Good Reviews for Kombucha!

Ever since I wrote the post on how Kombucha tea can help boost our metabolism, and I asked, “Has anyone ever heard of Kombucha tea?” I have received all sorts of information.  A friend of mine said, “I love Kombucha tea, I’ll get you some.”  She laughed when I asked if I could just get the tea leaves from the tea store at the mall.   Apparently it isn’t that kind of tea!  My daughter said, “oh yeah, Kombucha, it’s what all the yogis drink”. Uh oh, this could be something strange…

A day of so later I read this post from FabfitFun with an “easy recipe” for Kombucha — It didn’t look very easy to me.  Nor did it sound very good! fermented? live cultures??  But it is very good for our health and boosts our immune system, so I figured I’d give it a try.  If for no other reason than to report back to you.

I went into the Portsmouth Health Food Center to get some.  I assumed that I’d have to really search in the refrigerated drinks section, but no, there it was, shelves and shelves of Kombucha in all sorts of flavors!  I bought the ginger, carefully took it home (they told me not to shake it) and drank some.

It tasted great.  It didn’t taste weird or like there were live cultures in it (whatever that would taste like).  So I’m giving a big thumbs up to Kombucha Tea.  It is refreshing and as it is fermented it is lightly carbonated.  A great healthy alternative to soda!

Let me know if you’ve tried it or if you decide to try it, and what do you think?

 

Easy ways to Speed Up that Metabolism!

I read an interesting post listing ways we can increase our metabolism (and who doesn’t want to do that!)

Stay Hydrated.  We all have heard that we need to drink 8 glasses of water a day, but did you know that if you eat a healthy diet, you get plenty of fluids from your food, mostly from fruits and vegetables.  Take a look at this table to see the water content of  many raw fruits and vegetables.

A cup of tea is almost 100% water, and several types of tea have positive effects on metabolism — kombucha tea (I’ve never heard of this one!), green tea, oolong tea.

Make sure your Calcium levels are adequate.  The USDA recommends a daily intake of 1,000-1,500 mg/day.  Low fat dairy products are great for providing calcium, plain, non-fat yogurt provides 415 mg of calcium, and 8 oz of skim milk provides 299.  But there are other terrific non-dairy options — 2 Tbsp molasses 400 mg,  1 cup of collard greens 357 mg  and 4 oz tofu 200-330

Cut out the alcohol.  An evening of cocktails causes a big drop in our metabolic rate the next day!  Perhaps we should try that Kombucha tea instead.

Eat when you are hungry even if it means eating 5-6 times a day.  Not eating when we are hungry slows down our body’s functions, including our metabolism.  But make sure those extra snacks are high-fiber, high protein foods, not sugary snacks.

Stress increases our body’s production of cortisol — a hormone that instructs the body to hold onto fat.  Our body responds to stress by going into  a fight or flight mode  When we are in a stressful situation, our body thinks we are  in the midst of a natural disaster and rather than succumb to famine, it chooses to hold onto our stores of fat as a means of survival.

Did you know that diet drinks also adversely affect our metabolism, as does High Fructose Corn Syrup (our bodies store fructose as fat).

7-8 hours of sleep every night is essential for your body to burn calories effectively.  Too little or even too much sleep adversely affects our metabolism.

Sunshine!  We need to get some sunshine between 11am-3pm to keep our body, and our metabolism functioning properly.  Also cardio exercise in the cold air can increase our ability to burn fat.  So a brisk 20 minute walk outside at lunchtime is a great metabolism booster and fat burner!

Weight bearing exercise boosts metabolism simply due to the fact a pound of muscle burns 35-50 calories at rest and a pound of fat burns 5-10.  So increasing our muscle mass increases our metabolic rate–simple.

Vitamins C and B and essential.  Vitamin C helps us absorb calcium and calcium speeds up metabolism.

And lastly, ginger and spicy peppers burn calories and speed up digestion.

Can add a few of these metabolism boosters into your diet and lifestyle?  I’m going to start with an easy one.  I’m going to have a green tea break!