Green Tea Health Benefits - How the Green Tea Diet Can Help You Shed Pounds!

By Cornell Dayne 
If you watch television, listen to the radio or glance at billboards, you've noticed that everyone wants you to try some kind of diet. There are the fancy celebrity-endorsed diets, the expensive food-delivery diets and the rather unfulfilling liquid diets. Countless others spring up every year. Most of them fall into oblivion within months.

The green tea diet, however, has been used in one form or another for centuries. While ancient Chinese tea drinkers didn't think of their habits as a "diet," they enjoyed the amazing health benefits that green tea offers. Today, Western culture is catching on to what it can do.

Green tea differs from black tea in that it is made using fresh leaves. Black teas are fermented prior to use, but green teas are made by pan-firing, or steaming, the fresh leaves. This process results in the finished product carrying higher levels of epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG.

EGCG is a chemical that is thought to slow down the aging process. It may even help to prevent certain conditions, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. A study in China suggested that green teas may also help lower cholesterol. The controlled study showed that people on a green tea diet lowered their cholesterol by 16 percent in just three months.

While the scientific community is still debating the full extent of the chemical's benefits, people who drink it regularly report feeling a difference. They feel energetic and healthier overall.

One of the most often-noted benefits of drinking the green beverage daily is its reported effect on metabolism. Certain compounds in it are said to boost the amount of calories burned doing everyday activities. By helping you burn more calories during the day, believers say that it helps keep their waistlines trim.

Does it really work, or is it all hype? The jury is still out for the most part. It's hard to measure how much of an effect green tea might have on weight loss, making it challenging to prove any effect at all.

It's easy to assume that drinking it will have at least an incidental effect on the amount of calories you burn. It contains caffeine (though less than coffee or black tea), so it can increase energy. That in itself may be enough to spur some dieters to drop a few extra pounds. And for people who are sensitive to caffeine, green tea is a great way to get a small shot of energy without the jitteriness of coffee.

But some devotees say it is much more than an incidental effect. They believe that the antioxidant properties coupled with the increase in metabolism help the pounds come off much faster than with diet and exercise alone.

Dieters who are on medication should be aware that compounds in green tea may interfere with certain medications. Consulting your doctor before you start this tea diet (or any diet) is a good idea to avoid any unwelcome surprises.

While most people choose to sip a cup or two of green tea every day, it is also available in capsule form. Green tea pills vary in dosage and effectiveness, so you may need to experiment with several before finding one that works for you.

Overall, the it is worth a try for just about anyone looking to shed some weight. In essence, the green tea diet is simply a healthy diet with an emphasis on fresh foods and green tea. The extra energy that you get from the small amount of caffeine may be enough to spur you to exercise more.

However, just like with any dietary supplement, you can't expect the pounds to simply melt off. Losing weight takes hard work and dedication, and there is no magic potion. Green tea can help you get started on the path to a healthier life and a healthier weight, but it has to be backed up with a sound eating plan and regular exercise.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cornell_Dayne

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Aerobics Vs Strength Training - The Benefits!

By Faraz A Khan 

Before we delve in the core of the article I would like to inform the readers that neither Aerobics nor Strength training is harmful or hurtful to any individual. Both serve identical purposes as well as individual concerns. It is impertinent to match the exercises with your needs and you must always remember to listen to what your body is telling you.

Lets now discuss the benefits of Aerobics. If you have come this far I am confident you are aware of what Aerobics are. However, for the sake of the newbies and recently motivated health conscious fellow readers, I will in brief describe aerobics and its main functions. Aerobic exercise also known as cardio, is a low to moderate intensity physical exercise that involves stretching and cardio at its minimum. Its main function is to Improve overall health of the individual performing the exercises. The benefits of Aerobics are numerous from improved blood
flow to reduced resting heart rate.

The main aim of the individual performing these exercises is generally to improve overall health or facilitate weight loss. Either of which can be attained simultaneously with the employment of aerobics in the individuals lifestyle. However the lack of incorporation of Weight training in to an aerobics regimen can mean missing out and reducing the efficiency of your workouts considerably. Relying solely on Aerobics would result in a body that has an efficient cardiovascular system but lacks muscle mass to effectively live a healthy life. Performing Aerobics solely not only stagnates muscle growth but further reduces muscle mass, this can be a very important factor as one reaches old age since muscle mass becomes much more valuable than a healthy cardiovascular system.

