Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Chocolate for Health

This week's Chocolate Friday offering is healthy stuff.   

Personally, I've taken a Vow of Indulgence.  I follow the advice of one of my favorite quotes: "Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it I wash my mouth out with chocolate"   -- Charles M. Schultz

But I know there are others who occasionally need to be relieved of guilt, and/or given a healthy alternative to the decadence of choco-indulgences.  I did this once before for our buddy D who was trying hard to keep his girlish figure.  This time I'm doing it for KeeWee poor KeeWee who is counting every ... whatever it is you count when you're on Weight Watchers.
Note: pic stolen from Kelly's Iblio site

Firstly, I just gotta note that chocolate isn't bad for you.  It's the fats and sugars that chocolate is usually bundled with that cause all the problems.  But chocolate has lots of good stuff in it: antioxidants and polyphenols and flavanoids.  Research has shown that chocolate and cocoa can help your heart, keep your cholesterol down, keep you young, boost your sex life, and even help you grow new hair. 

Ok, I'm exaggerating.  But only a little.

According to this article:

Good quality chocolates are made with cocoa butter, which is comprised of about one-third oleic acid, a fat like that found in olive oil. Oleic acid has been shown to lower both total and LDL cholesterol.

It's important to read the labels, though, because not all chocolate is made with cocoa butter.

Chocolate is also rich in antioxidants. Studies have shown that flavonoids, which are found in cocoa, lower the risks of heart disease, lung and prostate cancer and type- 2 diabetes.

And of course, dark chocolate is the way to go, says What's Cooking America:  "a study by market research publisher Packaged Facts titled Market Trends: The U.S. Market for Gourmet Chocolate reports that the higher cocoa, lower sugar content and antioxidant properties of premium dark chocolate are making it a more attractive treat for health-conscious Americans, especially those counting carbs.

S'wenyway, if you're trying to keep your fat and sugar intake down but still want your choco-fix, here are a few "healthy" recipe sources for you:

• Healthy Fudgy Brownies - from Recipezaar.com made with wheat germ and oatmeal
• Healthy Hot Fudge Sauce Recipe - from BellyBytes.com's Healthy Chocolate Recipes List
• Chocolate Monkey - Heh, it's a sort of chocolate banana smoothie
• Healthy Chocolate Mousse -non dairy - from The Worlds Healthiest Foods
• Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding - from Cooking Light's Chocolate Recipes
• Healthy Chocolate Souffle - low fat and low calorie, from DIY Network

Whew!  That's all I can manage.  Too much healthy stuff and my eyes start to roll back in my head.  You all can live long and healthy.  I think I'll make chocolate pancakes for brekky this morning.  With chocolate syrup.  Yeah, that's the ticket!

In the News Tids & Bits

Or is that "In the Snooze"?

* Experts conflicted over health effects of coffee, tea - The debate goes on.

* Short-Term Supply Squeeze Is Call Writing Opportunity in Coffee

* Tea prices will be hit if clash escalates to ME - No, not me.  Middle East.  Silly.

* Orlando Bloom's Bad Back 'Tea' - There's something not right about this newsblip.  Orlando Bloom had to quit drinking green tea because it made his back hurt.  What? 

* And from the Groaner File: Im-peach-mint Tea:  described as "a zesty blend of high-quality black teas, infused with the aromas of ripening peaches and cool, dewy mint leaves.  Brewing instructions: If the Bush Administration is bringing you to a boil, add one teaspoon and visualize impeachment. That's it; mission accomplished! I'm not making a political statement here, so don't yell at me.  I just thought it was funny. In a groaning sort of way. Found via growabrain

It's Not the Coffee, It's the Cream

Good news for coffee drinkers (especially oldster coffee drinkers like me) - a new study shows no connection between coffee drinking and coronary heart disease.  From NewsfactorMagazine Online:

Data on more than 120,000 participants in two U.S. studies that followed people for as long as two decades found no link between heart disease and a daily intake of six or more cups of coffee. In fact, the risk was the same as for people who had less than one cup of coffee or tea a month.

How-some-ever, the study doesn't apply to french press coffee.  "Studies have consistently shown that drinking a lot of French-press coffee increases low-density lipoprotein, the bad cholesterol,"  says van Dam, research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health and a co-author of the report.

