How many of you have detected the growing trend in malls, airports, train stations, department and specialty stores and maybe equal your best friends home of the Massage Chair? They seem to be everywhere now days and are almost always in use by people of all ages feeding the vending chair dollar bills same a pleasure generous video game. This new health trend is sweeping Japan, Europe and has now infiltrated the U.S. with dozens of models and price ranges from a few cardinal to several cardinal dollars. A new LA Times article describes them as “not your fathers La-z-boy” and that, is an understatement for sure.

Studies have shown that Japanese men and women have the longest life expectancy than some other race in the world. We now know why! Have you ever heard the expression “You are what you eat.”? It turns down there is much truth to this statement than was once thought. The reason for the people of Japans long life is exactly that, their diet. There are three staples of the Japanese diet which can be linked to their long healthy lives. 1. Fish – Seafood is a well celebrated staple of the Japanese diet. It is also a well celebrated fact that seafood is very healthy. The normal Japanese diet includes at least cardinal piece of seafood every day. Seafood is naturally low in greasy and cholesterol, higher in protein and omega 3 greasy acids. It is arguably cardinal of the healthiest meats available today.

Simon Mitchell The French, in terms of diet and disease, are a statistical enigma. They relish high greasy food, consume alcohol regularly and often smoke - the very picture of the World Health Organisation’s ‘risk group’. High protein, meat based meals include duck, goose and pork - equal cooked in greasy as a preference! Butter, cream, pork fat and wine are regular ingredients. Yet they have comparatively low rates of stomach and colon cancer and the second-lowest international incidence of heart disease after Japan. ‘The French Paradox’ is well celebrated to nutritionists and reasons for this statistical enigma are emerging. One of their loved names for the English is ‘Les Ros Bif’, in reference to the traditional overcooked Sunday roast dinner. French cooking is untold lighter than British, leaving many of the valuable nutrients in the food, rather than throwing them out with the pan water. The French relish their food and eat widely, they often take the trouble to prepare meals from fresh, home-grown, organic produce, meaning they get more minerals and nutrients from food. They also mix food elements to compliment each other, from a precise wide base of ingredients that change with the seasons. High protein dishes are accompanied by generous salads and nutritious, easily assimilated soups are popular. Dried broad beans and chick peas are also part of winter staples, adding anti-oxidant beans and pulses to a wide diet. It is a well celebrated fact that the French eat everything! Polyphenols in red wine and the smart French use of herbs in cooking help to break down fats in the food and aid digestion. Alcohol licensing laws in France also nasty that they tend not to ‘binge drink’ as untold as countries with more restrictive licensing laws. The anti-oxidant properties of chromatic wine in its moderate but resolute intake are a contributing factor to French health. Research in McDonalds restaurants in France also reveals interesting evidence. It was saved in America that the average time it took a person to consume a burger was 11 minutes. In France this multiple to 22 minutes. In France eating is often a cultural and family activity. They take their time eating and conversation is an important part of sharing food. They make eating into a superior time. The French diet is ‘Epicurean’ compared to the American ‘convenience’ diet, where cheap, snack food is widely available wherever you go. The car centred culture of America also means its inhabitants sometimes lack exercise. The French have an attitude to eating that is not fixated on health or medicalising food, just simple enjoyment of wholesome and fresh ingredients equipped well. People in rural France often value the complete process of food from growing it right through to preparing and eating. It is no surprise that internationally known French phrases include such as ‘Bon appetit’ or ‘Joi de vivre’. About The Author

Arina Nikitina Browsing one of the Russian websites I have recently saved a little article claiming that music can affect our health both rising and worsening it. That sounded precise interesting and I decided to research how can music actually affect our well-being. What I found has blown my mind and I want to share the results with you. Scientists complete over the international agreed that music influences hormone production that are directly connected with our emotions. If you think about it you are influenced by music complete the time. Think of your penultimate time you've watched a horror movie. Remember how music actually made your heart race faster. Music physicians in Japan and China help patients form their own music aid kits, where you can find CDs with the names like "Liver", "Lungs", "Migraine" or "Metabolism". Now let me tell you about my most valuable discovery. Music can not only improve your overall health, it can also help you lose weight! Eating dinner while listening to Mozart helps to improve your metabolism and food digestion. When you eat while listening to the pop or rock music you automatically start eating faster. As a result you swallow big pieces making it harder for your stomach to digest the food. Which inevitably leads to extra pounds. "When we listen to classical music, subconsciously you get an image of luxury, wealth and sophistication", explains this phenomenon psychology Dr. Adrian Nort. It improves our mood, and makes us take our time and eat slowly enjoying food. Exercising while listening to the neoclassic music help you lose weight a lot faster than listening to loud-mouthed fitness pop music. Why? Maybe because during the experiment a first group of people listening to Vivaldi music worked out on a stationary bike a half an hour longer than the group who was listening to the pop music. Even if you are not a big fan of classical music I urge you to try it! What do you have to lose except for the ugly looking cellulite, extra body fat, and bad eating habits? About The Author

