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.
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
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!
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!
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
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
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
Thursday, 8 January 2009
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!
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!
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