Uh oh.

And of course, if you like those fatty coffee-ish drinks then you're asking for cholesterol trouble.

I guess the answer is ... drink espresso, and drink it black!

National Caffeine Awareness Month

Before this day ends, marking the LAST DAY of National Caffeine Awareness Month®, I feel it behooves me to explain why I haven't paid more attention to it.  You'd think, on a blog about coffee, tea and chocolate, I would have mentioned it more than once, but the fact is, this particular "campaign" is ANTI caffeine. 

The phrase "National Caffeine Awareness Month®" is actually trademarked by these folx, and that means you gotta use the little R behind it, lest you get yer butt in trouble.  I notice hardly anybody does, but that's what it says on the Caffeine Awareness website.  The campaign has been sponsored by a soy-based coffee producer, Soy Coffee, which they recommend we switch to in lieu of the badbad (but oh-so-good) caffeinated products. 

Whatever.  Here are some previous posts and interesting links about caffeine:

• Caffeine Calculator - from the same Caffeine Awareness website.  It'd be interesting to compare their results with other lists online, for instance
• Erowid Caffeine Vault - Caffeine Content of Beverages, Foods, & Medications
• Caffeine Comparison Chart - from about.com
• All About Caffeine - from answers.com
• Killed By Caffeine - a humorous calculator from the Energy Fiend
• A rebbutal from a coffee fan - read this, but see me for the "where to send"
• Another rebbutal
• And another - The War on Caffeine - from Energy Fiend's Caffeine archives
• Caffeine and Chocolate
• Caffeine Makes You Wanna ...
• Can't Get Enough Caffeine?
• SperoNews Article: Activists warn of dangers from caffeine addiction
• And last but not least, a bump to our favorite hymn of all time: "O Blessed Holy Caffeine Tree" by our buddy D of Third World County

That's it for me, I'm fully caffeinated for the evening, so ... good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow!

Drink Yer Cocoa, Stay Alive!

Man I've been having such a busy week.  I really thought today was Chocolate Friday (wishful thinking ....  please, please, hurry up and be Friday) so I was going to post this link I found about cocoa.  What the hey, nothing wrong with multitudinous choco-blogging!

From ScienceDaily 2/28: 
Cocoa Intake Linked To Lower Blood Pressure, Reduced Risk Of Death

Cocoa has been linked to cardiovascular health benefits since at least the 18th century, but researchers are just beginning to collect scientific evidence for these claims, according to background information in the article. Cocoa is now known to contain chemicals called flavan-3-ols, which have been linked to lower blood pressure and improved function of the cells lining the blood vessels.

However . . .

The link between chocolate and overall lower risk of death suggests that other mechanisms also may be involved. "Because cocoa is a rich source of antioxidants, it may also be related to other disease that are linked to oxidative stress (e.g. pulmonary diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and certain types of cancer) ," the authors conclude. "However, this merits further investigation."

I'll volunteer for research duty!  Where can I sign up???

Chocolate and Caffeine

That chocolate acts as a stimulant doesn't surprise anybody I'm sure, but the main stimulating chemical isn't caffeine.  The real choco-high mostly comes from theobromine, a stimulant with physiological effects similar to those of caffeine, but ... different.  Theobromine takes longer to effect the nervous system, and lasts longer in the system, than caffeine.  Wikipedia says

Theobromine has very different effects on the human body from caffeine; it is a mild, lasting stimulant with a mood improving effect, whereas caffeine has a strong, immediate effect and increases stress.

Most coffee-heads would argue the stress point, but ... whatever. 

I'd heard so much associating caffeine and chocolate that I wanted to know the truth of it.  Is there caffeine in chocolate?  Apparently there is, although it's very small doses, and what's there, is there by human intervention.  Chocolate doesn't naturally contain caffeine.

The confusion may come from the similarity in their chemical makeup.  Or maybe it's the fact that there's sugar in most of the chocolate stuff we eat, which gives a false sort of "high" that can seem like the effects of caffeine.  The actual amount of caffeine in hot cocoa or chocolate candy is pretty small. 

