Reduce belly fat naturally - 5 Belly Fat Busting Herbs to Add to Your Healthy Lifestyle.

The information on this blog is for information only and should not be considered as an expert advice.

Herbs that Fight Fat
In addition to including healthy fats and cutting out processed food, you may want to consider adding some herbal power to your belly-busting program. Many plants contain potent compounds that target belly fat by increasing your metabolic rate, increasing fatty-acid release from deep within fat stores and suppressing hunger, which helps cut caloric consumption.
Here are five to consider:

Green Tea
Consuming green tea and participating in three hours of moderate physical activity per week resulted in an acceleration of body fat burning around the abdomen, as compared to exercise alone. Those who drank the catechin rich green tea beverage experienced a greater reduction in abdominal fat.
Chickweed
Chickweed also has a long-standing reputation for aiding weight loss efforts. It can be eaten raw in a salad or steamed like a vegetable. Adding chickweed to a typical salad has been shown to help break down fat molecules. It can be sprinkled on many different foods to decrease appetite, curb cravings and even assist digestion.
Ginger
Its digestive actions may serve to cleanse the build-up of waste and toxins in the colon, liver and other organs. Efficient detoxification is essential to efficient metabolism. Known as a metabolic activator, ginger has been thought to increase the thermogenic properties of foods while decreasing feelings of hunger.One of the best ways to enjoy ginger’s health benefits is through a ginger tea. Prepare the tea by steeping about five slices of ginger (or two teaspoons of freshly-grated ginger) in hot water. For an extra powerful digestive soother, add chamomile and peppermint tea leaves.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon has been found to reduce blood sugar levels in people who are diabetic or pre diabetic. High blood sugar levels impair metabolism and create internal chaos. Adding as little as 2 teaspoons a day of cinnamon to your food has been shown to be effective in helping regulate blood sugar and insulin response. Consider adding a little to your coffee, smoothies or morning oatmeal.
Burdock Root
The best way to use it is to bring water to a boil and pour about an ounce of dried burdock root into the water; gently simmer for 10 to 20 minutes, and then allow it to cool. Drinking it between meals is optimal.By combining one or more of these herbs into an already-healthy lifestyle that includes regular exercise and a nutritious diet, you can help decrease the time it takes to achieve your ideal weight while reducing that stubborn fat around your middle!

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Stress Reducing Foods

The information on this blog is for information only and should not be considered as an expert advice.

  
Foods can help tame stress in several ways. Comfort foods, like a bowl of warm oatmeal, boost levels of serotonin, a calming brain chemical. Other foods can cut levels of cortisol and adrenaline, stress hormones that take a toll on the body over time. And a healthy diet can counter the impact of stress, by shoring up the immune system and lowering blood pressure.

All carbs prompt the brain to make more serotonin. For a steady supply of this feel-good chemical, it's best to eat complex carbs, which are digested more slowly. Good choices include whole-grain breakfast cereals, breads, and pastas, as well as old-fashioned oatmeal. Complex carbs can also help you feel balanced by stabilizing blood sugar.

Oranges make the list for their wealth of vitamin C. Studies suggest this vitamin can curb levels of stress hormones while strengthening the immune system. In one study of people with high blood pressure, blood pressure and cortisol levels (a stress hormone) returned to normal more quickly when people took vitamin C before a stressful task.

Drinking black tea may help you recover from stressful events more quickly. One study compared people who drank four cups of tea daily for six weeks with people who drank another beverage. The tea drinkers reported feeling calmer and had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol after stressful situations.  

 Almonds, as well as other nuts and seeds, are good sources of healthy fats. Eating a handful of almonds, walnuts every day may help lower your cholesterol, ease inflammation in your heart's arteries, make diabetes less likely, and help protect you against the effects of stress.Almonds are chock-full of helpful vitamins: vitamin E to bolster the immune system, plus B vitamins, which may make you more resilient during bouts of stress such as depression. To get the benefits, snack on a quarter of a cup every day.

Another bedtime stress-buster is the time-honored glass of warm milk. Research shows that calcium eases anxiety and mood swings linked to PMS. Dietitians typically recommend skim or low-fat milk.

Besides changing your diet, one of the best stress-busting strategies is to start exercising. Aerobic exercise boosts oxygen circulation and spurs your body to make feel-good chemicals called endorphins. Aim for 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three to four times a week. If you're not active now, tell your health care provider you're going to start exercising -- they'll root for you and make sure you're ready to get moving.

