1. Taking tea is good for health

Eating, one of the life’s simpler pleasures, is no longer that. It has mutated into a monster. That has turned the best of us paranoid. Most of us are in desperate need for assurance that the vitamins we eat today are not actually toxins gently nudging us to an early grave or pyre, as the case may be.

Even committed diet trackers have despaired when faced with the rapid flip-flops nutritional advice has done over the past two years. Is butter healthier than toast? Is de-caf the only way to go should ice-cream be jettisoned in favor of flavored yogurt?

The best way out is to do what I do: eat what you like and hope for the best. The good news is that new studies are bearing this philosophy out.

“There is a realization that apart from the two taboos-sugar and Trans fats found in processed foods – no food is completely bad as long as you don’t have too much of it. Even cholesterol-rich eggs and ghee have more benefits that high-calorie snack food full of artery-clogging trans fats and sugar.”

In other words, don’t cut back on any one food with single-minded zeal. Have smaller portions of the banned treats instead. “You have to get out of simplistic diet debates. Diet gurus can argue about which diet to follow to limit those calories-high-proteins, low-fat, low-crab, a mixture-but the bottom line remains the same. Instead of snacking on empty calories, eating smaller portions of quality calories from nutritionally-sound foods you enjoy is healthier and easier way to watch your weight and stay fit.”

TEA is good for health:

SKIP THE sugar and you can have practically unlimited amounts of tea, “whether is is black, green or red, all teas have antioxidants called polyphonies that protect the body from free radical damage associated with aging and cancers. “ Four to six cups of tea have been found to lower the risk of gastric, esophageal, ovarian and skin cancers, with laboratory studies showing anti-blood clotting and cholesterol-lowering benefits. Just cups of tea a day lower the risk of ovarian cancer by 46 percent in women.

The colour of the tea has little to do with polyphenol content as the more processed the leaves are, the darker the tea becomes. “Green tea is the least processed tea, while black and red teas are partially dried, crushed and fermented. A cup of tea contains an average of 40mg of caffeine, which is about half of the 85mg found in a cup of freshly brewed coffee, so it is good option for people sensitive to caffeine”.

Herbal tea is not tea at all and so has no health-promoting properties. “Herbal teas are a mixture of herbs, flowers, roots, spices or other parts of some plant and do not contain the health benefits of polyphenols.”