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The Tasty Benefits of Green Tea

Is your email getting swamped with offer after offer for “Amazing Tea This” and “Magical Tea That”? Mine was too and although I’ve been involved in homeopathy for over two decades, I only knew the basics about green tea. I knew it was a great antioxidant and recommended it to people that wanted to detox often, however all this action in my email inbox made me start looking closely into the health benefits of green tea and what I found out was intriguing.

I knew green tea was healthy, however my own tea making experiences had resulted in little more than sad, nearly tasteless, lightly colored hot water. I finally came to the conclusion that no health benefits were worth choking that concoction down. As it turns out, I had it wrong about this humble little leaf.

Green tea is “green” because it isn’t fermented. In reality it comes from the same type of tea plant that Oolong and Black teas come from, it just doesn’t go through the same process so the phytonutrients are left intact and because of this, the health benefits are outstanding.

When consumed in moderation on a regular basis, green tea really will boost your metabolism, burn fat, soothe stress, strengthen bones, improve your memory, lower cholesterol, help prevent arthritis and is also a wonderful antioxidant. There is strong evidence that it can promote good skin health and help minimize the appearance of acne through its detoxifying abilities. The fat burning abilities in green tea make it a great choice for dieters who want to jump start their metabolisms without feeling jittery. This tea has a little under half the caffeine of a cup of coffee and most people can drink up to three cups per day with zero jitters.

You can make your green tea even healthier by mixing in other herbs for specific purposes. You can buy “ready to fill tea bags” at your local health food store and they are even available on eBay now and then if you want to make a large quantity. Make your own unique blends and experiment with tastes you like. I grow a lot types of mint and I like to mix my own green tea with mint and make a wonderful tea that is fabulous to sip after meals. Since I have learned to make green tea the proper way and how to make it a little strong and make my own healthy tea blends, I am loving drinking tea on a regular basis and highly recommend it to everyone. Also, consider taking your tea blends up a notch in health value and use organic teas and herbs when you put together your blends.

The best thing about making your own blends is that you can create green teas for a specific healthy purpose and you’ll know exactly what is them along with saving a ton of money. If you’re not already, start adding green tea to your diet and start reaping the health benefits of this versatile, healthy little green leaf today.

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Soap Nuts – Mother Nature’s Own TRUE Natural Detergent

If you are looking for a good green, chemical free, eco-friendly, high efficiency detergent for that new HE washer, or just something more environmentally friendly for that old Maytag, soap nuts are a must try. Hands down, they are the finest “TRULY” natural detergent out there. Examiner.com recently gave them recognition as the “best eco-friendly detergent.”

Why do I emphasize “truly”? Because the degree of green washing in this industry is astonishing. Study the labels – and know there are thousands of ways to legally escape the truth. Labels are carefully and skillfully crafted to sell you. That’s their sole objective. Just because it looks and/or states green, natural, chemical free, etc. means nothing. You must drill deeper to find the truth.

I write this with the premise that you have at least a little knowledge of soap nuts. Not much is required. But for the sheer sake of some brevity, I do not stop to explain every term. See my resources for more in-depth definitions if needed.

Soap nuts are simply GIFTS that Mother Nature has provided us. They’re going to change the way we think – and the way we clean (or at least WHAT we are cleaning WITH). The soap nut (or better yet, saponin – the active ingredient) is bringing a whole new world to washing laundry and cleaning in general. 100% natural, safe, gentle, anti-microbial, anti-fungal, hypoallergenic, fragrance free, biodegradable AND it actually works! That simply sounds too good to be true, right?

So, you MUST be asking yourself, “Where’s the skeleton in the closet?” You must be skeptical. I was. Let’s see what we can find in that closet:

Other than the rather unorthodox method of the soap nuts’ traditional usage, there simply isn’t a downside – not even economically if used properly. Interestingly, NaturOli is doing amazing things to maintain ALL the benefits of the soap nuts – without changing HOW you are accustomed to washing laundry or cleaning the house. The purity and integrity of the soap nut is not being compromised or diminished in any way.

The weirdest story is about how villagers can use soap nuts to stun fish – that are then consumed, I must add. Well, if you know much about fish, a heavy dose of just about anything will usually kill them. Have you ever had an aquarium? Interestingly, even this story is sketchy at best. A US extraction process states the extract (pure saponin) to be safe and harmless. Note: It is not for consumption, mind you. It’s NOT food.

