Millions of people around the planet start their day with a cup of their favorite tea or coffee. This ritual is very common to us all and we all know that morning cup of tea or coffee can help us refresh our mind after the night’s sleep and get focused on the things we need to accomplish during the day. Certainly, such powerful refreshing effects of these morning beverages can be achieved at the expense of high caffeine content in both tea and coffee. Caffeine is an alkaloid which is known for its effects on our nerve system. It causes irritability, anxiety, headaches, increased heart rate and high blood pressure. However, such effects will manifest only in that situation, when the levels of caffeine intake are really high.

Many people wonder, what type of tea contains the greatest amounts of caffeine? For example, some of my friends are convinced that the stronger the tea, the more caffeine it has. At that, some of them think that green tea has less amounts of caffeine than the black tea, because black teas are darker and stronger. Those are quite weird ideas, aren’t they? Specialists argue that high-quality non-flavored green  teas have the highest content of caffeine among all teas: up to 80 mg of caffeine in one big cup (8 ounces). High-quality non-flavored back teas contain up to 60-70 mg of caffeine. Green flavored teas contain from 45 to 70 mg of caffeine, and black flavored teas can have caffeine content levels as low as 35-40 mg in a cup.

This is very important to keep in mind the results of this study, because as we can see, the strength and color of tea does not play any important role when talking about caffeine content. There are some moms, who give green tea to their infants thinking that green tea is not strong enough to harm their children. Remember that children below 2 are not recommended to have caffeinated drinks at all! And what about the adults? There are certain groups of people, who also have to stay away from caffeine. Those include, first of all, the people who suffer from atherosclerosis, high blood pressure and problems with vessels, as well as those who have gastritis or peptic ulcer. Finally, pregnant and nursing women have to limit their caffeine intake and drink no more than 1-2 cups of tea a day.

At the same time, for the majority of us, moderate doses of caffeine will not bring any harm and can be even useful. Consuming 600-700 mg of caffein every day is considered to be a normal dose of this substance, but maximum daily dose of it should not exceed 800 mg. Since maximum content of caffein in one cup of green tea is 85 mg, drinking 7-8 cups of tea a day should be considered safe.  Recently, British specialists discovered that it is optimal to drink 8 cups of fluid every day, so you can include 3-5 cups of strong tea in your daily fluid intake, ejoiy this wonderful drink and benefit from its numerous positive effects on your health.

There is a special branch of today’s phytotherapy called diet herbal medicine, which can offer many potent solutions to those who struggle to shed some extra lbs. Diet herbal medicine uses various kinds of herbs, plants and their extracts in order to create effective mixtures, herbal teas and preparations, which can activate certain processes in your body and assist in combating weight problems. However, specialists emphasize on the fact that herbal remedies for weight loss should be used and expected to bring positive effects only in combination with other techniques of weight loss, such as physical exercises, eating a rich and healthy diet, avoiding junk food, and so on.

In other words, if you only drink your slimming herbal teas or use special herbal formulas for weight loss, it would be difficult to achieve the desired results. However, herbal remedies and mixtures can be very useful for losing weight in many ways. Some herbs can help to keep you appetite under control, some help with intensifying your metabolism and can be your allies in burning fat, some can lower your bad cholesterol level and some can assist in getting rid of food wastes. Read the rest of this entry »

For many centuries, green tea has been known as a unique and inexhaustible natural source of health, beauty and longevity. Green tea has been used by Chinese and Japanese physicians for more than four thousand years, and still it is difficult to find any other drink or food, which would have more health benefits than this wonderful beverage. Modern scientific researches and studies are providing more and more evidence for numerous positive effects on our health connected with regular green tea consumption. Along with good taste and delicate aroma, green tea has over 300 various useful ingredients: minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, microelements, Vitamines B1, B2, B5, C1, K and P, as well as composites of magnesium, calcium, manganese, phosphorus and other chemical elements. Read the rest of this entry »