Green Tea

Green tea granita Total time: 20 minutes, plus freezing time Servings: 4 to 6 1 quart water Juice of 1 lemon 1/2 cup sugar 4 tea bags of unsweetened and unflavored green tea 2 sprigs mint, crushed 1/2 teaspoon crushed pink peppercorns, optional 1. In a medium saucepan, combine the water, lemon juice and sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat, then remove from heat. 2. Add the tea bags and mint to the pan and steep the tea for 3 minutes.

If losing weight was one of your New Year's resolutions, you might already be growing weary of counting calories and working out. Wouldn't it be great if you could slim down without so much effort? Anyone looking for a shortcut to weight loss might be tempted to try one of many supplements that claim to burn fat and boost metabolism. These products often contain a not-especially-exotic ingredient that's already a staple of the American lifestyle: caffeine. The morning coffee drinkers at Dunkin' Donuts notwithstanding, caffeine has a strong reputation as a weight-loss aid. The stimulant is one of the key ingredients of Zantrex-3, the popular weight-loss supplement from Zoller Laboratories, based in Salt Lake City.

If losing weight was one of your New Year's resolutions, you might already be growing weary of counting calories and working out. Wouldn't it be great if you could slim down without so much effort? Anyone looking for a shortcut to weight loss might be tempted to try one of many supplements that claim to burn fat and boost metabolism. These products often contain a not-especially-exotic ingredient that's already a staple of the American lifestyle: caffeine. The morning coffee drinkers at Dunkin' Donuts notwithstanding, caffeine has a strong reputation as a weight-loss aid. The stimulant is one of the key ingredients of Zantrex-3, the popular weight-loss supplement from Zoller Laboratories, based in Salt Lake City.

Green tea granita Total time: 20 minutes, plus freezing time Servings: 4 to 6 1 quart water Juice of 1 lemon 1/2 cup sugar 4 tea bags of unsweetened and unflavored green tea 2 sprigs mint, crushed 1/2 teaspoon crushed pink peppercorns, optional 1. In a medium saucepan, combine the water, lemon juice and sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat, then remove from heat. 2. Add the tea bags and mint to the pan and steep the tea for 3 minutes.

Coffee and Green Tea has proven to improve athletic performance. wonderful !

Green tea is often touted for its antioxidant properties, but a study finds that drinking the stuff -- even a lot of it -- may not protect against breast cancer. The study, released this week in the journal Breast Cancer Research , analyzed self-reported data on the green tea drinking habits of 53,793 women in Japan. During 13.6 years of follow-up, 581 cases of breast cancer were diagnosed among the women. Women's consumption of green tea varied; at the beginning of the study about 12% drank less than one cup per week and 27% drank five or more cups a day. Researchers found no link between drinking green tea and incidences of breast cancer, regardless of how much they drank, their menopausal stage, or the type of tea they consumed.

The next time you're looking for a good sunscreen, the answer may lie in your tea leaves. It seems that applying extracts of green tea to the skin helps reduce sunburn and protects some cells from the ravages of ultraviolet radiation. Dr. Craig A. Elmets and colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham applied the extracts to the skin of healthy volunteers 30 minutes before they were exposed to simulated solar radiation.

The Food and Drug Administration has warned producers of two popular brands of green tea drinks not to make unauthorized nutrient claims, continuing its clampdown on misleading food labeling. In a warning letter to Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the FDA said the company's Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale improperly claimed to be "enhanced" with antioxidants. Because it's a carbonated drink and classified as a snack food, the beverage should not claim to be nutritionally fortified, the FDA said.

Teas from across the globe are becoming more and more popular in the U.S. One relative newcomer, yerba mate, is attracting fans for its allegedly jitter-free caffeine boost and high antioxidant content. Lab research suggests some potential health benefits from drinking yerba mate, but studies of lifelong yerba mate drinkers in the tea's native South America suggest the brew increases the risk of some cancers -- a fact most marketing campaigns omit.

All tea--black, green or oolong--comes from the same evergreen plant, Camellia sinensis. Green tea leaves are the least fermented. How it's available: Mostly in the form of loose leaves, but it also comes in tea bags and as an extract in capsules. The crux: Health interest in green tea focuses on ingredients called antioxidants, which are plentiful in fruits and vegetables and help neutralize harmful molecules called free radicals that are byproducts of metabolism.

