If you haven’t tried it yet, then you should get to know its exquisite full leaf blend of rich black tea. It is good for the heart due to the flavonoids it contains and is a powerful antioxidant that also reduces the risk of heart disease with 50 per cent. But that’s not all:

+ Awake has a great taste that you’d never forget and will always crave for, and a little extra caffeine to keep you going but not jittery all day long

+ Tazo Awake Tea keeps you sharp throughout the day – that is perfect for writers, editors and all other home/office computer users

+ It is the perfect alternative to coffee (that’s what happy users say) – my opinion is that although I would never completely replace my morning coffee, I would gladly replace my afternoon coffee with a cup of aromatic Tazo Awake Tea

+ Gives you a wonderfully bold flavor – didn’t I mentioned that already?

You can drink it any time of the day. You can even brew it, ice it and drink it like an ice tea later.

Where does Tazo Awake tea great blend come from?

Its blend contains only fine varietal teas from two very special places – Assam (Northeast India) and Dimbula (Ceylon). Assam teas are known for their dense and malty flavor, but it’s the combination with the bright, full-flavored Dimbula teas that creates this perfectly balanced breakfast.

Tazo Awake Tea – the tea that satisfies and invigorates.

Oolong tea active compound

The unique thing about the Oolong tea is that it contains a large quantity of polyphenol. And according to some recent researches it’s the polyphenol compound of oolong tea that generates its delicious flavor and promotes its weight loss, beauty and overall health properties.

Black and Green tea active compounds

If you remember green tea’s main compound is catechin. Black tea on the other hand contains ingredient called theaflavin, and as I already mentioned above oolong tea contains polyphenol. Some of you may be surprised to know that all these black, green, and oolong tea are made from the same leaf. That’s right, all these different kinds and flavors of teas are made from the leaf of the same tea plant that originates from China and belongs to the camellia family.

Tea production methods

If you wonder how’s that possible, I’ll tell you – it’s all about the production methods and particularly the fermentation process of leaves. Oolong tea is semi- fermented (leaves are left to ferment to a certain state), green tea is unfermented and black tea is full fermented (the leaves are left to ferment fully).

Benefits of Oolong tea

Most of the researches concerning oolong tea are concentrated around the idea of how powerful its anti-oxidant properties really are. In fact, the official oolong tea website points out various studies that confirm a possible connection between drinking oolong tea and better fat metabolism and body detoxification.

Detoxification is the first and most important step to successful weight loss. And guess what, that’s exactly that oolong tea is going to do for you – detoxify your body. It does that in two ways:

1) Enhances the function of the enzymes responsible for free radicals elimination and
2) Removes the free radicals by itself

And as we all know free radicals are bad for health and beauty. They oxidize the regular lipids within the body to convert them into lipid peroxide, which is also not good and should be fight against.

Luckily oolong tea, just like green tea, can really help you lower lipid peroxides, because that’s what oolong tea is really good at – catches the free radicals, which are result of fat lipid oxidation, and eliminates them.

In conclusion

One thing is for certain – oolong tea is a healthy drink and is very similar to green tea, but after all they are both derived from the same plant and it’s normal to have similar benefits (benefits of green tea). And yes, oolong tea may aid you in weight loss, but not in a miraculous way, as many of you might expect.

I suppose you won’t be surprised to see that one of the free gifts is the Green Tea Super Anti-Oxidant, Anti-Aging Formula. The deal is as follows: if you buy any 4 Yogi Teas, you get a FREE box of Green Tea Super Anti-Oxidant Formula. Thus you get 5 boxes of one of the most popular tea brands “Yogi Tea” at the price of 4.

Despite the fact that this sounds like a cheesy ad to you, believe me Yogi Teas truly deserve their popularity. They aid many health problems and can keep you in great health condition. Some of the most popular teas are:

Yogi Tea Detox, Body Purifier

The name speaks for itself – detox your body healthy way. Many people find this tea to be a kind of cure-all tea. And they are right, if your body is detoxifying away all the stored toxins within your body, you start feeling great.

Just use the Yogi Detox Tea nearly everyday and you will notice an improvement in your immune system functions. It is also great if you need to get rid of a cold or flu as it shortens the time being sick. That is why I recommend this tea to everyone so heartily.

The taste is delicious due to its organic ingredients and I am sure you will get used to it very easy.

Yogi Detox tea’s mild taste and gentle effect on your system makes it perfect for you if you are fasting or following a mono-diet such as the Detox Diet.

Yogi Tea Ginger, Digestive Aid

You probably remember my review about the Yogi Tea Ginger – Great Digestive Aid. Well, just in short I will mention again some of its greatest properties:

• Improves digestion
• Warms your body
• Enhances circulation
• Helps patients control symptoms of the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

Yogi Tea Lemon Ginger Tea

Lemon Ginger tea is the best aid for chest colds and sore throats during all winter. You can freely rely on it when you or any of your family members have a bad cold.

First you will love it for its excellent black-peppery taste and how good it makes you feel everyday – relaxed and full of energy.

There are over 30 different Yogi Teas, each helping different ailments. You can either choose any 4 of them and receive the free Green Tea Super Anti-Oxidant as a gift, or you can purchase the Green Tea Super Anti-Oxidant, Anti-Aging Formula by itself.

You may wonder why it is so important to have that Green Tea, here’s why:

The Yogi Tea Green Tea Super Anti-Oxidant tea with anti-aging formula will turn out to be your favorite tea, just like many other people have already loved.

Its rich and complex aroma flavor made of wonderful blend of herbs will give you and your friends the sweet pleasure of drinking one of the most beloved Green Teas worldwide.

