Abigails Herbs

Green tea is a natural antibacterial and astringent. Now research reveals that green tea is just as effective at clearing up acne as benzoyl peroxide. The only difference is that benzoyl peroxide dries up your skin, but green tea prevents skin from becoming dry.

That’s because it is loaded with polyphenols and the powerful antioxidant EGCG, which helps this tea to draw out toxins from the skin cells, reduce inflammation and neutralize the bacteria that causes acne. As you already know, this wonderful tea has many other health benefits. Just steep three bags of green tea in a quart of hot water for up to 20 minutes. Let it cool down and then apply to pimples and black heads.

There is another type of tea that soothes skin rashes.
Calendula tea is harder to find. This is tea made from the marigold flower and it can reduce pain and redness on contact with your skin, according to Japanese research. It even soothes the symptoms of poison ivy and poison oak.  It has powerful antibacterials and anti-inflammatories in its’ petals which repair damaged skin cells and actually help to speed up the healing process.

In a recent New York University study, it was discovered that calendula tea can even repair skin damaged by radiation! Just apply a wet tea bag to the affected area and allow the liquid to soak into the skin for a minimum of five minutes. I know there was another reason why I love marigolds so much!

Yesterday’s article featured the fat burning benefits of combining green tea with “active calorie” foods, so that the synergistic energy of the tea with the foods create a much more potent fat-melting metabolism than just drinking green tea alone. For example, sipping the tea while eating such calorie burning foods could potentially multiply a person’s metabolism. Say for instance you get a 4 per cent metabolism boost from tea and another 6 per cent boost from one of the foods that is recommended to boost weight loss; instead of just getting a 10 per cent spike in metabolism, your metabolism could shoot up to possibly 24 per cent!

As Dr. Rains states, “Nature has a way of maximizing its potential!” More research is needed in this area, however, scientists from prestigious universities agree that when natural compounds mix together, it creates this kind of fat-fighting  “synergy.” I find this to be very encouraging for those of us who want to lose weight.

The bottom  line is that you are drinking Mother Nature’s best “diet” drink, eating the very healthy meals and keeping your calories down to a moderate level. The foods are filling and it is great for our overall health. Plus, as our metabolism speeds up, your energy levels will increase too. So, those of us in middle age, who find it difficult to lose weight due to a slower metabolism, (it is so frustrating to lose belly fat at this age); this is wonderful news and we are grateful for this research. We will see fat disappear little by little everyday just by eating the right foods while drinking our tea.

Stick with lean protein, yogurt, soy, bright colored fruits and vegetables, dark chocolate (in moderation), whole grains and nuts. Antioxidants in soy seem to increase the rate of metabolism and also block fat storage. The Japanese studies have discovered that soy can make dormant fat cells metabolically active again. Lean protein revs up metabolism by as much as 30 per cent. Nuts contain “flammable fat” that heat up metabolism; therefore, people who diet with nuts lose about 9 per cent more weight than dieters who eat the same amount of calories without nuts.

We should drink about 6 cups of green tea per day. Stay away from the bottled kind because most bottled brands usually aren’t brewed strongly enough. Stay away from green tea supplements as the pills aren’t as effective as the real thing. Dr. Rains warns that too many supplements can even cause liver damage. Stick with caffeine-free tea if caffeinated causes you to feel jittery. Avoid sweeteners because sugar adds calories and spikes fat-storage hormones.

For more intensive information about this research, pick up the book, The Active Calorie Diet by Leslie Bonci, R.D.

Iced tea is a great treat and a good way to cool down during these hot summer months. Tea on its own, (especially the   green variety), is effective at burning fat calories, but you can really heat up weight loss by combining tea with foods that naturally crank up the body’s ability to burn more fat than ever. This information comes from the book  The Active Calorie Diet, written by by Leslie Bonci, R.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. She has been responsible for conducting massive research on weight loss resulting from pairing green tea with brightly colored fruit and lean protein to create a synergistic energy required for burning of fat calories.

Those people who have tried the food and beverage plans in this book have had raging success losing weight at a very rapid pace. Yes, for fastest fat loss, keep calories low while simultaneously filling up on foods that help increase calorie burn, says Bonci. One should drink at least 6 cups per day remarks Biofortis-Provident Clinical Research’s Tia Rains, PH.D. Dr. Rains was part of a team that conducted the largest-ever analysis of tea and weight. She also recommends green tea, since it contains up to 50% more active compounds than other varieties of this antioxidant. Drink the green tea with foods that help increase calorie burn, such as protein and fiber. Both are valuable weapons to burn fat because both force the body to burn extra calories as food is being digested. Good fat from olive oil, omega-3 fish oils and antioxidants from teas and plant foods have been found to increase metabolism.

In multiple studies, dieters who drank green tea lost a significantly greater amount of  body fat than those who didn’t, says Rains. Tufts University even found that active people who drank green tea lost 25 times more belly fat than those who were given diet soft drinks during the weight loss studies. More information will be given tomorrow in a forthcoming  article about synergistic weight loss combined with healthy eating.

I started taking meditation back in early winter. I try to meditate twice per day – at least 10 minutes in the morning and 10 – 20 minutes at night.  I have had some very pleasant, blissful experiences during meditation. I admit that I am far from true enlightenment, however, it  helps me to stay in the here-and-now. Obsessing over the past and worrying about the future is the leading cause of stress. Research reveals that folks who regularly practice simple meditation (focusing on each breath while sitting in a comfortable position with a straight back and neck)  for three months at only 10 minutes each time, experience a surge in telomerase. As reported in the journal ” Psychoneuroendocrinology,” telomerase is an enzyme that protects your body’s cells and helps them to live longer.

Yes, the quiet, positive psychological changes that occur during quiet contemplation, which increases your ability to cope with and counteract stress, are the reason for the increase in the body’s telomerase  production. When left unchecked, our production of this important enzyme diminishes the health of cells, so reports Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., the coauthor of this important study.

You can also protect your cells with tea! Tea is full of antioxidants which protect cells from age-related damage. In fact, new research shows that the cells of people who drink three cups of  black or green tea daily are biologically five years younger that those who do not drink this healthy brew. So, drink at least three cups of  tea everyday and turn back the hands of time!