Villains Tavern in downtown L.A. has introduced its new spring cocktail menu featuring fresh options for sunny days. A standout tipple is the lovely Loki created by mixologist Dave Whitton. Cold vodka infused with earthy green tea is tempered with silky-sweet honey peach syrup, tart lemon and a hint of fragrant sage to create a light and refreshing drink that is best consumed after a day spent in the open air. Lucky for you, Villains has one of the most comfortable outdoor patios in L.A., so stopping for a drink doesn't mean going indoors.

David Martin was in the mood for raw fish, and he liked the deal offered by a Studio City sushi restaurant: all you can eat for $28. He took a seat at the counter and started ordering. But it turned out that Martin didn't really want sushi, which includes rice; he wanted all-you-can-eat sashimi, which is just fish. He began picking the seafood off the top and leaving the rice. Restaurant owner Jay Oh told Martin that if he wanted the all-you-can-eat price, he'd have to eat the rice too and not just fill up on fish.

There’s a lot of bad buzz out there about belly fat, and most of it's true. Now researchers in Virginia say they may have found an enzyme in belly fat that accounts for the increased risk of diabetes and heart disease. A team from the Eastern Virginia Medical School and others are studying how enzymes known as lipoxygenase work and what drugs could be developed to target these enzymes. This Newport News Daily Press story gives the details. Meanwhile, other studies have linked belly fat to osteoporosis and early death . How to get rid of it?

Orange County offers both opportunity and pitfalls for farmers market shoppers. The area's demand for fresh local produce far exceeds the supply, particularly for crops such as stone fruit and apples, and it's difficult for upstate growers to make it through the traffic to O.C. venues. One of the best in the area is the recently revived Newport Beach market. Manager Mark Anderson has made a point of carefully screening his produce vendors to exclude cheaters who might sell produce bought from wholesalers or other farms.

Green tea is often touted for its antioxidant properties, but a study finds that drinking the stuff -- even a lot of it -- may not protect against breast cancer. The study, released this week in the journal Breast Cancer Research , analyzed self-reported data on the green tea drinking habits of 53,793 women in Japan. During 13.6 years of follow-up, 581 cases of breast cancer were diagnosed among the women. Women's consumption of green tea varied; at the beginning of the study about 12% drank less than one cup per week and 27% drank five or more cups a day. Researchers found no link between drinking green tea and incidences of breast cancer, regardless of how much they drank, their menopausal stage, or the type of tea they consumed.

The Food and Drug Administration has warned producers of two popular brands of green tea drinks not to make unauthorized nutrient claims, continuing its clampdown on misleading food labeling. In a warning letter to Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the FDA said the company's Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale improperly claimed to be "enhanced" with antioxidants. Because it's a carbonated drink and classified as a snack food, the beverage should not claim to be nutritionally fortified, the FDA said.

Japanese researchers are throwing cold water on one of the much-touted benefits of green tea. Their study in today's New England Journal of Medicine suggests that drinking green tea does not prevent stomach cancer, as many believe. Researchers at Tohoku University in Sendai looked at 26,311 residents of the Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan. The residents filled out questionnaires in 1984 about their health habits, including how much green tea they drank.

Reading the claims made on the hundreds of Web sites dedicated to green tea, one would think it is a magical elixir of life. Considering its long history, there is little wonder that today people the world over see it as a cure for many ills.

If you're drinking bottled tea beverages in order to reap the benefits of polyphenols in tea, you may be wasting your money. A new study shows that at least some bottled beverages that boast of having tea content actually have paltry levels of polyphenols. Polyphenols are antioxidants that are thought to promote health by protecting the body's tissues against oxidative stress and related cell damage that can cause cancer, heart disease and inflammation. A typical cup of brewed black or green tea contains 50 to 150 milligrams of polyphenols.

Like all industries, the herbal weight-loss business moves in cycles. Less than a decade ago, the stimulant herb ephedra was one of the stars of the scene. It sped up metabolism and weight loss, but it also raised the heart rate and, in some cases, caused strokes and heart attacks. The Food and Drug Administration banned ephedra supplements in 2004, setting off an industrywide scramble to find another herb that could take its place. For now, the winner seems to be green tea. Its reputation as a healthful, revitalizing beverage goes back thousands of years, and it has recently started showing up in a wide range of weight-loss supplements.