Healthy Lifestyle

The old ad slogan from many years ago that stated tea was the best drink of the day was actually right on the nail when it comes to the many health benefits that come with drinking tea. I’m not talking about green tea here, but the favoured drink of the British (and plenty of other nations besides, although they may not want to admit it), which is black tea commonly taken with a little milk and even sugar! So what did our grandmothers know that a whole generation seemed to forget, or at least not notice?

Well, for starters, tea has always been associated with relaxing and of all things this is probably the only aspect of tea that is not quite accurate. That’s because tea contains caffeine and lots of it. In actual fact, ounce for ounce, or gram for gram depending upon where you live, tea contains a lot more caffeine than coffee. The only reason that cup of Java sends you into orbit and the tea doesn’t is because tea is brewed a lot weaker than coffee.

Black tea contains less nutrients and antioxidants than its green cousin, but most of those present in green tea are also there in black tea. In fact drinking three cups of black tea a day will bring all the health benefits you’ll get from one or two cups of green, depending upon how you brew it and how big your cups are!

Why do we put milk in black tea?

The bitter taste you get from drinking black tea, well… black, comes from substances called tannins. Tannins are not so good for you in large amounts, but by adding milk to your cup, the enzymes in the milk break down the tannins rendering them harmless. It also mellows the taste of the brew which makes it much more palatable.

So why do we add sugar to tea?

If you want to be healthy, don’t add sugar. Its purely a sweet tooth thing and not necessary for improving the flavour of tea. In fact tea tastes better without sugar, once your taste buds have adjusted to it. Its true!

Is drinking too much tea harmful?

It can be in large amounts, just as drinking too much coffee is bad for you. Too much caffeine causes high blood pressure with increased risk of strokes and coronary problems. It also makes you want to urinate more often, which dehydrates the body. It can also disrupt sleep, so its always a good idea to avoid anything containing caffeine for a few hours before going to bed.

The general rule of thumb is if you enjoy a cup of tea, then drink it! If you like 4 or 5 cups a day, that’s also ok but don’t go too crazy and you’ll be fine.!

When it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, we are all often bombarded with well meaning warnings about spending too much time in the sun, what with skin cancer and premature aging among the things that no one really wants to be getting. But that doesn’t mean you have to hide under a wide brimmed hat the whole time you are out of doors, nor does it mean that you have to stay indoors all the time there is daylight. Unless of course you are a vampire…

So what is the reality here?Is the sun really so bad for us, or are we turning our backs on a free source of health and vitality?

The truth of the matter is that we all need to get some exposure to the sun and preferably daily to enable our bodies to manufacture our daily needs of vitamin D. Without this vital vitamin we risk a whole range of health problems from brittle bones to kidney stones through the resultant lack of ability to absorb calcium properly. Sure, you can top up your body’s supply of vitamin D through supplements, but why would you want to spend money on pills to pop when you can get it for free for the sake of 20 minutes exposure to the sun a day?

That’s right, in 20 minutes, you’ll get enough exposure for your body to produce its own vitamin D, which some say is highly superior to what you have to try to absorb from a pill. In 20 minutes, even in the hottest sunshine, you are unlikely to risk burning or damaging your skin through harmful UV exposure, because of the short time spent in the sun. The best part is that you don’t even need to strip off to a bikini or pair of swim shorts as just getting the sun to your face and arms in that time is sufficient.

Apart from the obvious vitamin boost to health from exposure to the sun, it also helps lift your mood by boosting the production of serotonin in the brain which gives you a feel good factor that you won’t get stuck indoors all day. When you’re in a good mood, life always seems better, making you more positive.

And when you’re in a positive frame of mind, your health reflects your mood. So get out in the sunshine for a while each day (weather permitting) and do yourself a big favour!

As a follow up to my last post, another form of enforced immobility can come not from illness, but from the very jobs some of us do. Those of us that work at a computer all day are most susceptible to all the perils that can afflict anyone who leads a sedentary lifestyle. Worse still are the potential problems that await those of us that work for ourselves at a computer. For us, the working hours are not limited to general office hours of 9 to 5, but can often be elongated to more like 8am to 8pm or later, depending upon how engrossed we can get in our work.

I know from personal experience of working in this way that some of my working days can easily extend to 12, 14 or even 16 hours with scant let up. I’ve had days where I’ve eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner at the computer whilst being heavily involved in something I was determined to get finished. I’ve even taken a siesta in front of this thing - too tired to get out of the (very comfortable) reclining office chair to go to bed!

A while ago, I was shocked into finding ways to counter these extremely long periods of immobility by my body screaming at me to do something before I ended up welding myself to this damn chair! Ok, I was walking teh dogs early in the morning before I got started with the day’s work, but it was far from enough.

It took some enforced metal effort to prise myself away from “work” in what had become the middle of the afternoon for me. The reality was it was more like the time when most people were home from work and sitting down to their evening meal But prise I had to.

Two very happy dogs now benefit from that decision by enjoying two hour-long walks every day and not just round the block like before. Now we walk down to and then along the beach which is very nice, especially in the Spring when its not too hot but the sun is warm enough to be tee shirt and shorts worthy!Don’t know why I wasn’t doing that before, as it seems such a shame to waste living where I do and not take advantage of the close proximity of a nice beach and long promenade.

Anyway, just wanted to share that with you as I know plenty of you are slaving away at the computer for too many hours and not getting enough “me” time.There is always “me” time to be enjoyed in every day!

After a period of enforced immobility, it is often difficult to get back to doing the daily routine which includes getting out for some healthy fresh air and exercise, but as soon as you are able, it is what you must do.

Having been a sufferer of gout on and off for the past 16 years, I thought I knew what it was like to be prevented from doing something I enjoyed, like walking, for the duration of the gout attack. Well it can get worse, as I discovered last summer when I was actually taken out of teh picture for a full three months. In that time, only being able to hobble around slowly and with a lot of associated pain, I lost a lot of muscle density in my legs and the strength went with it.

Getting back to fitness was a long and hard road, but I found that by taking my time and doing things gradually, I managed to regain that lost strength and muscle density and am now able to walk normally once more.

For people who suffer similar periods of inactivity for whatever reason, the return to fitness can seem an almost impossible task at times, especially when something as simple as walking down a flight of stairs becomes a major hazard with your knees threatening to buckle on each step. But as long as you harbour genuine feelings of hopefullness and are determined to let nothing beat you, then you will oversome the negativity that any illness naturally bestows on you.

Then you’ll be able to come out fighting in the full knowledge that you will get back to where you were and mean to stay there!