warning:

Drinking Tea during the morning and afternoon is good for your health and it reduce sleepiness in the daytime. But avoid drinking tea /too much tea before bed time as it contain stimulants (caffeine) that act will cause difficulty in sleeping.

Dont drink tea that are too hot or to cold tea.Too hot will cause a problem to your digestions system.Too cold will cause phlegm.

Do not drink tea with any medication because the tea can change the contents of the medicines you need to take (said Chinese Herbalist)Fact to support

Dont soak your tea too long as it not only changed the nutritional content of tea and cause bitter taste , but also endanger the health of your digestive tract. Tea, which is too thick also gives a bad effect, because it encourage the production of gastric acid which can hurt your stomach


Reference Material:

Milk Eliminates Cardiovascular Health Benefits Of Tea, Researchers Warn
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070108191523.htm

Studies force new view on biology, Nutritional Action of Flavonoids by David Stauth-Linus Pauling Institute

Health effects of tea

READ MORE - Why you shoud never add Milk and Sugar in you Tea? Like the chinese

The truth on organic and non organic foods

(HealthDay News) -- Food that beckons from the organic aisles of grocery stores may not be any better for you than what lines the rest of supermarket shelves.

According to a British review of studies done over the past 50 years, organic and conventionally produced foods have about the same nutrient content, suggesting that neither is better in terms of health benefits.

"We did not find any important differences in nutrient content between organically and conventionally produced foods," said study author Alan Dangour, a registered public health nutritionist with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Nonetheless, the researchers noted, organic foods continue to grow in popularity. In the United Kingdom, the market share for organic foods increased 22 percent from 2005 to 2007, they said.

Likewise, the market for organic foods in the United States has grown at about a 20 percent rate each year since 1990, reaching $13.8 billion in consumer sales in 2005, according to the Organic Trade Association. That represents 2.5 percent of total food sales in the country, the trade group noted.

"As a registered dietitian, it is good to see that a systematic review of the literature supports what has long been believed -- that the nutritional content of traditionally grown foods and organic foods are comparable," said Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis and past president of the American Dietetic Association. "This report provides confirmation for consumers that if they choose conventionally grown foods or organic foods they will be meeting their nutritional needs."

The review zeroed in on 162 studies that dealt with the nutrient content of foods. Only 55 were of what the researchers considered to be "satisfactory quality" -- a strong indicator that, overall, the science on the subject is not up to snuff.

They found no noted differences between conventional and organic crops with regard to vitamin C, magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc and copper content. Organic crops did have higher levels of phosphorus, and conventionally produced crops had higher levels of nitrogen.

No differences in nutrient content were indicated in the livestock studies, according to the review.

The Oregon-based Organic Center, which promotes organic food, conducted a similar review of the literature, said Charles Benbrook, chief scientist for the Center. That study yielded results similar to those in the British study, but it also found higher levels of healthy antioxidants and polyphenols in organic foods.

"Given that some of the most significant differences favoring organic foods were for key antioxidant nutrients that most Americans do not get enough of on most days, we concluded that the consumption of organic fruits and vegetables, in particular, offered significant health benefits, roughly equivalent to an additional serving of a moderately nutrient dense fruit or vegetable on an average day," Benbrook said.

And there's another aspect to the organic vs. conventional food debate, said Sheah Rarback, director of nutrition at the Mailman Center for Child Development at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

"You have to also look at what you're not getting" with organic foods, she said. "Maybe it's not a big difference nutritionally, but conventional products may have more pesticides."

And that's a particularly important issue for children, she said.

"We know that young children are getting the nutrition, whatever choice they make, but we also have to look at the pesticide issue," Rarback said. "A study published in Environmental Health Perspectives found that children eating conventionally grown fruit had pesticide residue in their urine, which decreased after just five days on an organic diet."

The production of organic food is subject to a variety of regulations, including those that govern the use of pesticides and other chemicals in fruits and vegetables and the use of medicines in animals, the authors of the review noted in their study, which will be published in the September issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Rarback indicated that the ability to get solid research on organic versus conventionally produced products is hampered by variations in the production process.

"There are so many variables," she said. "Where is something grown? Where is it shipped from? How long was it on the truck? There are going to be variables in terms of nutrition just from production methods."

SOURCES: Alan Dangour, registered public health nutritionist, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Connie Diekman, M.Ed, R.D., L.D., director, university nutrition, Washington University, St. Louis, and past president, American Dietetic Association; Sheah Rarback, R.D., director, nutrition, Mailman Center for Child Development, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami; Charles Benbrook, Ph.D., chief scientist, The Organic Center, Enterprise, Oregon; September 2009 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

READ MORE - The truth on organic and non organic foods