The average cup of hot cocoa contains about 10 mg of caffeine but over 200 mg of theobromine. A 3 1/2 ounce chocolate bar contains approximately 12 mg of caffeine and 155 mg of theobromine.

Compared to an average cup of drip coffee (60-120 mg) and black tea (45 mg), that's not much, caffeine-wise.  Most of the comparison charts I found on the net identified just the caffeine content, and ignored the theobromine content.  Except for this one, from foodreference.com:

		Caffeine		Theobromine
White chocolate 3ounce bar or 1 cup chips		0.0 mg		0.0 mg
Baking chocolate, unsweetened 1 ounce		57.120 mg		346.360 mg
Semisweet chocolate 1 ounce (chocolate chips)		17.577 mg		137.781mg
Milk Chocolate 1.55 ounce bar		11.440 mg		74.360 mg
Cocoa mix 1 envelope/3 heaping tsp		5.040 mg		169.680 mg
Cocoa powder, unsweetened 1 tbsp		12.420 mg		111.078 mg

What about the caffeine content of your favorite chocolate products?

Ben & Jerry's Coffee Fudge Frozen Yogurt (8 oz)  -- 85 mg of caffeine
Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Bar (1.5 oz bar)  -- 31 mg
Perugina Milk Chocolate Bar with Cappuccino Filling  (1/3 bar, 1.2 ounces) -- 24 mg 
Hershey Bar (milk chocolate)  (1.5 oz bar)  -- 10  mg
Coffee Nips (hard candy)  (2 pieces) -- 6 mg 
Cocoa or Hot Chocolate  (8 ounces)  -- 5  mg
Cadbury Chocolate bar  (1 oz, 28 g)     -- 15 mg
Chocolate Jello Pudding Pops,  (47 g)  -- 2 mg

IMO, chocolate AND coffee is the best of all possible stimulant combinations.  You get both the quick and the delayed lift.  You get the long lasting effect of the chocolate, which counteracts the fall from the caffeine high.  You get the increased sense of well-being that comes from theobromine, as well as the increased alertness from coffee.  Now I ask you, how much better can it get? 

Go forth and MOCHA!

More on the caffeine content of chocolate:
* http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/caff.html
* http://www.cspinet.org/nah/caffeine/caffeine_content.htm
* http://coffeetea.about.com/library/blcaffeine.htm
* http://www.foodreference.com/html/fchocolate.html

Caffeine Makes You Wanna ...

At least, so this study shows.

Ok, now, wait.  Before anybody goes and tries to make caffeine pills the new "date drug", you should know this applies only if you're a rat.  More precisely, if you're a FEMALE rat.  They don't know yet if this translates to humans, although I could give an educated guess and say, yeah, probably. 

The rats with the highest return-for-more-sex rate had the caffeine equivalent of a couple shots of espresso for a human.  But then, they'd never had caffeine before.  It might take a bit more for those of us with high caffeine tolerance. 

Suddenly I feel the urge for a latte.

via WebMDBlog
Related: Sex and Coffee?
              Can't Get Enough Caffeine?

The Yin & Yang of Green Tea

I've had a belly ache for 4 days.  Chills, nausea, general uckiness. 

I drank some green tea, needing the comfort of tea, but thinking the black tea caffeine might not be good at that moment.  And of course, the studies about green tea have made it seem like mega-polyphenols are the answer to all that ails ya.  And we all know that green tea is higher in polyphenols than black tea. 

Unfortunately, it seemed to make me worse. 

I have, quite honestly, never been able to drink a lot of green tea.  And that Voice in my head always held out a sort of mini-judgment on me about it.  That damn Voice, the one that rags on me occasionally about Things I've Done Wrong or Reasons Why I'm a Horrible Person, whispered that if I was really a tea lover and fully health conscious, I would drink more green tea.  "Ought to", said the voice.  "SHOULD," said the voice. 

I usually manage to drown the Voice with a good strong cup of coffee or black tea or something really chocolatey and decadent.  I just assume I'm weak, that caffeine addiction is stronger than desire for health.

