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| I hear we're supposed to drink 1.5l of water a day. I probably do, if drinking tea counts, but I have a suspicion that it doesn't? Does it matter if it's decaf or not?
What herbal teas could I drink that are not diuretics and are not going to send me to sleep at work? I don't like water on its own, and having a brew is a good way to socialise in the office, while drinking from a water bottle isn't  |
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| I think it's best if it is water, but not compulsory. Alchohol doesn't count as it has a dehydrating effect.
My favourite herbal tea is lemon and elderflower by Dr. Stuart. It's really good for when you have a cold as the lemon is antiseptic and the elderflower is a natural expectorant.
Fee |
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| Yogi Tea has a nice variety of flavors and effects (not sleepiness). It is my favorite brand because the flavor seems a lot stronger than other brands. I don't like weak tea! They offer free samples on their website (www.yogitea.com) so you can see if you like it. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| i believe there is now some debate in mainstream circles about the diuretic effect of coffee and tea. I'm sure the alternative people will stick to the no caffeine dictum because in some ways they are just as dogmatic as the mainstreamers  But anyway, I think there is now some thought that you do actually net some fluid intake from coffee and tea otherwise half the continent (continent of your choice, and, incidentally a funny word to use in a conversation about peeing...) would be walking around like shrivelled prunes! and since caffinated drinks encourage excretion there is the benefit of more "throughput" - the kidneys are activated and the body is flushed.
Nevertheless, there are good reasons not to be drinking all your fluid intake in caffinated stuff so herbal teas are great. Funny that you would think they make one sleepy since many are good wake-up sorts of herbs. I find any that are berry flavoured, mint or citrus are quite enlivening. Even the smell kind of perks me up. Just make sure to read the label - everyone is putting out herbal tea now and I bought some Tetley that has all kinds of added flavour and colour Celestial Seasonings makes what they call a dessert tea called English Toffee. It has some chickory and other stuff that gives it a nice brown colour and some "body" so it is more like drinking a proper cuppa. You can even put milk and sugar in it. Very yummy |
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| mmmmm...I love tea. I starting drinking Green Tea a couple years ago because it was the right mix of flavor, strength and aroma. I love it. Since I've been drinking it I've been reading all these great benefits of it (fights cancer, boosts metabolism, etc)...which is great, but really I just love the taste. Coffee has always been too abrasive for me and usually you have to pull me off the ceiling after drinking only a small amount. Tea seems to be the right amount of caffeine that I need in the mornings. Though I can't drink it on an empty stomach or I will feel like I am going throw up. Also, I'll have a cup of tea after eating lunch or dinner and it satiates my desire for more food.
My favorite: Tzao Green Ginger!
A note to frog71 uk: If I don't feel like drinking when out I'll have a sparkling water and tell them to put a lime in it so it looks like a gin-n-tonic. I don't feel as lame and it doesn't call attention from my friends wondering why I am not drinking.
am |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Absolutely Green Tea counts as water. Although, water has a different function and you still need to balance between them both. 1-2 cups of tea per day is fine as long as you drink water too. As I posted before on the Bikram section regarding heat..green tea cools the body down, while your black and red teas warm you up. Don't ever let anyone tell you that green tea does not have caffeine...it certainly does, but it also has antioxidants as well. I get into this debate at Teavan all the time. The green tea leaves are so much more potent as they are still green and fresh, whilst the Black teas are dried out. and cured longer. I'm not an expert on tea, but I do know the functions of tea relating to Traditional Chinese Medicine. Also, tea is much better without the refined sugar use raw or Turbinado. I use honey...but don't heat the honey above 110 degrees. You should never boil the water for green tea as it ruins the properties of the tea and you don't get the benefits. Tea comes from many different sources and there are all kinds...some that you have never even heard of. Tea was always used medicinally in China and still is. When my TCM doctor prescribes herbs for me I have to go home and cook them and make a tea to drink. Drink water to flush the body of toxins and drink your green tea to help aid this process. Tea has so many benefits and uses and is certainly better than cokes and coffee. You should read about the tea ceremony in Japan, it is so cool and is a lost art. Whenever 2 enemies were trying to resolve their differences, the sat down with a cup a tea:~) |
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| Dear frog-71xxx:
When you drink water in any form, whether through furits, or juices or caffine drinks, or just pure water, whether bottled or from rain, the body does not distinguish it at all. It will take water only when it needs wather. other ingradients it shall take only as needed. All other stuff is thrown out.
Body never takes caffien into it, and when forced it is thrown out, first through urine, then through sweat and then through lungs, etc. So caffiene can be taken in any form, it is always BAD for the body.
Almost all the teas which give high, whether small high or medium high or high high, are having a substance similar to caffien. And, all these are BAD, whether they come from India, China or any where else. Thus in general, Tea is always bad.
