How often should you drink green tea?

The more the better (within reason, remember, there is caffeine in it), but if you are drinking it to help your diet along, then a cup every few hours is recommended because:

Green tea is another excellent choice when you’re looking for a little caffeine. Not only is it calorie-free, some research suggests green tea extract may stimulate weight loss through the action of phytochemicals. These are plant-based compounds that may temporarily cause the body to burn more calories and melt fat. The benefit appears to last only a few hours, so it may help to drink green tea at least twice a day. *(WebMD-see below)

What is the difference between green, black, white and oolong tea?

The Tea Man has a chart that shows how each tea is processed. Basically, they all come from the same tea leaf, but differ in the following ways:

White tea: simply steamed and dried

Green tea: withered, steamed, rolled and dried (some variations)

Oolong tea: withered, bruised, fermented briefly, pan fried and dried

Black tea: withered, rolled or cut, fully fermented, dried

Since green tea goes through much less processing the concentration of catechins and other healthful ingredients are higher. The ‘bioavailability’ of the healthy components  in teas are limited to begin with, so the less they have to go through to start working in your body, the better. Quality does make a difference in how healthful that cup of tea is for you. So if you are buying it for health reasons, then look for the good stuff. Research using extract (pill form)  is coming back very positive, also. (I buy the Green Tea Extract at Swanson for just $3.59/100 caps)

Read more here at Web MD about the health benefits of green tea and find TONS of great health information, videos,  BMI charts, a food and fitness planner, and a diet evaluator.  Worth the trip!

*the quote above was found on Web MD’s website in an article called ‘Skinny Sipping Slideshow’. Check it out and read what drinks will help you lose weight  and which ones will NOT!

Here is the list of the 5 worst diets ever (from WebMD):

1. Diets that focus on only a few foods or food groups

2. “Detox” diets (like Master Cleanse, the Hallelujah Diet, and The Martha’s Vineyard Diet Detox).

3. Diets with ‘miracle’ foods or ingredients (like supplements, fructose water, bitter orange, green tea, apple cider vinegar).

4. Fasting and very low-calorie diets (like the “Skinny” vegan diet, Hollywood Diet, and Master Cleanse).

5. Diets that sound too good to be true (like The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About.)

So, where does that leave you if you want to lose weight? Well, if you do the math, with 3500 calories making up one pound:

Shave off 100 calories a day = 10 pounds of weight loss/year! Almost exactly! To lose 2 pounds per week, you need to burn 1000 more calories per day than your body needs. So if your normal intake is 2500/day, cut it back to 1500. Some good websites to calculate what your body needs and the calories in most foods are:

http://www.sparkpeople.com (one of my favorites!)

http://www.my-calorie-counter.com/calorie_counter.asp

http://caloriecount.about.com/

I had already created my Thanksgiving meal strategy: eat lots of turkey (THANKfully, I love turkey) and thoroughly enjoy small portions of the foods I like the most. You’d think I’d incorporate a few low-cal dishes into the meal, but in our family, there are so many traditional dishes my men-folk are looking forward to I really don’t feel up to adding more (work) to the menu for the sake of my waistline. However, when I looked over the ideas from Chef Meg’s 500 calorie Thanksgiving menu, it gave me a few ideas I could incorporate easily without adding to the work load cooking frenzy menu.

100 Calorie Desserts

In Chef Meg’s menu, she gives recipes for Sweet Potato Tarts and Mini Apple Tarts. Those look good, but I had an idea that I could do without making anything extra (besides the tart shells) I now plan on buying a sheet of the Phyllo dough and making a 12-cupcake tin of tarts when I make the pies. I’m already making the traditional pumpkin pie recipe from 3  generations back (Libby’s original from the can, actually) and apple pie. I’m thinking if I create the 12 tart shells (or buy them made might be easier…) and while I’m making the pies, fill 6 of the phyllo shells with a tablespoon or so of the pumpkin pie filling and 6 shells with the apple pie filling. Skip the butter on top, and bake the shells according to Chef Meg’s time and temp for her tart recipes. How do I know they’re only 100 calories each? It’s called faith. (or a hopeful guess…) I’ll let you know if they turn out.

The Gravy Experiment

Chef Meg’s Apple Cider Gravy sounds delicious! I love apples in any form, so this sounds extra good to me. Our family isn’t really big on gravy anyway, so if it turns out weird, it won’t ruin the meal for others.

Roasted Veges

I don’t know why I haven’t done this sooner, but roasting some vegetables with the turkey is a no-brainer, but I’ve don’t usually do it. Carrots are always good roasted, and I think I’ll even try a sweet potato or two in there. May even get more adventurous, I’ll have to look in my vegetable drawer and see what’s in there. . .

