Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Tea

I am a serious coffee addict and knowing how bad caffeine and coffee is I am planning on trying to switch my coffee for tea. I'll still hold on to my creamer though ;p  Being a southerner, hot tea is not something I'm used to so I asked a tea expert for some advice and she says...

Mate is a great transition away from coffee as it has about the same amount of caffeine. My problem with coffee is not the caffeine, it is the amount of cream + sugar I have to add to make it palatable. Green tea, gosh, there are so many. Genmaicha and matcha are my favorite types of green tea. Teavana/special teas really focuses on the flavored teas for taste. If you want straight teas (green or oolong, for example) you may want to order direct from China or Japan, there are several sites like ocha http://www.o-cha.com/ that you can order from. 

Did you know that all teas come from the same plant? (well, except Rooibos, which comes from an African shrub brush, mate which comes from the yerba mate plant, and herbal tea which is comprised of herbs or bits of fruit). Black, green, white, ph erh, and oolong are all from the same plant, the Camellia sinensisplant. It is the processing method that determines the type of tea.

• White tea: Wilted and unoxidized
• Yellow tea: Unwilted and unoxidized, but allowed to yellow
• Green tea: Unwilted and unoxidized
• Oolong: Wilted, bruised, and partially oxidized
• Black tea: Wilted, sometimes crushed, and fully oxidized
• Post-fermented tea: Green tea that has been allowed to ferment/compost

Tea has many health benefits. They are (according to the Teavana website):

White Tea:

• Extremely high amount of antioxidants
• May inhibit the growth of certain forms of cancer
• May reduce fine lines and wrinkles.
• Excellent for skin and complexion
• Approximately 1% of the caffeine in a cup of coffee
• 
  

Black Tea:

• Aids in lowering cholesterol
• May help regulate your blood sugar
• Gently stimulates the heart and circulatory system
• Promotes healthy teeth, skin and bones
• Contains 20% of the caffeine in a cup of coffee
• 
  

Green Tea:

• May help boost the immune system
• Includes polyphenols which may help prevent the growth of certain cancers
• Soothes the stomach and digestive system
• Regulates blood sugar
• Lower cholesterol
• Contains 5-10% of the caffeine in a cup of coffee.
• 
  

Oolong Tea:

• Good for metabolism and digestion
• May help lower your cholesterol levels
• Also known as ‘Wu-Long’ teas
• Excellent for skin and complexion
• Contains 10-15% of the caffeine in a cup of coffee.
• 
  

Herbal Tea:

• Delicious source of antioxidants and vitamins, particularly Vitamin C
• Other benefits depend on the specific parts of individual teas
• Naturally caffeine-free
• Usually great hot or iced
• 
  

Mate:

• Rich in vitamins and minerals
• Works as an appetite supressant
• 100% of the caffeine in a cup of coffee (without the sudden crash)
• 
  

Rooibos:

• High in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals
• May help control allergies and fight colds
• Good for your skin and complexion
• Helps improve digestion
• Naturally caffeine-free

However, I seriously doubt some of these health claims. I mean, all teas contain antioxidants to a varying degree. Anyway, I know they are healthy and I enjoy drinking them, and it is better to have tea than too much coffee, for me anyway it is much easier on the digestive system.

My favorite teas are Silver Needle white tea, Earl Grey creme, Pu Erh, and Oolong, Rooibos, and Mate. The best way to drink tea is from a tetsubin, which is a traditional cast iron tea pot.

Tea should be steeped for varying temperatures and times. It is recommended for green and white tea to steep at 175 deg F (~80 C) for 1-2 min, black tea at 194 deg F (90 C) for 2-3 min, and mate or herbal tea for 208 deg F (~98 C) for 5 min.

In fact, I have quite the tea addiction. I started drinking more tea about a year and a half ago, a switch from coffee. I started off with one black tea, from Harney and Sons, the hot cinnamon spice http://www.harney.com//Hot-Cinnamon-Spice/products/225/ and a green tea from Teavana. I quickly became addicted to other Teavana flavors, and currently have at least 14 different varieties of tea in stock in the kitchen. Rooibos, black, green, white, herbal, and mate are all there,

However, a secret lies within those tins. Oh yes, the secret of Special Teas. Yes, Special Teas. Because it was only recently I was made aware that Special Teas actually supplies all the tea for Teavana. But here is the thing, you can order ALL the same teas from Special Teas for a fraction of the price. And no, you do not have to order in bulk. I was shocked to learn this, but hey, better late than never, right? You do have to do some searching on their site to match the same teas, as they rename the Teavana teas as a marketing ploy. Observe:

First, you should visit the tea flavor finder on the Special Teas webiste:

http://www.specialteas.com/tea-flavor-finder.aspx

Then pick a flavor. Say we pick strawberry melody, for instance. Note that a strawberry flavored white tea appears. However, this tea is not listed under white teas – for some strange reason almost all of the teas are under flavored teas and not under white, black, green, etc. At any rate, 1/4 lb (4 ozs) is $13.70. The ingredients listed are:

Ingredients: White tea Mao Feng, candied pineapple bits (pineapple, sugar), candied papaya bits (papaya, sugar), candied mango bits (mango, sugar), flavor, red currants, rose blossom leaves, strawberry bits, jasmine blossoms, flower of sandy immortelles

Go to the Teavana website and look under white teas. Click on Youthberry White and read the ingredients:

http://www.teavana.com/The-Teas/White-Teas/Youthberry-White-Tea.axd

The ingredients are:

Ingredients: White tea, candied mango pieces (mango, sugar), candied pineapple pieces (pineapple, sugar), rosehip peels, apple bits, hibiscus flowers, red currants, flavoring, rose petals and acai fruit powder (acai, maltodextrin).

This tea is listed at $12.00. But wait, that is for only 2 ozs. And it is the same tea. I know the ingredients are EVER SO SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT AS LISTED, BUT LET ME ASSURE YOU IT IS THE SAME TEA.

You can play this game for several hours, matching up the tea from Teavana to the corresponding tea from Special Teas. Sometimes you may have to blend two teas together to make the available offering from Teavana, but that makes the end product EVEN CHEAPER!

Observe:

Teavana JavaVana Mate:

http://www.teavana.com/The-Teas/Mate-Teas/JavaVana-Mate-Tea.axd

Ingredients: Assam black tea, roasted mate, cocoa bits, flavoring, and vanilla bits.

$7.20 for 2 ozs.

Special Teas, mate roasted plus Vanilla-with-Finest-Madagascar-Vanilla or Chocolate Creme with Cocoa Pieces

http://www.specialteas.com/Coffee/963-Mate-Roasted.html

http://www.specialteas.com/Vanilla/931-Vanilla-with-Finest-Madagascar-Vanilla.html

$3.20 for 4 ozs of mate + $5.95 for 4 ozs of black tea = ~ $8 for 8 ounces of the mate blend. The same blend from Teavana would be ~ $25 for 8 ozs! Is that not unreal?!? At first I was livid when I found out but now I am pretty happy about it. Heck, now I can feed my tea addiction for much cheaper! However, I still love a cup of Harney and Sons Hot Cinnamon Sunset tea, it will always hold a special place in my heart. I have also heard that Adaigo Teas is yummy, and I think my next tea order is going to come from them, although I will still be frequenting Special Teas as well!

-Thanks to  Pandazen for all the info!!!

Quinoa Cocoa Pops

This is the recipe I used:


1 cup sprouted quinoa grains (dehydrate for about 3-4 hrs at 110 degrees) 


Mix the sprouted grains with 1TBS cocoa and your choice of sweetner. 


Mix the dry ingredients, then add about 2 TBS soaked flax , it will hold the mixture together. 


Spread on a baking stone and dehydrate for about 3-4 hours at 110 degrees. 


When its done just brake it apart and there you have yummy raw quinoa cocoa pops.


Also I am going to try substituting the cocoa with cinnamon and make cinnamon pops.. I think it would be delish too.


-Sunny

FYI: Of all the whole grains, Quinoa has the most protein. It provides all 9 essential amino acids. It's gluten free and cholesterol free and is almost always organic.

Using Flax As An Egg Substitute

Soaked ground flax is a gooey texture and can be used as replacement for an egg. 


Animal protein and starch do not digest well together. The two enzymes produced to digest each cancel each other out and digestion stops. You can read about it on the body ecology website.. but here is a little info on it. I have been on the Body Ecology Diet and my digestion is amazing compared to what it use to be. I tried eating an animal protein and starch together once after being on the Body ecology diet for several months and it truly made me so bloaty because I was not digesting it.