Now, sometimes people call juice as Tea. That tea is good, though calling it tea is not good.
Neel Kulkarni
www.auuthenticyoga.org |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 517
Location: New Jersey | I Like Yogi Tea too! I usually drink their Stomach Ease tea when I have an upset stomach, ot their Bedtime tea before bed. As far as teas to drink during the day that won't put you to sleep: Celestial Seasonings is one of my favorite brands. I'm careful to not drink teas with artificial ingredients, and as far as I know, they don't use any. Their flavors I like the best: Peach, Blueberry, Strawberry Kiwi. I usually drop a tea bag into my water bottle too. It adds a little flavor to it.
Samantha |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | I think what Neel Bhai is trying to say that calling it tea is bad because you really should call it CHAI, LOL!!! Cyndiben says please don't take my daily ritual of drinking Chai away and say its bad:~) |
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| I find peppermint tea very invigorating - also good for headaches and/or upset stomach. Chamomile is my nighttime tea.  My doctor says that tea should not count toward your 1.5 ltr (or as he says, 8- z glasses) per day water. I drink more than that, but I'm a bit of a wateraholic  Namaste! Echo |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Herbal teas do count because they don't have the diuretic efect of caffiene And some are now saying that caffinated drinks don't actually dehydrate as much as they used to think. |
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| Dear Tourist:
All teas without exception, in fact even just hot water, has diuretic effect. They are not food, and should be avoided by any health minded person. Due to my Indian Origin, I do take Indian Caffienated tea, but I do not wish to add more things to that.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Oh Neel - due to your Indian Origin, you LOVE to debate!  Yes - even plain, ordinary, room or body temperature WATER has a diuretic effect. I can agree. But it is less than beverages with caffeine. As you might say, this is fact. So are you saying that if one wants to ingest some peppermint or some chammomile it should be included in one's food? What is permitted to drink for the health minded individual? |
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| Well science does not give permissions, that is called religions. Science tells what happens and let the person choose to do what they want to. However, cause and effect can not be set aside. So, if one drinks hot water instead of teas, it is better. If one drinks room temperature water than hot water, it is better. However, the health depends not only on what one drinks, it depends on many other factors.
However, there is never any occassion when drinking caffeine or any tea including herbal tea or hot water is good for health. They are always anti-Health, but less or more.
Debatingly Yours
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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| Cyndi - 2005-03-04 11:49 AM
Absolutely Green Tea counts as water. You should never boil the water for green tea as it ruins the properties of the tea and you don't get the benefits
How do you prepare it then? I've never done otherwise. |
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| Let us have a Chai Party.
(at CyndiBen's House!!!)
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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| Hey Jane,
Well, you don't add boiling water to the green tea. You bring the temp down by letting it sit for 5-10 minutes...or when you are heating your water, remove it from the fire just before it reaches the boiling point. Then you can brew your tea. This only applies to green and white teas. Black and red teas need to be brewed with boiling water. This is also good for when your adding honey to your tea because if you heat the honey over 110 degrees you might as well be eating poison, the benefits of the honey is wasted.
Sooo, Neelbhai wants to have a Chaiparty in the mountains....come on down. The bees are coming this weekend so they can start making some honey to go with our chai. I love Chai parties. Today I had my chai and then took a nice long nap in the hammock with a cool mountain breeze and all those *earth* sounds...the frogs, the red birds, the wood thrush played the flute..aaahhhh. I know you are very anxious Neelbhai about your coming trip to India. I'm curious about which location in the Himalayas you are going to find snow. Satyambhai told me that in all of his years of growing up in Nepal, it never snowed..they only got to look at it from the mountains.
Edited by Laxmi 2005-04-20 10:21 PM
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| Thankyou! Very helpful. And, I was just going to brew some in 10 mins. Great that I cught this!
Peace! |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Jane,
One more thing I forgot to add....if you are using loose tea, do one infusion and throw it out and drink the second one...it takes the bitterness out of the tea. Tea bags don't need that and you will not get more than one or two infusions from a tea bag.
Sorry about my Pokara picture on my previous post, it didn't work..I'm going to try it again.. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Laxmi - 2005-04-20 7:13 PM
This is also good for when your adding honey to your tea because if you heat the honey over 110 degrees you might as well be eating poison, the benefits of the honey is wasted.
