Drink Your Way To A Great Summer Body - Step 3

Step 3: start your day the right way 

Six weeks ago our steps to a great Summer body promotion began.

Step 1 - ‘cleanse and rejuvenate’, flushing out toxins.

Step 2 - ‘fill up with essential nutrients’ to fully nourish your system.

This week is Step 3 – ‘starting the day the right way’. 

Eating a good breakfast sets the tone for the day – good breakfast, good day! It starts your body up and can improve your mood, your physical and mental performance, as well as your weight and long term health. It will perk up how you feel and help you in creating a healthy and gorgeous Summer body. 

Try Natural Tonic Bar’s fabulous breakfast smoothies – the ‘wild thing’ is a particular favourite of ours with a natural blend of mixed berries, banana, apple and of course the breakfast dream ingredient - oats. Oats are fuel for the brain and are delicious and healthy too, maintaining our blood sugar levels. Or add granola (mix of oats, nuts and honey) to any other smoothie to capitalize on breakfast ‘goodness’. 

For menus and more information on Natural Tonic Bar’s juices, smoothies and herb infusions, visit www.naturaltonicbar.com

Drink Your Way To A Great Summer Body - Step 2

Three weeks ago Natural Tonic Bar launched our ‘Drink Your Way To A Great Summer Body’ promotion with Step 1, which was ‘cleanse and rejuvenate’. This meant flushing out all toxins to allow nutrients to positively flow in. Step 2 starts this week and is all about loading up your body with essential nutrients. Natural Tonic Bar is pleased to bring you a ‘buy one, get one free’* offer on all juices and smoothies to kick-start the process.

Brimful with all the right nutrients, every cell of the body will be fully nourished, thereby equipping you to continue to fight free radicals and giving your body that healthy summer glow in the process.

Berries are the way forward this Summer and fantastic, densely-packed nutrients are found in many, including blueberries, strawberries, raspberries as well as lots more Summery fruits like apples. These fruits will help detoxify your body and provide you with a real energy boost – essential for surviving what is sure to be a fast-paced season.

Please visit www.naturaltonicbar.com for more information and details of all the delicious drinks on the menu.

*Offer is for four days only, from Tuesday 28th April – Friday 31st April 09. The offer runs daily from 12pm-6pm and the cheapest juice or smoothie is free.

Drink Your Way To A Great Summer Body - Step 1

Natural Tonic Bar knows that everyone wants to have the perfect summer body for when we hit the beach this Summer in our bikinis and trunks (speedos for those brave/crazy individuals). We want to look more Kate Moss than, let’s say, Johnny Vegas!

It is inevitable that however much we try to cover up at the beginning of our holiday, the heat will get to us eventually and we’ll get to a stage where the clothes become minimal. When this happens we want to be looking healthy, lean and glowing. Well fear not – Tonic’s Top Tips are here with our step-by-step guide, to aid you in getting your body looking tip-top for when you strut your stuff this Summer!

Step 1 to getting your Summer body is to cleanse and rejuvenate your sytem and begins with our ‘Any TONIC shot for £1’ offer. This will increase your body’s ability to absorb some much-needed nutrients, flushing out toxins along the way. We recommend taking daily shots of nutrient packed substances such as wheatgrass, aloe vera gel and mangosteen, all perfect for the job and the quickest and easiest way towards getting that beach bod!

Wheatgrass is a whole body cleanser that will work effectively to sustain your natural balance and equivalent to a whopping 1kg worth of fresh, green vegetables!

Aloe Vera purifies the digestive tract and builds up immunity, helping the body to digest food more easily and allow better absorption of nutrients.

Mangosteen is one of the world’s best anti-oxidants and combats all the toxins and free radicals in your body to replace these with 'pure goodness'.

Please visit our website for menus and more information at www.naturaltonicbar.com.

Natural Tonic Bar’s ‘Any TONIC shot for £1’ runs from 7th – 21st April 09.

Stress? What Stress?!

Stress is becoming an increasingly common word nowadays especially with us all working hard to beat the current ‘Credit Crunch’ (whoever thought of that saying? – I bet they wish they’d patented it).

It’s putting us all under huge amounts of pressure, leading us to allow stress to flow into our lives, which quite frankly has just got to stop. Right here, right now.

Natural Tonic Bar (www.naturaltonicbar.com) nestling within St James’ Park underground station has a few simple dietary tips to help us combat stress.

The best thing is to avoid eating fast-releasing carbohydrates - not surprisingly all the ‘naughty’ things - such as white bread, sweets and foods with added sugar. These foods cause a rapid increase in blood sugar levels and stimulate the stress hormone, cortisol.

On the other hand slow-releasing carbohydrates – all the ‘nice’ things - are the best anti-stress foods. Slow-releasing carbs include fruit, oats, whole grains, beans, lentils, carrots, nuts and seeds. Carbohydrates with proteins such as these reduce the stimulation of cortisol, thus lessening stress and providing a flow of constant energy, keeping us uplifted and invigorated but not in a pressured, stressful way.

Visit www.naturaltonicbar.com for more information or pop along to the store but for now I’ll let you get on with eating your ‘nice’ foods, not ‘naughty’ ones, until next time...

