9 Ways Tea Can Change Your Life

I love tea. Hot or iced, tea not only comes in a never-ending abundance of flavors, but it’s also incredibly good for you. The health benefits of tea have long been researched, and studies have found that tea’s benefits range from helping with diseases such as cancer and diabetes to encouraging weight loss and lowering cholesterol. With less caffeine than coffee, tea is a gentle mood and energy lifter.

In the words of Katherine Tallmadge of the American Dietetic Association, “There doesn’t seem to be a downside to tea.” I sure can't think of any--can you? I'm so glad to have such a delicious and healthy drink available, especially during rainy Seattle winters like this one.

With all its positive affects on the body, tea has been touted in the East as the “key to good health, happiness, and wisdom,” according to WebMD. So, what are the ideal blends of tea for different moods or ailments? I was inspired to find out by both my love of tea and by Back on Pointe's lovely graphic below, which I discovered on Tumblr. Here's what I found out about the mental and physical health benefits different types of tea can bring.

The Effects of Tea
Image: Back On Pointe / Tumblr

Energy Boost—Black tea has a significant does of caffeine, less than coffee but still enough to perk you up. Plus, the bold flavor will help give you an extra jolt of energy. Spiced green teas will also give you a boost without the jitters.

Refresh—White tea has the most antioxidants of all types of tea, as well as the lowest caffeine content (other than herbal tea, which is caffeine free). Sip on some white tea for a mellow drink that will leave your body feeling refreshed and healthy.

Stress Relief—Green tea’s naturally leafy flavor and light dose of caffeine will help ease stress and refocus all those frazzled brain signals without wiring you for overload. Try to avoid black tea when extra stressed, as it has higher caffeine content. Roobios, honey bush, and herbal chai blends all help keep stress away, and ginger teas can get rid of those nervous jitters when they come a-knocking.

Creative Boost—To get those mind juices flowing, try a spicy blend like Indian Chai mixed with a little cream and honey or a rooibos tisane rich in electrolytes.

Immune System Boost—Get a dose of anti-sickness with fruity herbal teas like orange, lemon, or raspberry. The hot liquid will ease sore throats, and the lack of caffeine will help settle your stomach. Chamomile tea is also a great way to combat general winter blues.

Anti-Nausea—My personal favorites for settling an upset tummy include herbal mint and ginger teas. Mint and ginger naturally ease nausea and always leave me feeling much better. Try these with just a touch of honey if you want a little sweetness.

For Tranquility—Feeling frazzled and just want to relax? Try chamomile, lavender, roobios or lemongrass teas, which will help your body settle down. A steaming cup of any of these is wonderful shortly before bedtime.

Think Happy Thoughts—Need a mood elevator? Try lemon verbena and rooibos teas, which have natural mood-boosting qualities.

Focus—Sip on green tea or yerba mate to help with focus and overall productivity. Green and black teas help improve our cognitive function, alertness, attention span, and more. 

What's your favorite tea blend?  

One More Reason for a Daily Cup O’ Joe

Coffee may help improve memory, in addition to a wide variety of other health benefits.
Image: Shutterstock

If you keep up with news, perhaps you’ll have heard this little tidbit: drinking coffee may be a boon to memory, according to a study out of Johns Hopkins University. You know how I love my coffee (one of the many reasons I love living in Seattle)—and now, I can love it even more.

Researchers showed study participants a series of images and then either gave participants 200 milligrams of caffeine or a placebo. Twenty-four hours later, the participants were asked to identify the images during a similar lineup. Those that had been given caffeine were better able to identify the images.

Caffeine has been the focus of many health and wellness studies. These studies have suggested that drinking coffee can have some incredible benefits:

Coffee can…

• Raise our energy levels (duh)
• Make us smarter
• Help us burn fat
• Improve physical performance
• Give us several important nutrients
• Lower our risk of Type II Diabetes
• Protect us from Alzheimer’s and dementia
• Lower our risk of Parkinson’s
• Keep our liver from developing cirrhosis
• Improve our mood and fight depression
• Lower our risk of certain kinds of cancer
• Reduce the risk of stroke
• Improve longevity
• Give us much-needed antioxidants

I never used to drink coffee, but over the years it became an acquired taste. It’s funny how our taste sometimes changes over the years. In this case, I’m so glad it did. I love my morning cup of coffee on taste along, but all these added benefits are great, too.

Are you a coffee drinker? What keeps you coming back to it every day?

