Overdieting leaves you hungry
...and therefore you end up eating more.
Here's a list of typical diet foods that only make your tummy angry and wanting more...
- Light yogurt
- Puffed cereal with skim milk
- Big green salad with low fat or fat free dressing
- Rice cakes
- Chewing gum
- Diet soda
- Apple
- Low-calorie frozen entrees
- Fat-free graham crackers or other baked goods
Want to know why they confuse your body? Read more here.
Beautiful tea canister
Deceptively simple looking, a single Karmi tea canister can take artisans over a year to complete. Manufacturer Syosen, based in Yamanaka (a region known as much for its traditional lacquerware, as for its natural thermal baths), crafts their products following a half-century-old lathing technique. Carving a perfectly-rounded cup or bowl involves precisely thinning the wood, followed by several rounds of lacquering (clear in this case) and extended drying times to ensure a bone-dry core. The technique leaves the natural beauty of the vertically-cut wood grain exposed, creating a muddled elongated effect.
via CH
Four Ways to a Healthier Life
not realy breaking discovery but it might help when you see that in wrting...
The CDC suggests you:
- Avoid Tobacco: if you don't smoke, don't start, and if you do, quit now. Get in touch with 1-800-Quit-Now and they will help you (for resources in other countries, contact your local health authority, or look for useful resources on the internet, such as quitsmokingsupport.com).
- Limit Alcohol: men should have no more than two drinks a day, women no more than one.
- Improve Your Diet: eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, switch to fat-free and low-fat dairy and seafoods. Cut down on salt and foods high in sodium, saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, added sugar, and refined grains.
- Exercise: on five days a week or more do at least 150 minutes total of moderate exercise such as brisk walking, or on three days a week or more, do a total of 75 minutes of vigorous exercise such as jogging or race walking (this raises heart rate more than brisk walking).
CDC - center fo disease control
A hassle free tea maker
or should I say tumblr.
The Kicker Tea Tumbler - How it Works from Kicker Studio on Vimeo.
Water is extra important when brewing tea
Some Q&A from NYT session with Harold McGee.
Would different sources of water change the infusion? If so, which properties would be ideal?
Coffees and teas are about 98 percent water, so water quality is important, especially if you’re making a cold brew. Bringing water to the boil can drive off chlorine and other unpleasant aromas, so if your tap water has some of these, you might want to boil and then cool it before brewing. Hard water, high in calcium and magnesium minerals, will significantly slow the extraction, so if your brews seem consistently too weak, try using bottled spring water.
Is it safe to let steeping tea sit for 6 – 8 hours at room temperature? That’s what I’ve always done, but have recently heard it’s best to do it in the refrigerator to avoid culturing bacteria in the tea at room temp. Is this so?
Steeping tea in the refrigerator will certainly slow any growth of disease-causing bacteria that might otherwise occur. It will also slow the extraction. I haven’t found any evidence in the medical literature that brewing tea at room temperature poses a significant health risk.
Are there health risks involved with preparing coffee and especially tea when the dried ingredients aren’t subjected to hot water (which could presumably kill or neutralize harmful substances)? I have read in the past that tea makers do not recommend preparing their product without very hot water for precisely this purpose.
I’ve been told that sun tea, which seems to be another name for cold-brewed tea, is unsafe because it can contain bacteria that were on the tea leaves. What is your opinion ?
It’s true that there can be bacteria on tea leaves, that cold brewing won’t kill them, and that there is therefore some risk of food poisoning from cold-brewed tea. I haven’t found any evidence in the medical literature that it’s significant.
I was wondering why restaurants seem to think it is a good idea to leave tea leaves/bags in their tea for long periods of time after brewing is finished. I was taught that the tea should be removed from the water after its optimal brewing time (four to five minutes usually) so that the tea doesn’t get overly strong and bitter. This preserves the taste of tea, and doesn’t ruin what’s left in the pot for the second cup. However, almost every time I go to a restaurant and order a pot, the leaves are dumped in there, or the bag is solidly wound around the lid so I can’t get it out, which means I get one really good cup, and the rest I can’t even drink. Why is this the norm? Am I just in the wrong?
You’re right, the longer you leave tea leaves in the tea after optimal brewing, the more bitter and tannic it gets. What you describe is unfortunately common brewing malpractice.
In Asia we drink Chinese tea by infusing the tea leaves several times, making more than one brew. Sometimes the tea leaves are held over from the night before, especially if the tea is a very expensive variety, e.g. Long Qin (Dragon’s Well). Do you think this is a food-safe practice?
Chinese green tea is usually brewed with water near the boil, and repeated brewing extracts doesn’t leave much for bacteria to grow quickly on, so I wouldn’t be too worried about the safety of reusing leaves the next day.
image from flickr.
Don't drink soda
Regular, diet - doesn't matter. Switch to water, tea. In the short and long run you'll feel much better.
... not only does diet soda fail to help people lose weight, it may in fact contribute to weight gain by raising blood sugar and paving the way for type 2 diabetes.
People who regularly drank diet soda showed an increase in waist circumference of 70% compared to those who did not drink diet soda. Worse, those who drank the most diet soda (more than two servings per day) showed a staggering 500% increase in waist size compared to non-drinkers. [as in: KQED]