Natural Tonic Bar, 55 Broadway (just outside St James’s Park underground station, in Broadway Shopping Mall), London SW1H 0BD.

Sick of being sick?!

It seems that this year is no different to any other year in that many people have been hit by illness. Stuck in bed watching cheesy daytime TV, filled to the brim with hot soups and lemsips and longing (unbelievably for once!) to be back to work!

Our diets can aid us through these self-pitying times of both actual flu - and the not so severe – man flu! It’s really best to avoid meat, dairy produce and eggs if you have a viral infection that increases mucus production such as flu. Sufficient protein is essential but too much stifles your immunity. Diets high in saturated or hydrogenated fat can also suppress immunity and clog up the lymphatic vessels, but essential fats, found in cold-pressed oils are immunity boosters and great for protecting us against nasty viruses.

The ideal immune ‘power diet’ to keep you feeling right as rain in the lead up to Spring is well-balanced protein and fats obtained from essential sources such as seeds and nuts, together with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables plus seeds, lentils, beans, whole grains and fish. Carrots, beetroots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and beansprouts are ideal vegetables, with watermelon and berries as a good fruit choice.

When eaten as raw as possible, food retains all its nutrients. Try to avoid frying because this introduces free radicals which are bad for our bodies in large quantities!
Visit Natural Tonic Bar (www.naturaltonicbar.com) to find some fantastic super juices, smoothies, infusions and boosters to help you combat illnesses for the onset of Spring!

Luscious Locks!

Do you want your hair to be more the flowing tresses of Mylenne Klass in the new Pantene advert than the rat’s nest that is piled onto the head of Russell Brand – unique but not quite everyone’s cup of tea?! Instead of spending endless pounds on haircare treatments and products, Natural Tonic Bar have a few helpful hints to create the luscious, healthy locks you desire.
Our hair is primarily made up of protein so an adequate protein intake is a necessity. A wholesome, high-protein diet can be found in foods containing minerals, iron, calcium, selenium and vitamins that will prevent hair loss and yield healthy hair. Milk, meat, fish, bone soups, nuts, pulses, cereals, vegetable oils, green leaves, fruits and vegetables all provide general nutrition to hair. And for those who want to grow old gracefully, carrot, beets, radish, curry leaves and greens prevent premature ageing!
Also simple things like drinking plenty of water, limiting intake of caffeine and alcohol and avoiding frying or long cooking as this destroys essential vitamins, will all leave your hair healthy and looking great.
An easy way to get all the nutrients and vitamins you need is to pop on down to Natural Tonic Bar (www.naturaltonicbar.com) in St James’ Park underground station for healthy and fantastic tasting super juices, smoothies and infusions – the spirulina superpower is a particularly great way to aid in getting healthy hair – grab this super juice today, alternatively look on the website to see how to make it yourself!

‘Drink your food’ and ‘eat your drinks’!

We all know digestion begins in the mouth but not many of us realise how important the first stages of digestion are – it’s not all about the stomach! The saliva in our mouths carry enzymes that allow all the nutrients and goodness of foods and drinks to be absorbed once it’s in the stomach. This means to ensure all these nutrients are taken in by the body and used to their best effect all food needs to be slowly chewed into a liquid, while drinks need to be slowly chewed like food, hence the phrases ‘drink your food’ and ‘eat your drinks’.

If you drink slowly you will allow all the good nutrients to be absorbed. The area under your tongue is one of the quickest ways into your bloodstream. So the slower you drink, the quicker the absorption will be and the quicker the nutrients can get into your body giving you all round goodness and energy. Imagine rushing to buy a pair of shoes and getting home to realise they're not the same size. You need to not rush in choosing your shoes to ensure they are the best and right fit for you, girls you know what I’m talking about! This is the same thing, slowly drink to ensure the full goodness of the nutrients are absorbed.

For great tasting drinks visit Natural Tonic Bar in St James’ Park underground (www.naturaltonicbar.com) and remember slowly does it!

Freshen Up!

Fresh vs ...not so fresh! I can’t think of a scenario when I would choose the latter. Everything is better fresh – fresh air, fresh fruit, fresh Prince of Bel-air! The same applies to juices. Juices provide maximum nutrition when they are freshly prepared. Non-fresh, pre-packaged juices are pasteurized in order to extend shelf life. However, this kills the very enzymes that are beneficial to us.

At Natural Tonic Bar (www.naturaltonicbar.com) you can witness your juice in the making and you can see that everything is being prepared fresh on site. Many supposedly ‘fresh’ juice bars use pre-packaged pasteurized juices as mixers in smoothies. The key to a tasty and healthy juice is to keep it fresh and raw – fresh fruit, raw vegetables!

Cooking vegetables kill the enzymes that benefit our bodies. Raw vegetable juices on the other hand, retain all the vital nutrients, and present them to the body in a form that is quick and easy to absorb.

Make sure you come back next week to freshen up on healthy top tips!

Careful Calorie Counting!