4 Healthy Travel Snacks

A no-frills latte and a banana is a good travel snack.
Image: Shutterstock

When I was in college, I often used to drive home for the weekend or for a holiday. It wasn’t a short drive—five and a half hours or so—and no matter what, I’d always end up getting hungry sometime during the trip. There’s nothing worse than stopping at a gas station when you’re starving—and trying to find something to snack on that will fill you up and won’t make you feel sick.

Now that I’m a little further from home, I usually take those trips on a plane—but even though the flight time isn’t very long, all that waiting around at the airport has a way of making me hungry.

The fast food, Cinnabon shops, sweet espresso drinks, and pastries are the most tempting options when I’m looking for a snack. But (sigh) time has taught me that those things a) will give me a tummy ache and b) will fill me up for about thirty minutes until the sugar burns out. Luckily, though, I’ve also learned over time that there are several easy and healthy snacks that make great roadtrip and airport food. Next time you’ve got the travel munchies, snack on one of these:

Greek yogurt and a banana 

Don’t hesitate to get full-fat Greek yogurt—it’ll actually help keep you filled up longer. Just watch out for the amount of sugar in it. I recommend getting plain yogurt and adding a banana, as the banana will both sweeten the yogurt and will give you a helpful boost in potassium and other vitamins. You can usually find both items in convenience stores and airport kiosks.

Try a KIND bar to tide you over.

KIND bars (or other healthy snack bars)

Filled to the brim with nuts, grains, and bits of sweetness (chocolate, coconut, and more), this is a granola bar with some major POWER! Plus, it’s easy to pack ahead of time and stow in a carry-on bag or in your car’s center console.

Chocolate milk

Delicious and nutritious (but it doesn’t taste like chicken)! Snag a carton or bottle of chocolate milk to load up on calcium and protein. It’ll give you a good boost in energy but isn’t pure sugar—so you won’t just crash half an hour later.

Latte and a banana

Coffee contains caffeine, which is very effective at tiding you over until real food. Skip the sugary syrup and get a plain latte (12 oz), pairing it with a banana or other fruit.

What do you like to snack on when traveling? The holidays are approaching, and I’d love to hear some more ideas for how to keep energy up during long trips!

More Bananas, Less Salt

Chocolate (death) cake--at least for my dad.

Image: Shutterstock

When I was in junior high, my dad was diagnosed with a rare inner ear disease called Meniere’s. He would get terrible bouts of nausea and vertigo, and in the early days of his diagnosis we had to rush him to the emergency room after he had fallen down and literally couldn’t get back up. We found out that what he ate had the potential to set him off at any moment, and absolute no-nos included chocolate, sweets, caffeine, and salt.

Miniscule amounts of those foods and others were usually all right to eat—except chocolate, which made him sicker than a dog—but after a few trips to the hospital and more than a few bouts of sickness at home, those foods were simply no longer appealing. His diet changed, and largely so did mine.

We stopped buying frozen meals and prepared food and started cooking meats and vegetables fresh. Everything that went into the cart was first checked for sodium content, caffeine, chocolate, or high amounts of sugar. We bought more fresh fruit and vegetables, and fewer muffins and pastries. I knew my diet had changed, but I really noticed when I went off to college and would take a bite of food and find that all I could taste was salt—or get a slice of cake and only be able to eat half of it before I was overloaded with sugar.

Salt is another no-no. Most Americans consume far too much of it.

Image: Shutterstock

Those shopping and cooking habits have stuck with me into adulthood, and even now I only use salt and sugar sparingly. I never realized until I grew older and more interested in health that the reason my dad couldn’t have salt, caffeine, or sugar was because it increased his blood pressure and fluid retention—both of which worsened the effects of his Meniere’s disease.

My dad’s experiences with Meniere’s have been hard on him and on our family—repeated doctor’s visits, frequent nausea and vertigo, lifestyle changes, and more have become regular occurrences in our lives. But one thing I’m grateful for is the fact that it taught me early to eat healthy. Consuming less sodium can reduce blood pressure in adults. And eating bananas, which is my dad’s favorite fruit to buy, may also reduce blood pressure because of its high potassium content.

Bananas are some of Dad's favorites. Mine, too!

Image: Shutterstock

High blood pressure has been linked to stroke and other seriouscardiovascular problems, yet most people in the U.S. and the U.K. exceed the recommended maximum intake every single day. But just a small dietary change—less salt intake and more potassium intake—can make a huge difference in the long-term.

So I’m saying thank you to my dad for passing those habits on to me at an early age, even though it wasn’t exactly his choice. And now I’m trying to do that same favor to others—so pass it on: more bananas, less salt.

7 Foods That Boost Your Metabolism

Water stimulates the metabolism.