The greatest benefit of Green Tea Super Anti-Oxidant and Anti-Aging Formula is that it is very rich in anti-oxidants, which are great for your overall health and will help you lose weight subtly and safely.

11. Strawberries
12. Red Delicious & Granny Smith apples
13. Pecans
14. Sweet cherries
15. Black plums
16. Russet potatoes
17. Black beans
18. Plums
19. Gala apples
20. Walnuts

The consumption of antioxidant-rich foods may lower the risk or even prevent certain diseases resulting from cellular damage, caused by oxidation.

The US FDA may have recently suggested that the average person should consume up to 7000 ORAC* units daily, in order to reduce the risk of cancer. As this is nearly 12 servings of high-ORAC*-value fruit, the use of nutritional supplements containing bioflavonoids is likely necessary to reach this target.

Benefits of antioxidants

• Antioxidants neutralize metal ions (free radicals that can cause oxidation) by wrapping around them – that prevents the formation of ion-dependent free radicals and the metal ions from oxidizing cells

By neutralizing free radicals antioxidants promote:

• Liver protection
• Eye health and prevent degenerative eye diseases
• Improved immune system
• Anticarcinogenic effects – prevent DNA damage and cancer
• Cardiovascular health and help prevent artherosclerosis, heart attacks, strokes
• Antioxidants can decrease LDL and cholesterol and lower blood pressure

* ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) – is a method of measuring antioxidant contents in foods; fruits ORAC units vary between 500 and 900 per 100 grams.

Flavonoid polyphenolics (also called bioflavonoids)

• Green tea – one of the best sources of flavonoid polyphenols and green tea polyphenols are one of the most potent antioxidants
• Other sources of bioflavonoids are the pomegranate, blueberries, and blackberries, other types of tea and some coffee types

Phenolic acids and their esters

• Ellagic acid – raspberry and strawberry
• Gallic acid – gallnuts, sumac, witch hazel, tea leaves, oak bark
• Salicylic acid – extracted from willow trees, as well found in most vegetables, fruits, and herbs
• Rosmarinic acid – rosemary, marjoram and oregano, lemon balm, sage
• Cinnamic acid – found in seeds of brown rice, whole wheat and oats, coffee, apple, artichoke, peanut, orange and pineapple
• Chlorogenic acid – has high concentration in Robusta than Arabica coffee beans, as well as in blueberries and tomatoes; produced from caffeic acid

In the list of beverages and foods highest in antioxidants the White tea takes 3rd place, Green tea take 5th place and Black tea takes 8th place.

The top 20 best food antioxidants:

1. Small red beans
2. Wild blueberries
3. Red Kidney beans
4. Pinto beans
5. Cultivated Blueberries
6. Cranberries
7. Artichokes
8. Blackberries
9. Prunes
10. Raspberries
11. …

The rest in the next post…

The most important sources of organic antioxidants are the plants, but you can’t just start consuming those antioxidant-rich plans. We are all taking antioxidants in many different forms, such as:

Antioxidant food additives – are used in food industry to prevent food deterioration. Such antioxidants are ascorbic acid (vitamin C), citric acid, acetic acid (found in vinegar – used for pickling), and pectin.

Food antioxidant supplements – products rich in one particular antioxidant or a combination of antioxidants that are used by people to supplement their regular diets with antioxidants.

Green tea is such an antioxidant-rich herb, used for the production of many health products, such as weight loss supplements and antioxidant antiaging formulas.

Nutritional antioxidants

Antioxidant vitamins

• Vitamin A (Retinol is the dietary form of vitamin A and is synthesized by the body from beta-carotene) – rich sources of beta-carotenes are the carrots, squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, kale, sea buckthorn, collards, cantaloupe, peaches and apricots
• Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid) – sources of Vitamin C are citrus fruits, green peppers, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, strawberries, blueberries, fresh cabbage and tomatoes
• Vitamin E – whole grains, wheat germ, nuts, seeds, green leafy vegetables, vegetable oil

Antioxidant vitamin cofactors and minerals

• Coenzyme Q10 – its natural production by your body can decrease with ages, so you may need to take Q10 supplements
• Selenium (reduces the risk of male prostate cancer; it be taken in controlled amounts because large doses can be toxic) – food sources are grains, eggs, sunflower seeds, fish, shellfish, red meat, chicken, turkey, garlic, vegetables grown in selenium-rich soils
• Zinc – protects red blood cells from oxidative effects of other minerals like copper and iron
• Manganese – acts like an antioxidant as a part of the SOD enzyme (superoxide dismutase)

Carotenoid terpenoids – alpha-carotene and beta-carotene

Non-carotenoid terpenoids

• Eugenol (has the highest ORAC*) – very rich contained in clove oil and in smaller amounts in basil and cinnamon

* ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) – is a method of measuring antioxidant contents in foods; fruits ORAC units vary between 500 and 900 per 100 grams.

More nutritional antioxidants in the next post…

Well, antioxidants are extremely beneficial to your body, but if you don’t know what exactly antioxidants are and how they work, you won’t be able to value their importance to your body.

What are antioxidants?

Antioxidants are chemicals substances that can slow or halt oxidation processes in your body. Oxidation processes can cause chemical damages to body cells’ components, that’s why all body cells contain complex antioxidant systems for preventing those oxidative damages.

How antioxidants work?

Researches have shown a connection between oxidative damage and the occurrence of some diseases. An example for such connection is the LDL oxidation and the cardiovascular disease. The processes leading to cardiovascular disease are complex and involve LDL oxidation by free radicals, which results in inflammation.

To reduce the potential damages from free radicals oxidation, it is recommended to increase the consumption of foods high in antioxidants. That brings us to the next question: “Which are the best sources of antioxidants?”

Find out which are the best antioxidants in the next post…