But then I ran across this article on Tea Masters that makes mention of green teas and "coolness" not being beneficial for older folx or those weak in yang energy.  Hey, that's me!  I've always been weak in yang energy, and now I'm an old fart to boot, so I went in search of more information.  Wendy Zhang, in an article here, writes:

Green tea, being “cold” in nature, eliminates toxic internal “heat,” induces diuresis, and counteracts the side effects of alcohol and of grease in meat. Being cold, it is most easily accepted in the summer and by those with heat symptoms such as fever, bad breath, cough, and inflammation. Black tea, being warm in nature, has the effect of warming and strengthening the spleen and stomach. It is popularly used in winter and for those experiencing cold symptoms such as stomach aches and loose stools.

Just as a coin has two sides, drinking tea can be either beneficial or harmful. Drinking green tea does not generally have side effects for young and healthy people since their yang energy is strong. However, for people who have a yang deficiency syndrome—indigestion and stomach aches, diarrhea, cool limbs, and anemia— prolonged consumption of green tea can damage the vital energy, aggravating their symptoms and making them feel bloated and nauseous.

According to Tea Masters the best tea for those who can't do straight green is "aged raw pu erh", which apparently has as much as 39% polyphenols (yer average green tea has only 30%) and is slow aged, rather than roasted.  Stephane says:

... you have to weigh in the 'cool' nature of green tea (or light oxidized oolong) when you assess it's benefits on your health. It may actually do more harm then good if you feel 'cold' already. The very best in terms of health benefits (and in terms of taste) is wild aged pu-er: it's quite unique in that it combines a high concentration of tea polyphenols with ripe, warm tea characteristics

Well, I'm going to have to find some raw, aged pu erh!  It's worth a try.   

On my searchings, I found this test, Are You Primarily Yin, Yang, or Yin/Yang?, from The Tao of Beauty by Helen Lee.  According to this, I'm actually in the low-balanced range, which surprised me.  Maybe all the work I've done on my innards is finally paying off! 

In any case, I can only go on how I feel.  And I would say, based on my own body responses, green tea is not always beneficial for everybody all the time. 

Also of interest, this article by George Wong, PhD, a Harvard-trained researcher at the Strang Cancer Prevention Center and Chinese herbalist, lists general symptoms of yin/yang imbalances and foods beneficial for each. Although the article's main focus is breast cancer and Traditional Chinese Medicine, I found lots of stuff to try for my own health. The best news from this article is

Chocolate and coffee can be good since they promote yang energy.

Well, hall-ee-loo-ya.  Now I can really tell the Voice to shove it.

You Want Me to Do WHAT With My Coffee?

Most of the news about coffee and tea and our health involves ingestion of said beverage, and how the various chemicals and ingredients passing through our stomachs affect us for the better (or worse).  There are also non-ingestive uses for tea which most folx have probably heard about.  You can make poultices, or take a soothing tea bath using a variety of herbal teas.   But this is the first I've heard of a non-ingestive use for coffee.

A coffee enema. 

Apparently it's a good way to detoxify the liver.  According to SAWilsons.com

Coffee enemas rapidly help remove toxins from the liver. They often provide quick relief when one is fatigued, sleepy, has headaches, or is just feeling poorly. They also help against spasms, precordial (heart, throat, chest) pain and difficulties resulting from the sudden withdrawal of all intoxicating sedation.

A coffee enema, when done properly, causes the liver to produce more bile, opens the bile ducts and causes the bile to flow. In this process, a toxic liver can dump many of its toxins into the bile and get rid of them in just a few minutes. This often gives great relief to all parts of the body, and often makes the difference between lying down feeling miserable and feeling good and being active. Coffee enemas are also effective in relieving pain. Patients with cancer, for example, may achieve relief from pain even when drugs failed.

Is this new news or am I just out of the loop of ... ummm ... various alternative forms of detoxification?  I confess, I don't go looking for this kind of information.  I know there are people who swear by their high colonics, but ... well, I just can't imagine a worse use for coffee.

However, these folx make a special brand of coffee specifically made for this purpose.  No kidding.  Special Enema Coffee -- "organic coffee available that has been specifically blended and roasted for enema use".  Apparently it tastes awful, so if you run out of coffee, don't raid the enema stash.

I have a sick sense of humor, I know.  I find this really funny.