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Green Tea - the Fight Against Parkinson’s Disease

The information on this blog is for information only and should not be considered as an expert advice.
Parkinson’s disease is the second commonest neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s, affecting 1% of the over-65 population and 2% of the over-80’s. Recent research (1) published in Biological Psychiatry from the Institute of Biophysics, Academia Sinica in Beijing indicates that polyphenols in green tea have a protective effect on neurons that could be put to potential clinical use.
In a laboratory study carried out on rats, serving as the animal model for Parkinson’s disease, damage was inflicted upon dopamine-secreting neurons of rats — simulating the disease in humans where the loss of such neurons leads to debilitating disorders of movement. Controls were set up by dividing the rats in 6 groups - control group not receiving neurotoxin, control group receiving normal diet plus neurotoxin, two study groups receiving neurotoxin and 150 mg/kg and 450 mg/kg of green tea polyphenols respectively, and two control groups receiving polyphenols only in the above doses.
The results showed significant neuroprotective effects of green tea which depended on the dose being administered - overall 3.7 times more neurons survived in the combined group that received polyphenols with neurotoxins, than those who received neurotoxins alone. Dr Baolu Zhao (senior author) and his colleagues also links this protective effect of polyphenols to inhibition of the ROS-NO pathway which is thought to mediate cell death in Parkinson’s disease. This pathway is thought to generate nitric oxide and free oxygen radicals, both of which are lethal to neurons. Free radicals are also thought to be related to a number of diseases and even aging, and this anti-oxidant function of green tea has been traditionally explained as the reason behind green tea’s reputation as an anti-aging agent.
However, it must be remembered the study does not imply that drinking copious amounts of green tea will protect against or cure Parkinson’s disease. Laboratory conclusions often do not hold out in clinical trials, and health claims for well known agents like Ginko Biloba and St. John’s Wort have not held out in carefully controlled clinical studies. Moreover, large prevalence studies (2) have not shown any difference in prevalence rates of Parkinson’s disease between China, where green tea drinking is common, and the Western world.
However, this study does indicate that drugs developed from polyphenols do merit clinical trials in the near future as possible anti-Parkinson’s agent. Another triumph of the potential of alternative medicine, perhaps.

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Green Tea - cut your cancer risk

CUT YOUR CANCER RISK
Several polyphenols - the potent antioxidants green tea's famous for - seem to help keep cancer cells from gaining a foothold in the body, by discouraging their growth and then squelching the creation of new blood vessels that tumors need to thrive. Study after study has found that people who regularly drink green tea reduce their risk of breast, stomach, esophagus, colon, and/or prostate cancer.
SOOTHE YOUR SKIN Got a cut, scrape, or bite, and a little leftover green tea? Soak a cotton pad in it. The tea is a natural antiseptic that relieves itching and swelling. Try it on inflamed breakouts and blemishes, sunburns, even puffy eyelids. And that's not all. In the lab, green tea helps block sun-triggered skin cancer, whether you drink it or apply it directly to the skin - which is why you're seeing green tea in more and more sunscreens and moisturizers.
STEADY YOUR BLOOD PRESSUREHaving healthy blood pressure - meaning below 120/80 - is one thing. Keeping it that way is quite another. But people who sip just half a cup a day are almost 50 percent less likely to wind up with hypertension than non-drinkers. Credit goes to the polyphenols again (especially one known as ECGC). They help keep blood vessels from contracting and raising blood pressure.
PROTECT YOUR MEMORY, OR YOUR MOM'SGreen tea may also keep the brain from turning fuzzy. Getting-up-there adults who drink at least two cups a day are half as likely to develop cognitive problems as those who drink less. Why? It appears that the tea's big dose of antioxidants fights the free-radical damage to brain nerves seen in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
STAY YOUNG
The younger and healthier your arteries are, the younger and healthier you are. So fight plaque build-up in your blood vessels, which ups the risk of heart disease and stroke, adds years to your biological age , and saps your energy too. How much green tea does this vital job take? About 10 ounces a day, which also deters your body from absorbing artery-clogging fat and cholesterol.
LOSE WEIGHT
Oh yeah, one more thing. Turns out that green tea speeds up your body's calorie-burning process.

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