Let’s try other angles:

Sustainability. Absolutely no issue. In fact, the mukorossi tree is a very prolific soapberry producer. It grows over 60 feet tall, and can produce bountiful harvests for up to ninety years. Although most soap nuts are wild-crafted, sapindus tree plantations are springing up in India and Nepal. Since the tree grows well in even poor soils, some otherwise unproductive ground can be made productive. In fact, that’s a nice little added natural resource and economic stimulus for these countries.

How about Fair Trade? Are these little gems actually “blood diamonds”? No. In fact, the exporters are feverishly working on getting their official Fair Trade certifications I’m certainly not going to think that there isn’t some mean plantation owner out there somewhere. That would be rather naive. However, there is no record of inhumane treatment to be found. We do know that many poor villagers are making a living by harvesting the wild, fallen fruits and sun drying them for sale to the exporters or for wages from the co-ops. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

A paradigm shift is needed to fully embrace soap nuts, but that’s only a matter of time. It’s hard to get over a lifetime of programming by the marketing departments of some of the largest companies in the world. Isn’t it interesting that soap nuts only recently washed up on US shores? (Pun intended.) Well, that’s a topic for an article of its own. However, now, we only need to use our heads to maximize their potential. I personally have a TRUE 90% green cleaning regime in my home. And it’s not due to the so-called green products I see all over the place. It’s due to soap nuts.

If you’re not familiar with soap nuts yet, you will be soon. There is a rapidly growing movement around the globe that is recognizing the true potential of these remarkable little beauties. You will see more sellers, more advertising, more labs developing saponin-based products. Most importantly, your awareness will grow.

Mother Nature had the wisdom and generosity to make soap nuts readily available to us. Now, it’s up to us – and all those that are formulating, marketing and selling them – to do the RIGHT things.

This is such an interesting characteristic of Mother Nature. As usual, she only points out the direction. I feel in this case she went one extra step further and actually mapped out a path for us.

Will we have the common sense to follow it?

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Nature’s Recipe For Turning Back the Clock

Women everywhere are now more aware of the anti-aging process than ever before and as a result the anti-aging skincare market has rocketed over the past decade. It is now reported to be worth over billions in the UK alone, and scientific ingredients such as pentipeptides and retinol are part of most female’s vocabulary these days.

However, whilst scientists toil in their laboratories to discover and create new weird and wonderful anti-aging ingredients, Mother Nature has some of her own ingredients that are useful and can be found right before your eyes.

Most women love roses, especially red ones delivered in quantities of twelve by a handsome man! It is also claimed that rose has aphrodisiac properties; however the female love affair with roses may be even more intense if there was more awareness of their secret anti-aging properties. Rose is packed with antioxidants to help promote smooth and glowing skin and both moisturises and hydrates, so is especially beneficial to dry or mature skin. It is reputed that damask roses grown in Turkey and Morocco have the most concentrated levels of antioxidant, along with the most potent smell – especially if hand-picked at dawn to retain as much fragrance as possible. Many of the anti-aging products made by natural brands use damask rose as a key ingredient.

Tea is another natural ingredient with anti-aging properties – both the white and the green varieties. For thousands of years, before its skin therapy benefits were discovered, tea has been made into a refreshing drink. However, more than just a drink, it has been discovered that tea can help protect skin cells – in fact many in the Eastern world refer to white tea as “the fountain of youth”.

Green tea has been hailed as one of the most potent antioxidants around, fighting free radicals in the environment that can cause so much damage to skin. Green tea includes Vitamins A, C and E, as well as tannins, which can help reduce skin puffiness. Green tea becomes most powerful when used in conjunction with its sister, white tea. Clinical studies have shown that white tea can boost the body’s immune function and can help the skin repair itself as well as defending the skin against UVA and UVB damage, and brands such as Origins and Neals Yard now use white tea in certain skincare ranges.

The grape is most famous as the basic ingredient of wine. However, yet again, this plant has anti-ageing properties which are now being harnessed by skincare brands such as Caudalie Many different parts of the plant have useful properties; grape seed polyphenols contain antioxidants to help neutralise free radicals, whilst Resveratrol is the grapevine’s natural defence mechanism, helping to stimulate cell renewal. In addition an ingredient has just been patented, called Viniferine, which comes from the stalk of the vine and which boosts radiance as well as helping prevent dark age spots.

So, whilst science is playing a role in combating aging, Mother Nature has also got some fantastic ingredients to help turn back the clock – or at least slow down the ticking!

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