Chocolate for Your Health

Whoooops, almost missed Chocolate Friday!  I've had a busybusy day, which started out badly, as I was out of coffee.  But GloryThanksBeToDog, my grocery store has just opened a coffee shop, complete with espresso, biscotti, muffins, and comfy couches.  I thought about just planting myself there for the rest of the day, but I had things to do, people to see, calls to make and muffins to bake.  So I bought myself a superdoopergrande latte and went on about my shopping.

ANYway, so now, here I am at the END of the day, finally getting 'round to ChocoFriday stuff.  This week, some articles on ways that chocolate is good for you.  A German chemist in the 1800s said, "Chocolate is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power."  Smart man. 

First, the benefits of dark chocolate...

• Eating dark chocolate may lower blood pressure
• Researches find dark chocolate may help curb smoking addiction - if only I still smoked!
• Dark Chocolate Helps Diarrhea: Study Confirms Ancient Myth

And ...

• Cocoa found to benefit smokers
• Chocolate could improve health - you can't say enough good stuff about chocolate for me!
• A great sports drink? It's chocolate milk! - I don't think this will ever fly.  It's not the energy renewal or nutrients at issue here.  It's the ... hmmm, scuse me here ... it's the phlegm.  You don't want something coating your throat when you're breathing hard.

Stock up on chocolate, it's good for you!

Antioxidants & Polyphenols

Coupla interesting health tidbits from medicalnewstoday.com ...

First, Coffee is apparently the #1 source of antioxidants in the U.S. diet, according to a study done by University of Scranton (and funded, interestingly, by the American Cocoa Research Institute).  That's a good thing, because coffee drinking is on the rise, and antioxidants have been linked to a number of potential health benefits, including protection against heart disease and cancer. 

"Coffee came out on top, on the combined basis of both antioxidants per serving size and frequency of consumption, Vinson says. Java easily outranked such popular antioxidant sources as tea, milk, chocolate and cranberries, he says. Of all the foods and beverages studied, dates actually have the most antioxidants of all based solely on serving size, according to Vinson. But since dates are not consumed at anywhere near the level of coffee, the blue ribbon goes to our favorite morning pick-me-up as the number one source of antioxidants, he says."

Secondly, Black tea is good for your teeth!  Who knew.  According to a Chicago College of Dentistry study, people who rinsed their mouths with black tea multiple times a day had less plaque buildup than those who rinsed with water.  Polyphenols in tea apparently suppress the bacterial enzyme that triggers plaque accumulation.  I assume drinking tea would be about the same.

Of course, any sweetener added negates the positive effect, as sugar increases the buildup of bacteria in the mouth.  Sidenote ... according to this article:

Gourmet coffee houses have recently introduced a whipped frozen green tea drink which includes sugar and fat content that increases the buildup of bacteria in the mouth due to the heavy sugar content in the whipped cream-covered, fat-filled, sweetened drink. Those drinks are also made with green tea extract, rather than traditional fermented black tea which offers the cleansing effect mentioned in the dental study.

So drink yer black tea black, and feel no guilt! 
Via Vancouver Coffee

Low Fat Chocolate Friday

Just for D at ThirdWorldCounty, who wants to be able to fit through the kitchen door...

Low Fat Chocolate Recipes - From Low Fat Lifestyle.  This is a great collection of recipes from a woman who obviously knows wherein she speaks.  For general low fat substitutes, she recommends substituting cocoa for bakers chocolate, or even better, use dutch process cocoa (smoother and less harsh than regular cocoa).  She also recommends using applesauce and prune puree (baby food prunes work well) as substitutes for the fat ingredients in other recipes.

No Fat / Low Fat Chocolate Recipes - From Recipe*zaar.  Not sure about this collection, the search filter may not work properly.  There are WAY too many regular (high fat) chocolate recipes on the list.  I pulled out a few of the low fat recipes that looked interesting to try later: No Fat Chocolate Zucchini Cake, Creamy Chocolate Puddingand, since I gotta have brownies, Healthy Fudgy Brownies

Low Fat Rocky Road Fudge Bars - From Recipe Goldmine.  This sounds so good, my mouse is waddling.  The Chocolate Caramel Bars sound good too.  (They have an assortment of low fat recipes here.  Low fat fettuccine alfredo!?  I gotta try this one too.)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie Recipe - From CDKitchen's Low Fat Dessert Recipe collection.  I'm not usually a peanut butter and chocolate fan, but this sounds good.

