08.23.07
drink to your health
posted by Michelle Rabin | 1 comment
I’m a long time fan of Martha Stewart. I learned from her how to iron a shirt, clean a bathroom, make a bed, as well as cook some fine dishes. If truth be told, I remember an early show where she featured Donny Yance, a renowned herbalist who actually talked about green tea. Athough I’m no longer a subscriber to her magazine, I spotted the September issue during a recent trip to the library and found an interesting article which I’ve titled for this post. In previous posts I’ve mentioned about the high percentages of calories that kids 
consume from beverages but I was shocked to learn that since the 1970’s, “the proportion of total daily calories consumed in sweetened beverages has increased by 135 percent”. They went on to report that “for many people, calories from beverages total 500 to 1000 a day. I suspect a few Starbucks Frappucino Grandes would account for that quite easily. It’s no wonder we’re in the midst of an obesity epidemic! It appears that part of the problem is due to the fact that liquid calories tend to sneak up on us, “without triggering a sense of fullness”. In a 2004 study which looked at 91,000 women, they found that drinking one or more soft drinks daily almost doubled the risk of type 2 diabetes. These high sugar beverages are rapidly digested, “sending blood sugar levels soaring and then plummeting”. It is this roller coaster effect which is responsible for the disturbing increase in type 2 diabetes.
So what should we be drinking? TEA got great marks with the recommendation to drink as much “unsweetened” tea as you like. I was duly impressed that they mentioned that herbal tea isn’t really made with “real tea leaves”, and may not have the same health benefits. So drink up and remember to keep it “neat”.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Michele,
In response to the idea about getting Tea on the docket for one of Martha Stewarts TV programs or for her magazine which I proposed in the 08/22 post - I don’t know any one who knows anyone. But, I am quite certain that the producers/editors must be actively hunting down “Good Things” to continue to provide stimulating content for their viewers/readers.
Perhaps it would be worthwhile for us to prepare a comprehensive sales pitch for a program/issue devoted to tea topics. We can certainly list quite a diverse offerings……we can suggest sending Martha to some camelia sinesis fields where growers can discuss how different harvesting methods create different teas. We can talk about the rise of tea business with special event tea parties. We can talk about loose leaf teas and the proper brewing techniques. Then of course there would be recipes that include tea (both as an cooking ingredient) or as a beverage. Perhaps my own quirky artform recycling vintage teaware would be something she’d feature. And your website, whose archive of discussions about tea would certainly be a great resource for the producers to review, might be just what MSL needs to get the publicity boost.
And perhaps a Email/letter writing campaign from your loyal T Ching bloggers/readers could help, too!