Image: Shutterstock

One of the best ways to ensure that your body keeps on burning excess calories instead of storing them as fat is to keep your metabolism going. Many of us have jobs where we sit all day (guilty), and that’s B-A-D for your body. There are lots of ways to keep your body active during a typical workday, but today I want to talk about the foods (and drinks) you can consume to help.

 Water—no joke, when you get dehydrated your body’s metabolism slows down. People who drink plenty of fluids every day tend to burn more calories than those who don’t.

Salmon—Foods high in Omega-3 fatty acids help our bodies build muscle. More muscle means more calories burned. Omega-3 is also thought to help reduce cortisol levels, which in turn would reduce how many calories our bodies convert to fat (this has not yet been proven).

Coffee—As long as you don’t overdo it, drinking coffee can be a great metabolic aid. Just one cup of coffee contains enough caffeine to speed up our metabolism by up to 15% and keep fat-storing processes at bay.

Hotter is better! Eat chili peppers to burn more calories.

Image: Shutterstock

Avocado—The essential oils, fats, and antioxidants present in avocados help keep our blood vessels healthy and inflammation down, meaning that our metabolism can function well. Avocados also have lots of fiber, which speeds up our metabolism as well.

Beans—Because our bodies have to work extra hard to process the fiber and resistant starch in beans, we burn more calories doing so. Studies suggest eating foods with high levels of resistant starch (beans, whole grains) can boost metabolism up to 24% throughout the day.

Chilies—Spicy foods that contain chilies also contain capsaicin, which boosts calorie burn. The hotter the better!

Green Tea—The combination of caffeine and antioxidants in green teas naturally stimulate our bodies and speed up our metabolism and increase fat burn. Various studies have suggested that drinking green tea on a regular basis can help people stay slim.

Green tea's antioxidants and caffeine can help us stay slim.

Image: Shutterstock

Other foods that you can eat to give your body a natural boost include almonds, apples, pears, broccoli, cinnamon, curry, grapefruit, lean meat, oatmeal, spinach, unsweetened soymilk, and yogurt. I don’t know about you all, but those are some of my favorite things to eat anyway!

For more information on these foods and others, check out “Surprising Foods That Fight Fat” on Health.com and “16 Foods that Naturally Boost Your Metabolism” on Organic Authority. I used both as sources.

5 Common Headaches

We’ve all likely had headaches in our lives. They come in different forms and can be caused by a wide array of things. One-time occurrences are common, but so too are recurring headaches. It’s important to recognize different types of headaches and what’s causing them so you can minimize the chance you’ll get another one as well as determine proper treatment.

Headache types by location
Image from ufandshands.org

Let’s start with the common, self-induced hangover headache. Doctors aren’t positive what exactly causes hangover headaches. Alcohol can cause blood vessels to become inflamed and dehydrates us, both common causes of headaches. Circumstances like staying up late and missing out on morning caffeine can also be contributors. Drinking extra water while drinking, before bed, and after waking up can help reduce hangover headaches. Over the counter painkillers can also be used.

Tension headaches are also common and are characterized by their “behind the eyes” location. If your headaches just behind your eyes or forehead, it’s likely a tension headache and can be treated using over the counter products. Likely causes of these headaches are eyestrain, bad lighting or fluorescent lights. They are generally mild.

Massage can treat and prevent migraines

Image: Shutterstock

If your headache is just behind one eye or much more severe, it could be a migraine. Migraines are triggered by a number of things, including common food additives, caffeine, aspartame, sulfites, tannins, nitrites, alcohol, hidden additives (Tyramine or Phenylethylamine), and even leftovers (higher levels of Tyramine). Non-food causes can include stress, sleep deprivation, dehydration, fluorescent or bright lighting, and more. Migraines are often treated using prescription medication, though massage therapy is also a viable method for prevention.

Cluster headaches and migraines share many symptoms, but cluster headaches are unique in that they usually awaken someone from sleep. The also often last for a much shorter period of time—15 minutes to 3 hours—than migraines do (they can go on for days). Like migraines, prevention is key for cluster headaches and regular pain medications won’t have an effect. Treatments can include inhaling oxygen through a mask, local anesthetics, and prescription medications.

Cause or cure?
Image from memegenerator.net

Caffeine headaches can be brutal if you’re used to ingesting a lot of caffeine. They are most common in the morning and can be a catch-22 for the sufferer. While an occasional cup of coffee to cure the headache can help, doing so more than twice a week may call for additional treatment. Caffeine can also be a cause of headache, so be careful not to get caught in this cycle.