If you want to lose weight, load up on tea.

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Jonny Bowden, author, nutritionist and weight loss coach cuts through all the misconceptions about diet and fitness to help you transform your body, your health and your life.

Green tea has been heralded for years as a great addition to your diet if you're watching your weight. The evidence for tea as a weight loss companion continues to grow, but this time it's white tea in the spotlight.

The researchers took an extract from white tea and put it in test tube cultures containing human cells called preadipocytes. Preadipocytes are cells which ultimately turn into fat cells. Exposure to the white tea extract helped prevent that from happening. In a related experiment, researchers then applied the same solution of white tea extract to fully-mature fat cells and found that the extract actually stimulated fat burning in those cells, ultimately reducing their fat content.

Remember that an increase in body fat actually involves two processes: The first is an increase in the number of fat cells, and the second is an increase in the size of the fat cells themselves. If you think of fat cells as little sponges, the first process would be like getting more sponges, and the second would be like soaking them with more water. The white tea extract affected both processes.

If you want to drop some pounds, try going for a run, because drinking Enviga tea -- touted as a calorie-burning beverage that's supposed to result in weight loss -- won't do the trick alone. Enviga claimed that consumers could burn an extra 106 calories a day and lose weight just by drinking three cans of its sparkling green tea daily. If you're thinking it sounds too good to be true, you're right. An investigation found no evidence to back that up those claims.

Coca-Cola and Nestle, the makers of Enviga, got a very expensive lesson in false advertising last week when they settled a major lawsuit over the unfounded claims. Under the settlement, Enviga's makers owe 27 suing states and the District of Columbia $650,000 and were forced to change their labeling. Now, if you pick up the beverage or surf on over to Enviga's web site, you'll still read that the tea will boost your calorie-burn, but they also add that "weight-loss, of course, requires a reduced-calorie diet and exercise." Isn't the no-effort angle kind of the whole point of Enviga? If you have to exercise and diet to see weight-loss results, would you still give Enviga a try?

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Put chocolate, red wine and tea on your New Year's shopping list, because Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld gave these items the stamp of approval on CNN this past Sunday.

Here's what he says you can consume: 1/2 glass of red wine, four squares of chocolate (dark is best) and five cups of tea per day. Not too shabby, eh? The perk, besides that you get to savor these tasty goods, is that you'll decrease your risk of heart and vascular disease.

Yes, these three are good for you. The problem, warns Rosenfeld, is that giving permission to the masses to enjoy chocolate, wine and tea often turns into pure indulgence. Moderation, my friends. Moderation.

When Jo Wood, the recently estranged wife of Rolling Stones member Ronnie Wood, felt her clothes weren't fitting as loosely as usual, she did what any normal woman would do -- she quickly booked herself an extended stay at an exclusive spa in Switzerland, where she lives on tea and sheep's yogurt for the better part of a week. Oh, wait a minute. That's not what a normal woman would do -- that's the kind of thing the rich and eccentric do.

Wood, 53, says, "I looked at myself when I was 65 kg (143 lbs) and I was just so depressed. I thought, 'Oh come on Jo, you're just eating all the time, all this chocolate!' So I went to the Maya clinic in Switzerland and I just lived off tea. Tea and sheep's yoghurt, for five whole days!"

Well, it's healthier than Colin Farrell's quick weight-loss diet ... but that's not saying a lot. Still, she looks pretty good. What do you think?

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Make the most of your pasta -- here's a quick tip on how to up the nutritional value of your favourite noodles:

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Looking for something new and unexpected to make your diet more interesting and help you lose weight? Check out these 5 foods.

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To sip or not to sip? When you're talking tea, the consensus among health experts seems to be: sip up! Tea is nutritious, delicious and virtually calorie-free. Over at Mark's Daily Apple, they're talking tea. Here are 10 reasons to start brewing:

• Tea is full of antioxidants.
• It also has anti-inflammatory properties, meaning it can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, among others.
• It can lower the body's absorption of carbohydrates.
• It can protect you against ovarian cancer.
• If you have it sans milk, it counts as a glass of water against your eight glasses a day.
• It can curb hunger and help satisfy cravings.
• it's lower in caffeine than coffee
• To get the most positive impact from tea, drink two to three cups a day. If you can't? One cup should be fine.
• Loose, fresh tea offers more benefits than bags of tea.
• Worried about staining your teeth? Drink white or green tea instead of traditional black tea.

What do you love about tea?

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What can soothe your stomach, cool your skin and and awaken your senses? Hint: It grows in your garden and tastes great.