To combat the aforementioned problems with Aerobics alone we introduce weight training. Weight training also known as Strength training, or working out - in its simplest form is exercising with resistance, the resistance can be in the form of weights or elastic bands etc. The benefits of Weight training are numerous, from increased strength to improved cardiovascular system, to increase in bone density and loss of fat.

Weight training has an upper hand on Aerobics in several areas, for one it does not come with any negative side effects such as those of decrease in muscle mass with aerobics. It is also easy on the bones and joints as it does not have to be as high impact as Aerobics. As for the benefits it provides all of that of Aerobics plus some. With an ideal weight training regimen you can expect to improve your cardiovascular system, whilst gaining strength (muscle mass) that will come in handy as you get older. Weight training does not have to involve heavy weights and require you to have big muscles to start, on the contrary, as long as there is resistance and adequate regimen is followed you can be sure the reap the benefits of Weight training.

So from the above analysis we can conclude that weight training has the upper hand on Aerobics when it comes to improving your health and living a healthy lifestyle. However, it must be mentioned that an incorporation of both Aerobics and Weight training can be exponentially advantageous for the individual, since Aerobics compliment weight training and vise versa. I hope I have effectively addressed your concerns, I would recommend checking out the source for a true in depth analysis of this issue and much more on a breadth of topics from weight loss to healthy living. Good luck!

Note: The aforementioned substance incorporates research as well as personal experiences to arrive at the opinions stated in this article.

I hope I have been of some help to you all, with the right information and knowledge you can gain the same benefits by working out less and enjoying life more! Below is the link to the website by a personal fitness trainer/owner of a very successful fitness centre located in the heart of Toronto. (Fitness Solutions Plus)
http://www.torontofitnessonline.com/2012/04/23/aerobic-exercise-or-strength-training/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Faraz_A_Khan

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Health Benefits of Eating Eel

By Lynne Evans

Eels may not appeal to you visually as they do look rather like black snakes, but they are nutritious, healthy, and taste very good - and you don't have to take my word for that! I love them and I didn't have to acquire a taste for them. I probably ate quite a few of the plastic cupfuls of
jellied eels before I realized what I was eating. My grandfather adored them and that was good enough for me. They are a meaty fishy thing as far as texture goes, but as they were in a jelly, they were also slippery.

London's East End is famous for its pie, mash and liquor, and its jellies or stewed eels. The working classes were eating them heartily in the 1800s and the tradition continues today. Tourists and locals alike can be found in the pie shops trying out the local 'delicacies' if you can call mashed potatoes and a meat pie covered in pea sauce which may have been made with the water leftover from cooking the eels.

Eels are good for you as they contain Omega-6 fatty acids, and so have all the benefits of other oily fish such as mackerel and salmon. They contain the minerals calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, selenium (the feel good mineral as I like to think of it), manganese, zinc and iron. As for minerals they are a very good source of vitamins A and B12 and also a very good source of protein. They contain no carbohydrates, but have 18 amino acids and vitamins A, C, E (in the form of Alpha-Tocopherol) k, The B-complex vitamins, B1, B2, B3, B6, folate, B5, B12 and choline. This means that they are heart healthy, protect the central nervous system, help vision, promote hair growth and help rejuvenate the skin, and of course there's selenium, good for the brain and a mood enhancer.

This year, the price of eels and elvers (baby eels) has sky-rocketed, partly because the populations in the Thames have decreased, and partly because people have woken up to the fact that eels are healthy and tasty too. In April 2012, American fishermen in Portland, Maine, were saying that a pound of eels could fetch more than $2,000. The season for elvers is short, being from February to May.

I will never forget the first time I saw these small, transparent, wriggling creatures crawling over the prawns and fish in Swansea market. I got over it though and ate them when we got home. You can still buy them there with the fresh cockles and laverbread (cooked seaweed). Jellied eels can be prepared at home, they are boiled in water and spices and the water is allowed to cool and then it becomes jelly as the eel is fatty, as I mentioned above. You can eat them hot or cold, and if you are in the East End of London, they will be served in a bowl, and you will be given them already chopped up as you traditionally eat them with a fork and spoon - no knife.

It seems as though they are not as cheap as they used to be- but they are just as tasty, so forget your prejudices and try them. They are good for you.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lynne_Evans

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