Is that possibly overstating the case just a tad? Perhaps heat destroys some good stuff, but to be clear, does not turn honey into poison. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Absolutely Not Tourist. Ayurveda clearly states that heating honey above 110 degrees turns into Ama. Honey has to be kept in its raw form to receive medicinal value. Even the bees keep the beehive temp. around 110, no higher for the queen and food for the worker bees. I can type for hours of the benefits of RAW UNHEATED UNPASTURIZED honey. I can also type for hours about Ama and the reasons why disease is so prevalent in this country due to poor eating habits and not getting nutrients because they have been nuked to their death before they reach the grocery store shelf, only to be nuked again and again by the consumer. In case you are not familiar with the term Ama. Ama (in the human body) is defined as raw, uncooked, unripened. Ama is a generic term for food that is absorbed into the system without having first been properly digested. Such partly digested material cannot be used by the system, and acts mainly to clog it, eliciting an immune reaction. Stagnant pools of ama in an organism breed disease as surely as a stagnant pond breeds mosquitoes. There is also another form of Ama which is mental Ama. It arises when the mind becomes unable to come to grips with disorienting sense perceptions, thoughts, emotions or opinions and leaves mental nutrients sitting undigested, polluting the mind with prajnaparadha. This could be a totally different topic but you get the jest.
Edited by Cyndi 2005-04-21 11:13 PM
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| Oh My. Hey, Tourist, you are forbidden to throw any things at me. If you enjoy this, Cyndiben is tougher than me, so use her. Now, this is the Honey Story, regardless of any methods, Indian, Chinese, Ayurvedic or Modern, or even the Future ones.
- Honey is NOT a human food. It is BAD for humans.
- Honey has high quality sugar extracted from flowers by honey bees, so that pollination can take place. This sugar itself is good for humans, but they have to steal it from honey bees and also, involves lot of other harm to honey bees, and themselves.
- While using the sugar from Honey, the humans have to process that honey in some ways, such as heating (BAD as Cyndiben explained), and other denaturization.
- All medicinal properties in the honey come NOT from sugars, but from the poisonous sting in it.
- Sting is an integral part of Honey Bee and it recirculates it for preserving the honey, and then eats it while eating the honey. This sting is neutral to honey bee, such as snake poison for snakes. However, for humans, the sting is very bad, and can be even harmful, to the point of death if taken in large quantities.
- Apart from this, honey has some good sugars and they are good for human body.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org
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| Neelbhai,
Just for the record..I do NOT steal my honey from the bees. Actually, I feed my bees continuously until they get tired of my food and forage on their own. Then I treat them for mites and help guard their home so that predators can't get in and destroy them and I also leave enough honey for them to survive through the winter. If they don't give me the extra box of honey, I don't take it, I leave it for them and I also continue to feed them through the winter if they need it. I do not harm my bees, I take care of them so they can pollenate my gardens and the area around me. They are truly beneficial for agriculture and it is dwindling fast because people kill them with all their chemical sprays and gardening techniques that do NOT support honey bees. Did you know that some farmers will actually rent beehives just for pollenating their crops??
Neel, Bees don't sting the honey...they digest the pollen from the flowers and then this process which is somewhat complicated to explain right now, is formed into honey. It is from their digesting the pollen that produces honey. This process is very complicated, if you like I can provide you with a honeybee 101 course sometime... but I will say that this is the reason you should eat honey from the area in which you live..the bees take the pollen from the area and turn it into honey. If you eat this honey, it will help you with your allergies and give you the benefits of the honey. I do NOT heat my honey, I eat it straight from the comb. Sorry Neel, I don't agree with you on Honey is BAD for humans. Everything without moderation and discipline is BAD for humans, including YOGA.
Now, to be stung by the honey bees...this is very GOOD for humans as it will help you with your arthritis and old bones. It also will help you build up a resistence to insects and other bees in general that way you won't croak and die from not having any immunity. I like to get stung at least once every 6 mos. for this reason. I have a neighboring beekeeper that is very radical about this and purposly stings themselves as a ritual for this.
Anyway, sure, keep throwing things at me...I can take it. I already ate that type of poison, give me some more...Om Nama Shivia..do you know the Shiva eating poison story Neelbhai??? |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | You know what?? I hate this computer. Anyway, I'm sorry I keep forgetting to log in. I thought I would try to be organized and log in and out and even I tried changing my name. Oh well, its me Cyndi trying to explain honey to Neelbhai, Now, Neelbhai, would you please tell everyone the Shiva eating poison story?? |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | P.S. BEES only sting humans for trying to steal their honey. Bees don't sting Cyndiben cause Cyndi feeds the Bees and she wears a Hat with a veil
Seriously, the bee practices vary from each individual. Nepal is one of the best beekeeping areas of the world, but like everywhere also has its problems too..such as one of the problems with beekeeping is that in some areas the beefinders go get all the honey and leave the bees without anything...the bees actually starve to death! This is NOT very good beekeeping practices and why here in America and Europe they have developed what I call MINDFUL Beekeeping. Although, even in America and Europe we have our idiots too!! |
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Drinking tea