Cranberry Relish

In the past, we’ve always made the cranberry relish recipe on the Ocean Spray Cranberry bag, (when we didn’t resort to canned) but substituted fresh orange juice + a little zest for the water and only used 3/4 cup sugar. Using 1/2 Splenda will cut back a few calories, or may try all Splenda for sweetening and offer a canned version just in case it doesn’t work. Walmart has the Ocean Spray cans of cranberry sauce on sale for .88 this year! Ocean Spray has a great recipe website at http://www.oceanspray.com/recipes/

Green Beans & Cranberries

This isn’t on the list from Chef Meg, but a favorite and traditional favorite at our house is the green bean casserole and I don’t even want to know how many calories are in that! Looking at some of the low-cal options for this Thanksgiving staple look dangerous-it’s because it’s so delicious just the way it is that it’s one of the most common side dishes served on T-day in America. It’s going to have to be one of those dishes I’ll have a small portion of and SAVOR every bite.

However – one of my favorite vegetables lately would make a wonderful Thanksgiving side dish if you don’t happen to be a loyal fan of the infamous green bean casserole. Using the Allen Italian canned beans (or fresh would be extra nice), we add about 2 teaspoons of chicken broth flavoring and heat up the beans in their juice. Then, about 2 minutes before serving, I add 1-2 tablespoons of dried cranberries per 14 oz can of beans and cover while simmering. In the south, it’s very common to add a few tablespoons of oil to the beans while they’re cooking, but obviously I skip that ingredient. Personally I don’t notice a difference in the taste with or without the oil, but that’s just a personal preference, I’m sure.

There’s a host of low calorie options online for your Thanksgiving menu, but sometimes it’s easier to make small adjustments in traditional favorites. I know that in our house, changing some of the basics would be traumatic to many of my men-folk – (I have 3 sons, a son-in-law, and a husband with definite food opinions) and those that could care less about calories. There are 364 other days of the year to make adjustments . . . OK, 363 days, can’t forget Christmas. I just thought I’d share some of my ideas to insert some guilt-free options for those of you that don’t want to lose a month’s worth of dieting in one day-like me.

You can find Chef Meg’s recipes at: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/cookbooks.asp?cookbook=154743

Other great weight loss support at DailySpark.com

One more recipe I found at Diet Bites:

Using a purchased angel food cake, frost it with some light ‘Cool-Whip’ flavored with vanilla or rum extract (or almond) and add some fresh fruit in the middle. Sounds like it would look AND taste good. Find exact directions at http://www.dietbites.com/diet-frosty.html

Do you have any ways or dishes that shave some of the calories off the most calorie heavy meal of the year?

Finding reliable medical advice online is a great perk of the new millennium now that the internet has come of age, but it can take time – and lots of it -  to find the right information. One of the top searches lately is… you guessed it, symptoms and ways to avoid the H1N1 virus. But who has the most reliable advice?

AND – as you well know, there are as many opinions on how medical care can be approached as there are children in the world, but not all advice online is reliable. (duh) Some are down right dangerous. Our families use many herbal remedies, but try to find that balance and rely on a qualified physician’s advice when necessary with anything beyond minor.

Whether you take the all natural approach or strictly your MD’s advice, we believe your best defense is to be informed. I don’t need to tell you that, do I? That’s why you’re reading this post!

These are are the top 10 resources we found that moms list when they are looking for good health information. Email us or leave a comment if you know of any others you think should be included! Thanks!

FYI: These are not listed in any order of preference or popularity. Here’s Momma’s Choice top 10 Health Sites:

WebMD - by far the most popular website for a wide variety of medical advice and tools, they even have a smithering of herbal information.

Medicine Net offers a symptom checker with advice from the 70+ board certified physicians. Easy to read, yet in depth information that you can trust. Owned and operated by WebMD.

Mayo Clinic is the premium source of medical help when no one else seems to have answers to your medical problems. Their online resources are excellent, and one of the most reliable.

Healthline is another good resource for educating yourself about what is wrong before you go to the doctor. You know better than to try to diagnose yourself, but sometimes you can discover related symptoms that you wouldn’t think to mention otherwise. Has a symptom search and a doctor search tool.

Family Doctor is a nicely organized website with a wealth of information at your fingertips. Videos, wellness charts, and drug interaction info are just a few of the perks on this site.

Drugs.com can help you find out what that stray pill you found is. You can also find information on side effects and drug interactions. You can also always call your pharmacist for lots of good information-that’s why they’re there!

Kid’s Health is a great website targeted towards kids, with three separate venues-Parents, Kids, and Teens. They address issues in a kid-friendly way such as healthy snacks, video games (are they unhealthy?), how the body works, and other questions kids might ask if they knew WHAT to ask. *Caveat: Mom, you might want to review this site first to be sure it isn’t beyond what you want your younger child wants to know. Looked OK to me, but different families have different ways of seeing things!

Mercola.com is purely an alternative health information website, but considered by many in the natural health community to be one of the most informative websites on the subject available online. You will be forced to register your email address in order to read articles, which I didn’t like, but they have been very respectful in what they send me.