Physiologically, the first steps in the digestion of starches and proteins take place in opposite media—starch requiring an alkaline medium, protein requiring an acid medium in which to digest. The enzyme ptyalin (salivary amylase) that initiates starch digestion is active in an alkaline medium only and is destroyed by a mild acid. On the other hand, pepsin, the enzyme that initiates protein digestion is active only in an acid medium. If starches and proteins are eaten together, the acid gastric juice destroys the ptyalin and puts an end to salivary digestion of starch. That the presence of the undigested starch in the stomach interferes with the digestion of protein is shown by the presence of undigested protein in the stools. Physiologists have shown that undigested starch absorbs pepsin and this will surely interfere with digestion of protein.

If a food that is a natural protein-starch combination is eaten alone, the body is capable of modifying its digestive juices and timing their secretions in such ways that digestion can go on with a fair degree of efficiency. But when a starch food and a protein food are eaten at the same meal this precise adaptation of the digestive secretions to the character and digestive requirements of the food is not possible. There is a marked and important difference between eating a food that is a natural protein-starch combination and eating two foods, one a protein, the other starch.

When starches and proteins are eaten together, there is a fermentation and this results in fouling the whole digestive tract. Fermentation means irritation and poisoning. If starch is eaten without protein, the gastric (stomach) secretions will not be acid, or will be so weakly acid that they will not interfere with salivary digestion. In this case here will be no fermentation, except from other causes, such as overeating, hurried eating, other wrong combinations, eating when fatigued, worried, angry, fearful, grieved, etc., eating immediately before beginning work, eating when in pain, fever or when there is inflammation, etc. The causes of indigestion are legion. 


Anyway, all that to say that the soaked ground flax is awesome for a subtitute for an egg when you are cooking something starchy.


-Sunny

Homemade Raw Organic Chocolate

I actually used a kit to make my chocolate but its super simple. I don't know the ratios of the cocoa powder and cocoa butter but that is all u need for a dark bitter type chocolate, which I think would be great for baking. If you wanted milk chocolate you could add milk to the recipe and I think it would work well. Also you can add any kind of sweetner you want or none at all. Here is the link for the recipe I used but they added a couple of superfoods to the cocoa powder which isn't needed. Check out the rest of the website because they have LOTS of really good looking recipes... I can't do the chocolate cuz my body didn't like it, but it sure was delicious while I got to eat it LOL!


I had bought Navita Naturals cocoa nibs before and checked them out online and saw the choco kit and thought that would be awesome because its organic and raw... and you can make the chocolate on your own with low heat and not denaturing the good qualities of the cocoa. A huge reason I wanted to make it on my own was because most chocolates I found had some sort of sweetner in it, some were fruit sweetened or organic cane sugar but I didn't want any of that in my choco since I don't do well with any type of sweetner like that. I wanted to just use Stevia since it doesn't feed candida. You pretty much just need powdered cocoa and cocoa butter, but it was important to me to get the organic and the most raw so it would have the most minerals and all still in it.

Navita Naturals

In the process of making home made chocolate...
 its for real too easy. I used organic cocoa butter and cocoa powder and raw cocoa nibs... thats it!

The finshed product, delicious organic chocolate... 
Oh my its soo good! I'm not great with presentation so my pics don't do it justice lol.

Sprouted quinoa cocoa pops =) 
Yummy cereal I made today, only made a little since 
I had a little leftover sprouted quinoa but it was good so next time 
I'm gonna make a big batch...
Click here for the recipe.

-Sunny

Eggplant Spaghetti with Spinach Tagliatelle

I added sauted Eggplant to our spaghetti the other day and was surprised at how good it was! It almost had a meaty texture. This time I subbed the eggplant for the meat entirely. I cubed it smaller in hopes Z wouldn't pick it out lol. I added quite a bit of garlic, bell pepper, and about a cup of fresh chopped spinach. (put the spinach in right before serving so it's not cooked). My favorite pasta for spagetti is the Central Market brand Spinach Tagliatelle. It's awesome! Served with pumpernickel toast. DH didn't complain so I guess that's a good sign lol.

Vegan Black Bean Brownies

Just got finished making these and they are delicious!!!! Sounds gross, I know BUT you can NOT tell that there are beans in it whatsoever!! Instead of canned beans I used bagged beans (cooked of course). The beans serve as a protein of course or simply a nutritious addition to a brownie!! I don't consider this a Vegan recipe..even though it is. There are sooo many ways to turn a simple recipe into a nutritious, less fattening dish. I'm still learning but this one, I will not push aside! I also found a flourless version that used bananas instead but unfortunately we didn't have bananas. 

