And then there was Tea. Green tea to be specific.

Sorry for the lack of updates! It's been a bit crazy at work.

With crazy work days comes the need to de-stress. And at the end of the day, I'd like to have a cup of green tea.

Many, many internet moons ago, Green Tea was all at the spotlight of the health trend. Now we hear about kale (which is also dropping out of the trending sphere) and other 'superfoods'. But we'll get on to those later, let's focus on the basics since we're still covering beverages.

Several studies are circulating around about the benefits of green tea and just a basic google search you'll find lists of these benefits. The ones I often see cited are:

-High in antioxidants
-Detoxing
-Boosts immune system
-Helps burn fat

and so on.

As tedious as this is beginning to sound, some studies have found drinking green tea benefits inconclusive while others have shown some positive results. If you really want to have a look at some of these studies I would suggest going to websites such as Authority Nutrition have cited a number of studies and provide their direct links.

One great thing about green tea is (if you're using loose leaves) you can refill the cup two or three times.

Personal experience of Sugar and Tea

Superman had kryptonite, this is my kryptonite 

What I do whenever I eat something sugary, I always to make sure to drink green tea sometime after. It was a habit I developed sometime ago and I noticed that when I did that I wouldn't have as 'big' of an acne breakout.

Maybe its just me, but I find it helpful especially if I want to eat more caneles (pictured above). Drinking some green tea helps curb the cravings. Or me reaching for more on the plate.

A word of warning

• When I first started drinking green tea, I needed to go to the bathroom. A lot. So if you want to give it a go, I suggest drinking it when you're at home but a few hours before bed time. Otherwise, you'll be waking up in the middle of the night and making a run for it.

• Green tea can also be quite bitter for most people. I suggest you get loose green tea leaves so you can adjust the 'taste' so to speak. 

• Drinking the tea too hot isn't wise. I suggest leaving the water to cool after you boil it for a few minutes. 

Lemon Water

One trend you may have on the health-hemisphere is lemon water. Some actresses and singers (and generally anyone else famous) swear by its health benefits. Lemon water's commonly cited benefits is its vitamin C content and helping your immune system. A general internet search will bring up a long list of potential benefits

.

Unfortunately, my timing is poor and this drink would've been perfect for winter. That doesn't mean you can't still enjoy it! Especially in London, with the rather...inconsistent weather we've been having.

It's quite easy to make a glass of lemon water first thing in the morning. Slice and squeeze a lemon (preferably organic) into your cup and poor some warm water. I personally love my warm lemon water with a bit of ginger in it. Remember, if your lemon water cools, the drink will be....sour to say the least. I would also recommend you use filtered water. In an upcoming post, I'll write about water filters you can buy and what you need to consider.

A word of warning

-Lemon is acidic and the drink can wear down your tooth enamel. You can use a BPA free or glass straw. Other people recommend just rinsing your mouth with water after you enjoy this beverage. If you're still concerned, talk to your dentist!

-The first time I started this...well let's just say don't drink this before you go out. You'll be looking for a bathroom soon.

-Please note some people may be sensitive to citric fruits due to various medical conditions. Please consult your doctor if you do or just have any questions or concerns.

Where to find organic lemons

I usually buy my organic lemons at Waitrose. They cost around £1.50 which is the same price (and quantity) as Tesco's unwaxed organic lemons. In terms of price comparison, at Sainsbury's you could get five non-organic lemons for that price. Organic lemons are a bit pricer, but you don't need to slice and squeeze half a lemon each time. Additionally, I find Waitrose's lemons are higher quality and generally last longer.

Final thoughts

A simple Google search (from reliable sources/links) list the multitude of benefits this drink has. I would recommend just trying it out for a few days and see if its something you like. If you can't take it (sensitive stomach, medical conditions, etc) just make sure you drink enough water throughout the day and reduce sugary drinks such as sodas and fruit juices.

Tip of the day: Drinking more water

But its never as simple as that isn't it?