When it comes to healthy ways to stay hydrated, tea is near the top of the list. Not only is it fat, calorie, and sugar-free, it's also often loaded with antioxidants. So why does Viggo Mortensen keep getting in trouble for his tea habit, especially at the airport?

Probably because Viggo drinks his tea with a pipe. He prefers a tea called Argentinean mate. According to Wikipedia, mate is an infusion of stimulants and tea that are traditionally drunk out of a gourd. Modern drinkers like Viggo, however, may use something called a bomba. This small metal pipe allows the tea to reach the mouth, while filtering out the chunkier parts of the mixture.

The problem for Viggo is that he often takes his tea and bomba to the airport in ziploc bags, causing airport security to raise their eyebrows in curiousity and concern. Once Viggo explains that what he's carrying is tea and not an illegal drug, he says, it's usually not an issue.

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Do you ever have those mornings when you just need a sweet coffee-like treat to get started? I'm normally a black coffee, sometimes with a little milk gal, but every once in a while I really want something warm and chocolatey to get me started. Unfortunately, many of those drinks pack a wallop when it comes to the calorie content, and wasting 300 calories on a drink is not the way I like to begin my day.

Fortunately, the folks at Cabaret Brewed Chocolate were nice enough to send me a sample of their product, which is a whole bean beverage. It contains water-brewed whole cocoa beans (cacao) and organic evaporated cane juice. That's it. You mix it into a bit of hot water, and, voila! You have a hot, sweet, chocolate beverage with only 24 calories per serving!

It's not quite like hot chocolate -- it's a little thinner, maybe more like a rich, yummy, chocolate tea. I found that it helped me achieve a relaxed, but focused state, kind of like coffee but without any jitters. Other people report extreme relaxation, and some feel really energized. I found it to be a great way to get a satisfying taste of chocolate without sacrificing my good eating habits.

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Do you know you can decaffeinate your own tea? Family Circle senior editor Gay Edelman does it. And in the October 2008 magazine, she tells readers all about it. Here's what she has to say.

Since 80% of the caffeine in tea is released within the first 30 to 45 seconds of steeping, it's easy to decaf your own tea, says Edelman. Just pour boiling water over the tea leaves or bag, wait 30 seconds, then discard the water. Final step: Brew with fresh hot water -- and enjoy.

Edelman says she can try all sorts of healthy tea flavors with her decaf trick, and she never needs to worry about the jitters. Got any of your own DIY food or drink-related tricks? Do share.

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Got a spare tire attached to your midsection, guys? Want it gone? Then try green tea. In one recent study, extracts from the beverage helped men burn 17 percent more fat during a 30-minute cardio workout.

Green tea is a sort of metabolism booster. It's not clear exactly why, but researchers suspect that something in the healthy drink makes fat turn to fuel during exercise. It doesn't happen without the exercise, though, because the only way to shrink a spare tire is to lose weight. Tea just helps you do it.

Tea helps in other areas too. Check out these six reasons to go green.

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A growing body of research suggests that drinking hot tea has numerous health benefits. From reduced risk of heart disease, to improving spatial cognition and mental acuity, tea is a liquid powerhouse for your health.

Most recently, a study published in the International Journal of Cancer revealed that hot tea can lower your risk of kidney cancer by as much as 15 percent. Men's Health magazine suggest trying pu-erh tea, a lesser known kind that is more effective at preventing DNA damage than black or green tea.

Whatever variety of tea you choose, there's a good chance you'll be doing your body a great favor by drinking it. And, as former British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone once said, tea is the perfect drink. In his words, "If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you."

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America runs on Dunkin', at least that's what the advertisements for Dunkin' Donuts coffee tell us. And if it's not Dunkin' Donuts, it's Starbucks, Seattle's Best, The Coffee Bean, or Tim Horton's that provides us with our daily cup of joe. However, our friends across the pond apparently still prefer to get their caffeine fix from the more traditional spot of tea. Perhaps making this switch is something us Yanks should consider, since researchers have discovered that drinking tea may help reduce stress.

In a U.K. study, researchers had a group of men drink either 4 cups of black tea daily. Another group drank a placebo beverage that contained the same amount of caffeine. After six weeks, the men were asked to engage in stressful activities while scientists kept record of their behavior and anxiety. It turned out that the tea drinkers had 20 percent lower stress levels than the men drinking the caffeinated placebo. What's more, the tea drinking men stated that they also felt more relaxed.

Don't worry, if you make the switch to tea, it doesn't mean that you also have to start calling soccer football, using the letter U when spelling certain words that normally wouldn't contain it, or insist that Oasis is still the greatest band in the world.

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