BTW They passed the Clint tests too, lol.

                                                                                                                             

For the Mix:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/4 cups raw sugar
1 1/4 cup cocoa
4 tsp instant coffee powder
1 1/2 cups chopped hazelnuts

You also need:
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and filled with new water
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of water (eyeball it by filling up half the empty can)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the flour with the salt and baking powder.  For a nice layered presentation in a jar start with half the sugar,  then add half the flour mixture, all the cocoa, the coffee powder, the remaining flour, the remaining sugar, and the nuts on top.  When ready to bake, dump out the jar into a mixing bowl and stir to combine all the dry ingredients.

Drain a can of black beans and rinse thoroughly until the water runs clear.  Return the black beans back to the can and fill with water.  Puree the beans and water.  Add the puree to the dry mix along with the vanilla and extra cup of water.  Stir to combine.

Pour the batter into a greased 9×13 pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan around halfway through.  When the brownies are finished they should be firm in the center and the edges will be slightly puffy and starting to pull away from the sides.  My batch was finished at 28 minutes.  It's important not to overbake in the oven because they will keep baking once you take them out.

Let brownies cool completely then use a 2×2 in cookie cutter to cut into 24 squares.

compliments of No Meat Athlete

-Daphne

The Sunny Project

I started getting sick at the age of 12. I had been on three rounds of antibiotics and one round of steroids for a fungal infection in my ear as the result of a swimming accident. Things only went downhill from there… although we did not make the connection until 12 years later, now we know the antibiotics played a big role in my Candidiasis. 

After becoming very ill with symptoms like dandruff as you have never seen it before, fatigue, extreme weight loss (At my lowest weight I was 73 pounds. My current weight is 75 pounds) and constipation among many other ailments, my Mom started taking me from doctor to doctor, trying to figure out what was causing all of my health problems. My intestines had pretty much stopped functioning, eventually leading to a diagnosis of a paralyzed colon and gastroperesis. I was put on various laxatives that I took daily for years, starting at the age of 14. 

I made it through the first semester of 9th grade and then had to leave. My body just could not handle the long days.
I did enjoy college and I also met a wonderful man named A..J. and eventually married him. After we had been married a year we decided I needed to be healthy for the both of us, not just me anymore. A.J. started taking me to see a specialist that was a two hour drive away. He preformed many tests over the course of one and a half years and eventually told me “You’re just going to have to live with it.” He gave me no hope whatsoever. 

I knew that wasn’t the answer I was looking for so we decided to go with the natural field. Naomi, a good friend from college and also the author of “And it Rained, Finding Your Health…Naturally” told us about a natural doctor who referred us to a Naturopath. That was when I learned that I had Systemic Candida, Chronic Fatigue, cells that were unable to absorb nutrients and a host of other ailments. He said that out of his 18 years of being a Naturopath I was one of the top ten worst cases he had ever seen.

Within the past few months we started seeing a Naturopath that lives a lot closer. Through biofeedback testing she was able to find that I have a leaky gut and seven different types of mold growing in my body! Some are so deep that I have had them since birth. One thing I have learned is that I started out with a compromised immune system. My Mom was very ill with the same symptoms. A baby takes on a blueprint of its mothers’ immune system. This is why my body could not fight off the mold and Candida.

I started on my path to health on July 27th of 2009. Through these past months I am not only transforming my body from illness to health that it has never known, but also transforming my mind. I am gaining so much knowledge about being healthier and eating right. My husband and future children will benefit from this greatly too!

I think that all people that are going through an illness need and encourager. My encourager has been my husband, A.J. He has had to do a lot of things that a new husband should not have to do, but he has done everything graciously. He has gone grocery shopping, cleaned for me and spent thousands of dollars on my health. But most of all he has given encouragement! On a daily basis he is there for me. Every ill person needs their encourager, he is mine.

One of my favorite verses throughout this whole healing process is Proverbs 24:16 “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again…” I have had some big and some little falls, but I have never quit. I have always dusted myself off (not without some tears too) and gotten back up. I will be a completely healthy woman soon because I am strong, I am persistent.

Due to Sunnys extremely weakened state, her body is unresponsive to conventional, medical procedures. Now, after many experiments with diet, nutrition and herbs her body has been responding and showing improvement. After more than ten years of digression and illness, Sunny is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Despite her sickly appearance, Sunny now feels better than she ever has in her life and her health is reaching new heights every day.

Me and Mom in law