Vegan Low Fat Chocolate Cake - from animal-free recipes of The Vegan Chef, who also brings us Vegan Chocolate Ganache to glaze the top.

There, that ought to keep you busy for a while.  :)

Some additional low fat cooking tips from World Famous Recipes:

• Replace butter with polyunsaturated margarine, with liquid oil listed as first ingredient
• Replace unsweetened chocolate with 3 tbs. unsweetened cocoa plus 1 tbs. salad
  oil per ounce chocolate
• For eggs, use 1 egg plus 2 egg whites for every 2 eggs OR use egg substitute.
• Instead of ice cream use frozen lowfat or nonfat yogurt, sorbet or ice milk.
• Instead of whole milk use lowfat (1% or 2%) or nonfat milk
• Substitute sour cream with plain lowfat or nonfat yogurt, or lowfat or nonfat cottage cheese - blended until smooth.

What?  No substitutes for cream cheese????  How will I manage?

Heh.  That's IF I ever decide to eat healthy or low fat.

Yeah right.  Ok.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled NON-healthy lifestyle.

Can't Get Enough Caffeine?

I get a lot of folx looking for comparisons on the caffeine content of tea and coffee.  I'm sure some of these are health-conscious folx with concerns about putting bad things in their bodies.  But some are from the opposite end of the spectrum - caffeine seekers.  I fall somewhere in the middle.  I want to be healthy.  No, really, I do.  But if it means giving up my coffee and black tea, well, I don't think so.  What is long life if there's no quality of life, no enjoyment? 

Well, anyway, before I wax too philosophic... caffeine is

"an alkaloid (C8H10O2N4•H2O) found in coffee, tea, cacao, and some other plants. It is also present in most cola beverages. Caffeine was discovered in coffee in 1820. In 1838 it was established that theine, discovered in tea in 1827, is identical to caffeine. The drug increases the blood pressure, stimulates the central nervous system, promotes urine formation, and stimulates the action of the heart and lungs. Caffeine is used in treating migraine because it constricts the dilated blood vessels and thereby reduces the pain. It also increases the potency of analgesics such as aspirin, and it can somewhat relieve asthma attacks by widening the bronchial airways. Caffeine is produced commercially chiefly as a by-product in making caffeine-free coffee.  (From THC: Encyclopedia)

Caffeine content of beverages and foods varies depending on type and preparation methods.  There seems to be no definitive number for comparing coffee and tea, but averaging out all the charts I found, a general comparison for a 6 oz cup would be 100 mg for drip coffee and 70 mg for black tea.  Some good lists:

Erowid Caffeine Vault - Caffeine Content of Beverages, Foods, & Medications
Caffeine Comparison Chart - from about.com
All About Caffeine - from answers.com

Now, if you just can't find a beverage with enough caffeine, if you just gotta have that extra-hefty jolt, try adding a little 100% Purity White Crystalline Powder Caffeine to your cup.  I don't know if I would want to try this stuff, personally, but hey, they claim it's absolutely the purest stuff.  "Just add 1/16 Teaspoon (105 mg.) caffeine powder to juice or soft drinks" and get ready to fly.  WeeeeeeeHAAW!

Coffee for Your Health

(Take note that today is National S'mores Day.  If you've never had a s'more, you've never lived.  A slab of Hershey's chocolate, toasted marshmallows - best if burnt and crispy and then dropped on the ground - pressed between two graham crackers and held in a grubby hand long enough for the chocolate to get soft and begin to melt, and then eaten as quickly and messily as possible.  Ahh, the girl scout days, the summer camps, toasting marshmallows over a campfire.)