Today's post, we'll start of with the most basics of good health: drinking more water. Many people don't drink enough water and often go for teas, fruit juices, sodas, etc. There have been some arguments in the past that you should drink 8 glasses a day and drinking other fluids should count towards that. I'm not a scientist or nutritionist so I can't give you a scientific study complete with your usual control groups. But according to NHS choices live well, they do count. 

Drinking 8 glasses of fruit juices or sodas a day may count towards your water intake, but in the long run they'll still be detrimental towards your health. 

From what we learnt in the documentaries, we can create some general rules of thumb about drinking other beverages other than water:

1. Limit your soda, fruit juices and energy drinks

Sodas and fruits juices are high in sugar. Buzzfeed has a video showing how much sugar you consume when you drink some of these drinks. And surprise, some brands of orange juice have more sugar than a can of coca-cola. Like the other two, energy drinks also contain alot of sugar and there has been warnings reported over potential risks. Excess sugar leads to obesity leads to diabetes and other health related concerns.

Also, sodas have certain chemicals in them that are extremely bad for you. MindBodyGreen has a rather scary infographic about how soft drinks impact your health.

I would recommend forfeiting these drinks on a daily basis and perhaps use them as the occasional treat. It's hard to suddenly cut yourself off from drinks you've had on a daily basis so I suggest reducing them at intervals that feel right for you. Some people can go cold turkey, but that doesn't always work. Some suggestions would be cutting them at 25% intervals every few days. For example, if you had four glasses of juice or soda everyday, tomorrow have only three. After a few more days, two. Remember do what's manageable because like many diets, people tend to fall back to old habits. What we're trying to do is not create a diet regime but a healthy habit regime. 

2. Coffee

Every blog must have a 'One does not simply' meme, this is ours

Coffee is a controversial one, a bit like the great gluten debate but...might not generate as many comments. Some caffeine is healthy for you, but not too much (which tends to adhere to the general rule of thumb: too much of a good thing).  Huffingtonpost posted 11 reasons you should drink coffee.

However, there is the whole 'too much of a good thing for you'. Even eating too many (organic) fruits is unhealthy in the long run. 

I had a friend in undergrad that if she didn't have a cup of coffee in the morning she'd have a headache. In my opinion that would suggest her system has become quite dependant on it. Take into account your own lifestyle factors and find what's a healthy balance for you. Being healthy isn't about falling under certain extremes in the health spectrum, its about balance.

I don't know how much coffee someone should drink, its up to you and your individual lifestyle. I don't drink coffee so I can't say what works for me. But-

3. Tea

I do love my tea.

And Summer (this blog's other contributor) makes sure she has some of my favourite tea in her kitchen when I come to visit. 

Personally, I still keep to the whole drink enough water a day rule and do include my cups of tea in the equation. What I usually aim for is 75% water, 25% tea. On other days, its 50/50. I'll write another post about the benefits teas (and what organic brands I buy). I recommend the following teas:

-Japanese Green Tea

-Pukka Detox Tea

-Olive Leaf Tea

The way you like your tea is a personal preference. Some people can only drink earl grey, others can only drink fruity teas. Some people put two teaspoons of sugar, others only put one. Again, the main thing to watch out for is sugar levels, even when you add milk to it! Which reminds me....

4. Milk

Belongs to hanyaanfaery on deviantart: http://hanyaanfaery.deviantart.com/

...Eating healthy is full of controversies. You see models that look great and say they attribute to their vegan (and active) lifestyle. Others say going completely vegan isn't healthy. And milk, though not entirely everything, is still a significance part of that hemisphere. Again, you need to take into account your lifestyle (diet, exercise, food sensitivity/intolerances, etc).

Just because you don't drink milk, doesn't mean you don't consume it in some form. But I'm getting ahead of myself again. For milk, opt for semi-skimmed at least and try for organic. Tesco and other major stores now have organic milk available. Can't advise on my personal choices because well...I don't like drinking milk.