RightHealth.com is one of the most visited health information websites in 2009. Writing many of the most up-to-date articles on the most popular subjects probably has helped, but we found it not as thorough as some of the others.

Discovery Health has a surprising amount of really interesting health information, and we all love some of their health documentaries, don’t we? If you prefer watching your information vs reading it, this will be your site.

If your focus is entirely natural health, here is a link to the top 10 natural health websites: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/119747/top_ten_natural_health_websites.html

(We’ll be covering herbal remedies much more thoroughly in the near future!)

Keeping Track Of Your Family Medical History

Also, not one of our listed medical resources, but your family history is some of the most important information your doc needs from you. Map out your family’s health history with a program offered by the US Dept of Health and Human Services. You can then print it out and give it to your doctor.

Obviously, there are many more informational sites, leave a comment on which ones you like best – it helps! Thanks.

I love dried cranberries. I’ve worked very hard over the last 18 months to lose weight (total of 49 pounds so far!) and these are one of my not-so-guilty pleasures. They are a little concentrated in the calorie area, but I measure EVERYTHING! After reading that one of few organic foods that are most important critical are dried fruits due to the concentration of pesticides in the drying process, I was really glad to find these cranberries for not too much more (sometimes less!) than the non-organic ones.  Actually, I’ve found that every one of Newman’s Own (they are not paying me for this) products have been good-to-excellent.

What really got me started on dried cranberries and my search for the best deal on the best cranberry is when I started putting a few dried cranberries on my grilled chicken salads along with some toasted almonds and Newman’s Own Raspberry Walnut Dressing. (another favorite!) I discovered that there was a big difference in different brands of dried cranberries, and the difference in Newman’s Own is significant. They have much more flavor and are moist and much more plump than the others I have tried.

I can’t say I’ve tried too many brands of dried cranberries, mainly because most places don’t have that many to choose from, but Newman’s are definitely the best dried cranberries I’ve ever tasted.I know that’s just one opinion, but I’m sure you would agree. If Newman’s ever sent out samples like Kashi did, they would convert many.

Here’s just a few ideas of ways to use them: (besides on salads and straight out of the bag!)

-We put 2-3 T of cranberries in our green beans the last minute or two of cooking, and you’ll never go back to plain green beans.

-Makes a nice touch for Thanksgiving, too.  Add them to your stuffing – or sprinkle them on anything for a pretty red garnish.

-Use them in cookies, quick bread, not-so-quick breads, or anywhere you would use raisins.

-Put a few in your yogurt the night before, and the next morning you have a little extra treat to look forward to!

-Add to your own homemade granola or any bought cereal

-Add them instead of raisins to your homemade Cinnamon-Raisin bread and it can be a gift that won’t soon be forgotten. Throw in a few walnuts and your cranberry-walnut bread will make you famous.

OK, we’ve established that these are the tastiest dried cranberries, organic makes them more healthy, but does their price make them taboo? Not at all! I have searched online, checked the main grocery stores and once again, we’ve found the best deal with the Amazon Subscribe & Save program – which IMO I think is a great deal. However, I probably use more because I have a back stock of them in the pantry….but they’re good for you, so I really enjoy having them on hand.

Best Price Found:

We buy Newman’s Organics Cranberries, Zip Bag, 4-Ounce Bags (Pack of 6)
at Amazon through the Subscribe & Save deal which takes an additional 15%off, making them $2.25/bag delivered-which would be equiv to $2.06/bag if you pay tax in Tennessee like we do. If you aren’t familiar with the Subscribe & Save deal at Amazon, we’ve outlined the main ‘just the facts about Amazon’ AND what to watch out for- in a post and a few things you might want to know ahead of time about the Subscribe & Save ordering to make it clear for you. The first time I used it I admit it was a little confusing, because the item you order gets processed by itself. I ended up with two shipments (my fault) of the same item because I wasn’t sure if it would be covered by the free shipping conditions-and didn’t realize it had checked out separately. If you’re new to the Subscribe & Save, BE SURE to read our Amazon Primer. It’s worth the little extra time to get familiar with the process, you will save money on more than just this one item. FYI- last time we were at Whole Foods, these cranberries were $4.09/bag. Plus tax.

Reviews of Newman’s Own Organic Dried Cranberries by others:

Organic Green & Natural- received an unsolicited box of Newman’s goodies and offered up an honest review of their cranberries and several other Newman’s products…(hello? Newman’s? Are you there? I’ll review anything you want to send me!)  This is a great site you’ll want to bookmark, too.

Lots of people write about adding them to their salads and such, but didn’t find any other reviews aside from Amazon’s. If you have a review on your site, or would like to submit one, leave your website address in a comment. Thanks! If you know of a brand you like better, or know where there is a better price, please tell!