Now, from the Hysterical Historical file: The Vertue of the Coffee Drink, a coffee handbill from 1652 on the health benefits of coffee.  I bet you didn't know that coffee can and will

• cure headaches
• aid digestion
• prevent drowsiness (for 3-4 hours!)
• help against fore eys (not sure what that is, but I don't wanna get it!)
• prevent & cure dropsy, gout and scurvy
• prevent miscarrying
• stop defluxion of rheums (thank god for that... whatever it is, I don't want it)
• prevent & cure consumption and "the Cough of the Lungs"
• prevent King's Evil (had to look this one up, it's an old term for tuberculosis of the lymph nodes in the neck)

See, now, I have a good reason for all the coffee I drink.  God forbid I should miscarry or deflux!

Thanks to Bloggle for the link.

The Green Tea Fad-Wagon

This is one of those things that really burns my buns and sends me into a full-fledged soap-box bitch-fest.

The other day I got a flyer in the mail advertising Lipton's new Green Tea "high in antioxidants"! 

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a tea snob anymore.  I don't totally shun tea bags.  But Lipton green tea bags? 

You know, most of the research - even tho it's confusing and conflicting - indicates that you have to drink 4-5 cups of green tea per day in order to get any benefit from it.  And that's talking about fresh green tea leaves.  4-5 cups per day!! 

I just can't imagine a Lipton green tea bag could possibly contain enough fresh green tea to do anybody's body any good.  Even if you drank 10-12 cups of the stuff. 

The straw that broke my back this morning though, was reading a post on EspressoNinja.com. 

Starbucks corporate sent us the new promo materials for the next new frappuccino. They are expanding the Tazo tea line to introduce the Tazo Green Tea Frappuccino blended Creme.

So does anyone else think it looks like guacamole in a cup?

No, but it does piss me off.

The green tea fad is right up there with the fat fads.  Anybody remember when everything in the grocery store was marked "low cal"?  And then we moved to "no sugar".  Then it was "non-fat" or "low fat".  And now everything is marked "low carb".  Even things that weren't high carb to start with are marketed and packaged as low carb foods.  It drives me CRAZY!

The fact is we're jumping the gun a little here.  The jury is still out, the research isn't conclusive yet.  The signs are good, but more study is needed.  But still, they're selling us on the idea that green tea will prevent all kinds of cancer, help us lose weight, live longer, quit smoking, make our sex life better and clear up acne!  Playing on our fear of death to make a buck.  It pisses me off.  but the truth is, if we didn't buy this stuff, they wouldn't keep trying to sell it to us.  Don't do it!  Don't jump on the wagon!  Don't buy just because somebody said it's a magic cure.  Don't buy the hype.  Just say NO to the fad wagon!!

Now, can we go back to drinking green tea because we like it?

Oh, and if you think you can get around the 5+ cups per day by taking green tea extract as a vitamin supplement, read this:
* Green Tea Extract May Promote Tumor Growth

More green tea articles:
* Green Tea - How much should I drink?
* The Biology of a Cup of Tea
* White Tea is Healthier than Green Tea

Echinacea tea - will it really do any good?

Sick as a dog, popping vitamin C and drinking echinacea tea, but feeling like I'm just closing the barn door after the horse has already gotten out, I went in search of info on echinacea tea to see if it will really do me any good at this point.  I found this at the very bottom of a page on ginseng research:

Echinacea tea blend shortens duration of cold symptoms

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study of 95 people, treatment with an echinacea tea preparation (Echinacea Plus®, Traditional Medicinals) early in the course of a cold or flu was significantly more effective in relieving symptoms than a placebo tea. For the 90-day study, participants reported for assignment to one of two treatment groups at the first onset of cold and flu symptoms (scratchy throat, runny nose, fever, etc.). The subjects drank 5 to 6 cups a day of echinacea or placebo tea on the first day of symptoms, reducing the dosage to 1 cup per day for the next five days. Results were assessed with a questionnaire that measured symptom relief, duration of symptoms, and time before subjects noticed a difference in symptoms. The echinacea tea was significantly more effective than placebo in all parameters measured. No side effects were reported in either group. Echinacea Plus is a proprietary blend of E. purpurea and E. angustifolia leaves, flowers, and stems, a water soluble dry extract of E. purpurea root, and flavoring herbs. Eater's Digest® (Traditional Medicinals) was selected as the placebo tea because it was not expected to have a significant effect on cold or flu symptoms at the dosages used in this study. Among other herbs, Eater's Digest contains cinnamon, ginger, and peppermint. Lindenmuth GF, Lindenmuth EB.