Everyone watches their weight and any helpful information on how to keep healthy and to monitor your calorie intake is often really appreciated especially if it comes in the form of great tasting drinks – yes I said great tasting! So here’s a juicy little tip to help. While smoothies are more nutritious than many other snacks, you should consider the calorie intake within your total daily allowance. Fruits are high in natural sugars, but a mixed vegetable juice will have fewer calories and more nutrition. You should also watch out for excessive use of frozen yoghurt in smoothies. While a little low fat frozen or natural yoghurt can add a nice creaminess to a smoothie, excessive use will increase your calorie intake, the pounds will sneak up on you. Wave goodbye to the Kate Moss ideal and say bonjour to Dawn French, so take it easy guys!

Juices provide the maximum nutrition when they are freshly prepared. Pre-packaged juices are pasteurised to extend shelf life, killing the very enzymes that are beneficial to us. Similarly many supposedly fresh juice bars use pre-packed pasteurised juices as mixers in smoothies. Always make sure you can see your juice being prepared, and that everything is prepared fresh on site, like at Natural Tonic Bar (www.naturaltonicbar.com)!

Hope you enjoy this week’s fresh tips, see you next week.

Don't make a mistake with your daily intake!

The recommended daily fluid intake is 2.5 litres. Since a large proportion of fruits and vegetables are made up of water, juices and smoothies are a great way to contribute to your total intake, while providing a host of other nutrients. Similarly a cup of green or herbal tea will increase your water intake without dehydrating you like coffee.

It is also better to drink on an empty stomach. To extract the maximum nutrients from juices and teas, it is best to drink them on a relatively empty stomach, ideally before meals. That way, the liquid passes straight through the stomach and goes into the intestine where the nutrients get absorbed into the body while they are still alive. If there is food in the stomach, then it has to queue behind it and the nutrients start dying. Imagine being in a queue to see a celebrity you absolutely love. There's so many people in front of you that by the time you get to the beginning the celebrity has had to leave and you don't even get to see them. This is the same thing, you need your juices and herbal teas to be first in the queue to get what you want, the nutrients!

Once again, more helpful hints to ingest, see you again next week!

Down to a Tea!

I hope everyone’s managed to absorb last week’s blog and your juices are truly flowing. This week I wanted to give you some top tip’s on tasty but healthy teas because like juices and smoothies they can taste fantastic as well as be good for your health.

A great tip for you is to ditch the bag! Tea bags contain dust, the stuff at the bottom of the barrel. To really taste good tea, and extract maximum nutrition, you need to use loose leaves with whole herbs and spices, infused appropriately. It’s not as easy as throwing a bag in a cup, but good things always come to those who wait. You can really taste the goodness in teas made from loose leaves so throw the tea bag away today!

Another great tip is to bear in mind the three T(eas)! Temperature, Timing, Taste. To ensure the best tasting brew, the temperature and timing needs to be appropriate for the type of tea. If the water is too hot or the tea is left to brew for too long it can result in a bitter taste, which is not pleasant on the palate. Good green tea should only be brewed for one minute at 80-85 degree water (not boiling!). Good green tea can also be reused for a second or third brew, by increasing the brew time by 30 seconds each time, although still at 80-85 degrees. Black teas should be brewed at just below boiling (around 95 degrees) and can be brewed for around 3-4min, while herbal teas can be brewed using 95 degree water and for around 3-5 minutes.

Here’s some more tips for you to brew over, until next time...happy infusing!

For more information go to www.naturaltonicbar.com

Get your Juices flowing...

So much to say but where to begin... My name is Jatin Ondhia and I own the freshly opened Natural Tonic Bar in St James’s Park. From fruit smoothies to super vegetable juices, hot herb and spice infusions to black teas, Natural Tonic Bar has every health ingredient you could possibly desire in many great tasting concoctions.

After many years in the city, I felt my body was suffering and set about to find ways of enhancing my health, while living the fast-paced lifestyle I enjoyed. In the process I discovered lots of unknown health tips which I want to share with everyone through this series of blogs. Each week I will share another tip I have discovered on my journey to establishing London’s first natural tonic bar.

I also worked in New York for three years and discovered that they have already found the balance between taste and health. Many still go for the triple portions, corn dogs and burgers but balance this out with healthy, nutritious juices and infusions. They have realised the importance of fresh, natural products to maintain a healthy balance in the body, and even their burgers are becoming wholesome and nutritious. I’ve returned to the UK with a passion and greater knowledge and this blog will help me share some useful tips and easy to follow advice with you out there, even for the most extreme health dodgers.

To start with, it is important to know that rather than the usual supermarket juices, a juice should ideally be fresh, and mixed to contain around one-third in super-vegetables, such as lettuce, spinach, pepper or celery. Sweeter ingredients such as apple, beetroot and carrot can then be used to make an all round pleasant tasting and nutritionally balanced drink. Most supermarket juices on the other hand are pasteurised, which involves heating the juices to kill the living enzymes and extending shelf life. These enzymes are the nutritious parts of the juice though, so this process leaves the juice with little nutritional value. Just remember, fresh is always much more nutritious, and it's better to mix ingredients to generate a balanced nutritional impact.

That’s it for this week. So much to share, but will let you absorb this first!