How to make Green Tea

Green Tea is a great antioxidant, is full of tannins and is a great drink.

Green Tea has about half the caffeine of coffee but certainly can keep you up at night, the drink is much more alkaline and seems to release the caffeine more slowly into the circulation. The flavor of green tea can be too bitter if brewed incorrectly so I will give some guidelines to making the perfect pot of green tea.

The first washing of tea leaves with water produces a vary acrid and bitter flavor. Green tea should be "washed" with hot water once before the flavor is right. The tannins that removed from this first wash are still healthy and can be drunk as a shot or simply discarded. The best method is to use a small amount of very hot water to quickly dissolve and drain off the most bitter flavors. This also serves to soften and wet the tea leaves for a better brew.

The optimal temperature for each tea is different but generally, the darker the tea, the hotter the temperature. White teas can be soaked in lukewarm water with good taste (and many, many more servings of a mild and wonderful flavor), green teas should be soaked in hot water and black teas in very hot water.

The second through the third or fourth time the tea leaves are soaked are the best flavors for green teas. If you use the hot wash method the tea will have a nice flavor for that simply weakens over a few cups and eventually becomes a very dilute green flavor.

I generally use 1-2 tsp of gunpowder green tea leaves per cup (I have a 4 cup ceramic teapot) and get 3-4 cups of good tea from each batch. I like strong tea in the morning and find that this method gets me about 6-8 cups of green tea per day.

First I pour a couple ounces of simmering water over the dry leaves and drain it off almost immediately. This first cup is rather bitter but I like it as a "shot of green." Then I fill the pot with hot water and let it steep for about 5-10 minutes before drinking. As the pot is emptied, I simply re-fill it with hot water until the flavor is washed out (about 3-4 times).

There are several choices in sources of tea but I strongly suggest that an organic source is found. Experiment with the different types of tea as well as the timing and temperature of the washes and you will find a tea you love.

Sencha
Dragon Well
Macha
Gunpowder
Jasmine
Anji

Good Green Tea

I believe it is the tannins in the tea but it could just be the great flavor:

Green Tea is Good for the Mouth as well as the body.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Causes Diabetes

Yes, it is true, those sodas are pushing your body into diabetes.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), the grand invention of the modern food industry, can lead directly to metabolic syndrome and diabetes, two of the fastest growing epidemics on earth.

Fructose, a type of sugar that is found in HFCS and composes half of most other sugars, is processed differently by our bodies than glucose, the preferred sugar of out bodies. Fructose is processed to form fats much more rapidly than glucose. Especially when combined with a diet too rich in carbohydrates, the rapid accumulation of fat initiates and drives the spiral to diabetes through metabolic syndrome and obesity.

Nature has not been fair to us who live in the plenty of the modern world, for as we get larger, our bodies go haywire. The fat secretes hormones that increase hunger and disrupt the normal feedback mechanisms for our fat and sugar metabolism. The sensitivuty of our bodies to insulin decreases at the same time as our desire for sugar takes off.

This is true for all sweets. Especially when devoid of fiber, sugars are absorbed extremely rapidly, overtaxing out bodies ablility to regulate blood sugar and causing a rapid increase in fat storage. Fructose is just exceptionally easy to store as fat so, not only do we get the high and crash of the sugar, we accelerate the downward spiral of hormonal imbalance, autotoxicity, unregualted blood sugars, and ultimately metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

Cruciferous Vegetables Decrease Damage from Poor Air Quality

Broccoli, that best know representative of the cruciferous vegetables, has scored another hit for good nutrition. Recent work at UCLA has shown that these champions of detoxification can increase the antioxidant levels in the respiratory system, helping the body to combat air quality related diseases such as asthma and emphysema.

This adds to their already famous supporting position in detoxification of dietary poisons by the liver.

Go, Go Crucifers!