The efficacy of echinacea compound herbal tea preparation on the severity and duration of upper respiratory and flu symptoms: a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study.

This article originally appeared in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2000; 6(4): 327-334.

Ok then!  It's better than a sugar cube.  I'll brew up some more!

The Comfort of Tea (and Toast)

I uncovered some old childhood memories yesterday.  I woke up with a bad head cold which got worse & worse throughout the day, till by the evening I was feverish and couldn't breathe. 

Red eyes, tissues stuffed up my nose, I dragged myself into the kitchen to make tea and find something to eat that I could prepare quickly and take back to bed with me.

The memory that washed over me was so sweet and so comforting.  There was a period when I was little and got sick that my single-working-mom would take me to grandma's house.  Grandma would tuck me under a blanket on the living room sofa where she could keep an eye on me, and bring me a cup of hot tea and buttered toast on a small plate. Some days, when I was really sick, she would use her special china plate and cup that normally I wouldn't be allowed to touch.  Even at my most miserable, she could usually coax me into sipping the tea and nibbling at the toast. 

I know there aren't any grand, magical medicinal properties in the combination of black tea and toast, but they became, in my child's mind, the cure for all that ailed me.  The taste of the tea and the toast were comforting in themselves, true.  But more than that, they came to represent grandma's care and comfort.

So, I poured my tea into one of grandma's good china tea cups - one of the few things I still had of hers that hadn't gotten broken or lost over the years.  I made myself a slice of toast to go with my tea, lathered with butter.  I poured gobs of honey into that pretty china tea cup, and tucked myself into bed, propped up on my pillows.  I felt better as I ate and sipped, comforted by tea and toast, and by the memories of somebody who loved me and took care of me when I felt like crap. 

White Tea is Healthier Than Green?

Studies have shown that green tea stimulates the immune system to fight disease, but white tea is even better for you? Apparently so. 

A study presented last year at the American Society for Microbiology general meeting in New Orleans showed that White Tea Extract can actually destroy in vitro the organisms that cause disease.  Some studies have also shown that white tea contains more active cancer-fighting antioxidants than green tea.

Sex and Coffee?

Is caffeine an aphrodisiac?  Is there some magical chemical reaction in a cuppa that can rouse and arouse?  According to About.com, there may be some truth to it.

A University of Michigan urologist surveyed 744 married couples, age 60 or older, and discovered that those who were daily coffee drinkers were considerably more likely to call themselves “sexually active”--62 percent versus 38 percent of the noncoffee drinkers. Coffee-drinking men also reported less erectile dysfunction (ED). Caffeine does more than stimulate wakefulness. It also has antidepressant action that may contribute to its sex-stimulating effect.

Hmmm.  I'd like to know the stats for folx under 60.  But I'll keep this in mind when I'm in the geriatric dating pool.  Find me some frisky coffee-drinking johnny with a twinkle in his eye.

And what about chocolate?  In The Benefits of chocolate  J. Woods tells us that

Chocolate stimulates the secretion of endorphins, producing a pleasurable sensation similar to the "runner's high" a jogger feels after running several miles. Chocolate also contains a neurotransmitter, serotonin, that acts as an anti-depressant. Other substances, such as theobromine and phenylethylamine, have a stimulating effect. Scientists believe there are over three-hundred chemicals contained in chocolate which makes us feel so good!

But according to The Fat Guy at salon.com, the relationship between sex and food (or drink) is all in yer head.  Or rather, it's all about the memory and emotion that we attach to foods and the rituals surrounding foods that make them sexy.

Hey, the effects of alcohol aren't in my head, bub.  But then again, booze is a depressant, and too much alcohol puts me right to sleep.  I'm fun and uninhibited for about 5 minutes. 

After doing much personal research, my favorite concoction for reaching maximum warm-fuzzy, loosey-goosey-but-still-awake, ready-for-action is a combination of

• 1 part alcohol
• 3 parts caffeine
• 1 part chocolate

Sometimes with whipped cream. (Sometimes in the cup, and sometimes not.)  And if that's all in my head, I don't care.  It works for me!

Related: Caffeine Makes You Wanna ...