Final thoughts

Try and drink water most of the day as your main fluid intake. Although some drinks such as fruit juices can count towards it and offer the boost in vitamin c (depending on the brand and how its made), there's still the sugar levels to take note of. 

So for this weekend, why not start your morning with a cup of water? If you really want to take it a step further, try 2-3 days during the following week. And if you want to jump ahead, my next post looks at the benefits of lemon water!

Don't forget to leave a comment! (And bonus points to anyone who gets the Full Metal Alchemist picture)

Breaking it all down: 3 documentaries

So you've been wanting to get healthier. You want to eat better.

You got the motivation.

You got the determination.

You even bought new gym pants and got rid of the cookies & cream ice cream in your freezer.

But then comes the information bit.

You've read it all: Calories in, calories out...Wait that's wrong. Okay just no junk food! Wait, wait...that's junk food. Really? Okay!Carbs are demons, no wait they're the keys to health-vala.  Green juice? The fountain of youth! No, only drinking that isn't good for you. Fat is evil, fat is your friend, meat is bad, meat is good. Gluten...well that's another can of worms.

You get the picture.

Eating better isn't as simple as it sounds. There's so much information out there and it can be contradictory. At best, its just plain old confusing. So for this blog's launch, I'll be posting a special introduction: breaking it all down. We're going to have an overlook over the state of our food, what researchers and nutritionists have said.

Through documentaries!

The medium provides a great overview and compacts so much information in a short time. If you're married to Netflix like me, you can find the following documentaries (please note this is Netflix UK):

1. Super Size me

You've most likely heard about Super Size Me, a documentary about one man eating nothing but McDonald's for a month. Naturally, everyone think: well McDonald's will make you fat because of all the fats in it. But there's more to it than that. I've selected this documentary because it brings (on an extreme level) the effects of eating processed food. Even if you keep away from McDonalds, going to any grocery store you can see the shelf after shelf of processed goods available. Processed foods can be anything from snack foods you see to certain ingredients for cooking. Some are worse than others, but we'll get to that later (in future posts). For now, processed foods that have high levels of sugars, fats, salt are bad for you.

Also: there are several Youtube videos showing McDonald's burgers in HCL or in a jar for months to see the decomposition rate.

2. Hungry for change

Now that we know a bit about processed foods, let's take it a step further. Why do most diets fail? Why do we crave these processed foods? How are our emotions tied to the foods we eat?

Hungry for Change is a documentary goes a step further from Super Size Me and overlooks several processed foods and how it affects our health. It also takes a look at why dieting is harder than ever and the role of marketing in these foods for us. This is one of my favourite documentaries.

Also: Joe Cross is in this documentary, the 'Juice Guy'. Netflix also has his documentaries: Fat,sick and nearly dead and the sequel. I'll cover his documentaries in a future post because I feel they cover more 'advanced' topics.

3. Fed Up

This documentary extends some of the information from Hungry for Change. Not by much, but the explanations (and diagrams/graphics) on what happens after you drink or eat certain foods are quite good. By now, some of the information may seem a bit repetitive but its about the perspective. Fed Up focuses on children's obesity issues and focuses more on the marketing controversies around advertising for food.



All these documentaries focus and/or take place in the US. Regardless of that, the information (especially about marketing and the sugars in our foods) applies to every country. Obesity is a world wide issue. Just look at this map provided by the World Obesity Federation.

So that concludes our first step into breaking it all down. I know it's alot to take in and no one should expect to change their eating habits overnight. That would just result in massive setbacks. Instead, I'll be posting on some small changes you can choose to incorporate or better yet help find what works for you!

Any questions or comments, just post below!

And I'm a Stargate fan. In case you didn't notice the Teal'c reference.

First Post!

Welcome to Something Organic Today!

This blog is a lazy guide for those who want to have an organic and healthy lifestyle. My name is Devon and the blog will be maintained by Summer and me. 

If you got any questions, just comment below!