eBeautyDaily » Green_tea

A New Beauty Poll

Christina Jones — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 14:05:38 +0000

Well, what I learned from the last poll is that no one likes to talk about exercise! Ha! Me neither, really. LOL Of the whopping 17 people who answered it, 64% made an effort to get some exercise every day. Only 2 of you were fitness addicts, and several were very sedentary.

This weeks poll is about Green tea. Do you drink it, and why? Take a second and give your answer, and if you don’t drink it, give it a try. The worst thing that can happen is nothing, the best thing will be benefits to your heart, skin, teeth and overall health!

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Benefits of Red Tea (Rooibos)

Christina Jones — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 13:30:06 +0000

African Red Tea (as opposed to black tea which is called red tea by the Chinese) is another tea that is rumored to have great health benefits, and is an ingredient in an eye cream that I will mention here in a bit. I wanted to do some research on it first, so here it is.

Dr. Weil says this:

Rooibos is being heavily hyped by producers and distributors as a new health beverage. Unlike true “tea,” it is caffeine-free and low in tannins. It contains minimal amounts of calcium, potassium, iron, zinc, magnesium and much less fluoride than found in real teas. Studies have shown that Rooibos does contain antioxidants and therefore might have some of the health benefits of green tea, but very little research has confirmed this. I found only 17 scientific studies of Rooibos compared to more than 1,000 on green tea. So far, none suggest that Rooibos is the health equivalent of green tea. Brewed, Rooibos looks red but doesn’t really taste like tea – it has a slightly sweet and fruity flavor. If you like the taste and color, and want a caffeine-free herbal beverage, by all means opt for Rooibos, but if you want the health benefits of tea, I recommend sticking with the real thing.

And this from AfricanTea.com:

This tea contains almost no oxalic acid, making it a good beverage for people prone to kidney stones. Rooibos contains the following minerals: copper, iron and potassium, calcium, fluoride, zinc, manganese, alpha- hydroxy ( for healthy skin ) and magnesium (for the nervous system) are also components of this tea. In South Africa pregnant women and nursing mothers drink Rooibos because it contains no caffeine.

And then finally this, from NutriIngredients.com:

Studies carried out in South Africa have showed that rooibos is rich in antioxidants and may help protect against free radical damage that can lead to varying types of cancer and heart problems.

“We concluded that rooibos extracts interfered with skin cancer in its promotion [later development] stage. This provides the first evidence of a protective effect for rooibos teas,” said Jeanine Marnewick, from the Medical Research Council of South Africa.

She added that: “Mouse skin that was topically treated with the rooibos extracts before cancer promotion showed a 75 percent decrease in the development of skin papillomas.” Marnewick and her team hopes now to carry out similar studies on human models.

This last excerpt talks about the benefits of extracts used topically, which is really my concern here. Sure you can reap the benefits taken internally, but what does it do used in skin care creams? I guess I will try it for myself and see. Next up, the next eye cream on my try-me list!

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Benefits of Green Tea

Christina Jones — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 13:16:52 +0000

You have probably heard about Green Tea and how good it is for you. Believe it or not, I used to drink the better part of 2 pots of coffee every day, but now I finish about 3/4 of a pot, and then switch to green tea for the later afternoon (tea time – 4pm) and into the evening. Green and Black Tea (the classic tea) are made from the same leaves, but Green Tea is much less processed and not fermented, like Black Tea, which saves lots of the beneficial compounds. This is from the Celestial Seasonings website, and is about the compounds found in green tea:

Flavonoids are nutrient antioxidants found in most plants and many foods common in the human diet. There are 12 types of flavonoids, and one plant species may contain hundreds of different flavonoids. Polyphenol is a broad class of antioxidants including flavonoids and catechins. Catechins are a type of flavonoid contained in the leaves of tea. Catechins are very strong antioxidants, even more powerful than vitamins A, C, E and beta-carotene at combating harmful free radicals and protecting fragile DNA.

If you remember, antioxidants combat those free radicals, oxygen molecules that are floating around breaking apart your cells and causing problems from wrinkles to cancer. Green tea is also purported to help with things like cavities, weight loss and arthritis.
I have been drinking this super-yummy Moroccan Mint green tea from Teavana lately and it beats all the other green teas I have tried by a long shot!

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