How to maximize the health benefits of green tea

Whether you are trying to lose weight or improve your health in general, drinking several cups of green tea per day can help. Green tea is the next best thing to a warm cup of hot chocolate to sooth and clam you, especially in the winter months.

Fat Fighting Benefits of Green tea

Drinking green tea can be a great addition to a well-rounded nutrition and exercise program. Green tea works to raise your metabolism, therefore helping you to burn more fat even while you’re resting and sleeping. Although this doesn’t give you an excuse to slack off at the gym, it does help us to burn up the stored fat we carry a little quicker. It also oxidizes the fat. It burns the fat that commonly settles around our middles: the waist, hips and thighs.

The other benefit dieters receive from drinking green tea is having a reduced appetite. We all know that the fewer calories we take in and the more calories we burn are what it takes to lose weight. By this reasoning, green tea is the perfect diet companion.

The Other Health benefits of Green Tea

Dieters aren’t the only ones who should e drinking green tea though. There are many health benefits achieved from drinking this hot beverage every day.

Green tea will reduce your total cholesterol levels, decreasing the bad cholesterol and increasing the good cholesterol.

Because green tea is high in antioxidants it is a good tool to fight the flu. It will help boost your immunity against viruses.

Green tea kills bacteria in the mouth that causes plaque. This is good news for people who fear frequent trips to the dentist.

Green tea helps us to think more clearly. It also helps stave off memory loss, like that associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

In addition, green tea aids people with medical conditions like cancer, arthritis, heart disease and serious infections.

Maximizing the Benefits of Green Tea

Use high quality green tea leaves. Once soaked, the tea should turn out a pale green color.

Experts suggest that drinking mildly hot green tea produces better benefits that making it into iced tea.

Let the tea brew in the mildly hot water for several minutes to help bring out the flavanoids.

Experts suggest drinking between 3and 5 cups of green tea per day for better health.

Skip adding sugar to your green tea. If you feel like you need to adjust the taste, add some honey, lemon or skim milk for added health benefits.

Just don’t like the taste of green tea? Don’t worry. You can still reap the many health benefits of green tea in the form of a pill.

However you manage to include green tea in your diet, including it on a regular basis will help you experience maximum results. Add green tea to a healthy, well-balanced diet and exercise routine for good overall fitness.

Why fruits and vegetables are important

No single food can provide all the essential nutrients that the body needs. Therefore, it is important to consume a wide variety of foods to provide adequate intakes of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre, which are important for health.

8 guidelines for a healthy diet

• Enjoy your food

• Eat a variety of different foods

• Eat the right amount to be a healthy weight

• Eat plenty of foods rich in starch and fibre

• Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables

• Don’t eat too many foods that contain a lot of fat

• Don’t have sugary foods and drinks too often

• If you drink alcohol, drink sensibly

Fruit and vegetables

Fresh, frozen, dried and canned fruit and vegetables all count. Also, 100% fruit or vegetable juice and pure fruit juice smoothies count. Beans and pulses, such as baked beans and lentils also contribute to this group.

Choose a wide variety and aim to eat at least 5 different portions a day. A portion is approximately 80g (e. g. 1 medium apple, a cereal bowl of salad or 3 heaped tablespoons of peas). Servings of fruit juice, vegetable juice or smoothies can only count as one portion per day no matter how much you drink. Beans and pulses (i. e. haricot, kidney, baked, soya and butter beans, chickpeas and lentils) only count once per day no matter how many different types you eat.

We do not and can not digest cellulose. This is a carbohydrate used by plants to make their cell walls. It is also called roughage. If you do not eat foods materials which contain fibre you might end up with problems of the colon and rectum. The muscles of you digestive system mix food with the digestive juices and push food along the intestines by peristalsis; if there is no fibre in your diet these movements cannot work properly.

Chocolate fondue fountain - buying chocolate

Most people don't put much effort into buying chocolate for a chocolate fondue fountain. Perhaps they have a few bags of chocolate chips on hand or they'll even buy some of those brick sized chocolate bars. Sure this will work fine and the whole fountain concept will still impress your party guests. But true chocolate aficionados use gourmet chocolate in their fountains and you can definitely taste the difference.

Melting regular supermarket chocolate chips is not an option in the most popular home versions of the chocolate fondue fountain. The chocolate will be too thick and if it can actually be pumped to the top of the fountain, you won't get that cascading waterfall effect that these machines are famous for. Plain chocolate will just drip if you're lucky. If you're unlucky, it will clog your fountain, leaving you with a few pounds of chocolate that needs to be melted with hot water before you can use your fountain again. When using regular chocolate, you will need to add a significant amount of vegetable oil in order for the chocolate to be fluid enough for the fountain to work.

The best way to melt supermarket chocolate is with a double boiler. For every two pounds of chocolate, you should slowly add one cup of vegetable oil while stirring. If you can handle your double boiler and an electric mixer at once, then the mixing won't be too hard. You probably won't need the entire cup of oil so add it slowly and stop when you think the chocolate looks right. But don't forget that you can't add more oil when the chocolate is already in the fountain. So if you are in doubt, add more oil.

The easiest way to set up your chocolate fondue fountain is to use couverture chocolate. Couverture is a French word that means to cover. Courverture chocolate is usually used for making candies or for dipping so it's perfect for a chocolate fountain. It's made with a higher percentage of cocoa butter than normal chocolate and melts to a smoother texture. Couverture chocolate will give you that elegant looking waterfall effect without any additional oil or mixing required. The only drawback is that it's very expensive when compared to supermarket chocolate.

Melting couverture chocolate is the same as regular chocolate. Either use a double boiler or a microwave. Since you won't be adding any additional oil or using the electric mixer, the microwave can work great. Set the microwave for a minute at a time and stir in between.

Whoever decided that turning a chocolate fondue fountain into a home appliance should be given a medal. Why save the chocolate fountain for weddings and other large parties when you can now set it up every weekend. If you are having a birthday party or a barbeque, why not add some pizzazz to the event with a chocolate fondue fountain. Whether you choose expensive couverture chocolate or regular supermarket chocolate chips, it's sure to taste delicious.