| These are my basic daily fluids. I drink up to 3 litres of water a day and perhaps slightly more when I'm training. As well as the benefits listed on the diagram below, drinking water also gives you healthy skin, reduces the risk of a heart attack, gets us energised and alert, keeps us 'regular' and helps us burn more fat & build more muscle :)
Functions of Water in The Body
 Now for the Green Tea...yuck...I hear you say...yes it's an acquired taste but stick with it. I buy the Clipper range as it tastes 'good' and is 'Fairtrade'.
The Miracle of Green Tea
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"Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one."
(Ancient Chinese Proverb)
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I don't think any other drink is reported to have as many health benefits as green tea? The Chinese have known about the medicinal benefits of green tea since ancient times, using it to treat everything from headaches to depression. In her book Green Tea: The Natural Secret for a Healthier Life, Nadine Taylor states that green tea has been used as a medicine in China for at least 4,000 years.
Today, scientific research in both Asia and the west is providing hard evidence for the health benefits long associated with drinking green tea. For example, in 1994 the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published the results of an epidemiological study indicating that drinking green tea reduced the risk of esophageal cancer in Chinese men and women by nearly sixty percent. University of Purdue researchers recently concluded that a compound in green tea inhibits the growth of cancer cells. There is also research indicating that drinking green tea lowers total cholesterol levels, as well as improving the ratio of good (HDL) cholesterol to bad (LDL) cholesterol.
To sum up, here are just a few medical conditions in which drinking green tea is reputed to be helpful:
Other Benefits
New evidence is emerging that green tea can even help dieters. In November, 1999, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the results of a study at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Researchers found that men who were given a combination of caffeine and green tea extract burned more calories than those given only caffeine or a placebo.
Green tea can even help prevent tooth decay! Just as its bacteria-destroying abilities can help prevent food poisoning, it can also kill the bacteria that causes dental plaque. Meanwhile, skin preparations containing green tea - from deodorants to creams - are starting to appear on the market.
Drinking up to five cups a day has been shown to decrease risk for stomach cancer. For weight loss and to boost your metabolism, the best results have been seen with drinking seven cups a day (this was studied in mice though and has yet to be studied directly on humans). Additionally many other medical studies have shown the the more green tea consumed daily the greater the benefits, with 10 cups being the upper limit. If you are sensitive to caffeine, or suffer from insomnia, 10 cups of green tea is probably going to be too much for your system, regardless of the benefits.
Having said all this..."I am no Angel"...and also enjoy a tipple or two or...or...I just ensure I hydrate well afterwards...
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