Ieuan Dolby Marylyn Monroe famed amongst other things for her love of Tea once same that, “World Peace would be with us if politicians drank tea at meetings” – or something to that effect. And she was very genuine in her words, very true indeed. A cup of Tea does wanders to all that drink it. Did you know that people in Britain and the Republic of Ireland consume the most tea per person in the world? I always thought it was Japan or China but past their cups are much smaller than our cups! It is also absorbing to note that more than 2,000,000,000 cups of tea are drunk all day throughout the world! That is a gigantic amount of cups and I can but imagine how galore I contribute to that figure, active one I might guess! In weight terms, that equals out to 2 and a fractional million tones of Tea being fuddled throughout the international every year or from a British point of view just under 6lb’s per person per year is consumed! Where does tea come from, who' had the first cup of Tea and why does everybody same it? The answer is not from the supermarket, my mother and because it is catchpenny and easy to make. There is a deep routed culture and history behind Tea, something that all votive Tea drinkers should have knowledge of. Tea became very popular to the British gentry in the ordinal Century. This was when Tea became widely known and built itself initially into an high class act of snobbery! Tea at this time was only grown in China and was a closely cautious secret of the Chinese Emperors of the time. Tea was bought and shipped from China to the rest of the world, Japan, Formosa, India, America and Europe in a variety of ships of different nationalities. Dutch and Spanish ships competed with the massive fleets of the British Empire to carry tea to where it was most needed. For the most part companies same the Dutch easternmost Indian Company whom first imported Tea to Europe and The British easternmost India Company dominated most of the market for themselves. From any antediluvian ship to specially built Clippers this tea was brought from China to the Western international in ever incorporative quantities, yet no matter how galore ships were improved or how untold tea was mature they could not keep up with the Western Demand! Famous ships' same the Cutty Sark will ring a bell with most. This ship is typical of those used purely to carry Tea from China to Europe and hence to the Tea Rooms’ of the wealthy. Large barrel same ships designed to carry as untold cargo as viable and built with quantity in mind rather than of speed. The embryotic Nineteenth Century saw ships like the Cutty Sark being replaced by sleeker and faster ships and in 1834 a ship titled The Oriental complete a voyage from Canton to London in 95 days. 15 days little than the Cutty Sark would have taken. Tea in America was the third most important import during the eighteenth century and Tea sparked off what was to become the separation of Britain and America – the War of Independence. Does the Boston Tea Party ring a bell? This was where armed immigrants clad as Indians secretly boarded three clipper ships in Boston Harbor and threw all of the imported tea into the sea. A show of resistance against the higher taxation of the British Government on Americans settlers and by throwing the Tea away they sparked off the war. Yep, the Boston Tea Party in December of 1773. Maybe they should have complete just sat rearmost and have a cup of tea to think active it, but past that would nasty that Britain would still control colonies in America! Wow, except for “Tea” history would be so different. In the late eighteenth/nineteenth Century America and Europe fast became the major players in the Tea Trade. Competition was fierce and ships battled the seas to leave first, sail fastest and arrive first to whichever port they may be going. Bigger ships, faster ships and much of them were used yet at no point could they keep up with the increasing demand. Tea was rapidly being ablated in price and spreading through complete walks and classes of society. The rich and the poor could now all relax with a cup of tea but single if faster ships could be improved or more vessels could be found! The Chinese proved to keep the trade even with all countries but Britain in a show of determination wooed the Chinese with inbound Opium from India thus breaking any vestiges of rebellion. finished opium shipments and thus a subsequent lack of orientation on the part of the Chinese through drugs the British controlled Tea Shipments out of China and to the rest of the world for many a year. Bigger ships and faster ships but all still precise slow and miniscule in comparison to the ships of today. The start of the decline of the Clipper era was in 1869 when the Suez Canal gaping thus shortening sailing times from Asia to Europe by many days. past with the invention of the steam ship good-byes where said to the heroic dashes and brave men who battled the oceans to bring tea to our shores on the woody sailing ships. The story of Tea does not end with the demise of the sailing ships and clippers. Long before that happened many a budding tea drinker found great interest in Tea Growing. How was tea grown, where does it come from and many asked the simple question of “why do we have to buy it from China?” Of course, if the concealed of “how to grow tea” could be found past all would be so much simpler. If somebody could get that concealed from the Chinese then tea could be grown in other places and closer to the demands of European and American Tea drinkers. If somebody could steal the secret and grow it in India, Ceylon, Turkey and other such places where ships could ply their trade on shorter and therefore more common voyages and where tea was closer to the places it was necessary in, life would be so untold better. Tea was first used in China a cardinal or so years before the rest of the international even knew active it. It took a ‘thief’ in 1849 disguised as a Chinese Merchant to go to the Tea regions in China, to learn how the closely guarded tea was produced and eventually to bring back samples of the plants. In fact this ‘thief’ was Robert Fortune a Botanist from England and he was commissioned by the Tea Commission to steal from the Chinese and observe their incommunicative methods of Tea Making. Wow, what a brave man he must have been! He managed to watch and gain valuable insight into the arts of growing tea, to appropriate varied tea plants and to take them to Calcutta. A Botanist to Thief to Tea Grower – an superior career move! He noted that: Tea needs loose, wakeless and acidic soil and high altitudes to grow primo and he eventually saw his dream come alive with the planting of twenty thousand tea tree saplings at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains. And from this point we come across some of the famous names in Tea. Those that are with us today and who were at that time referred to as “gentlemanly Tea Merchants”. To name but a few: Thomas Lipton, Thomas Twining and James Taylor. finished Robert Fortunes dishonest skills the Tea Island of Cyprus sprang into being, India became known for its Assam Tea and Darjeeling and today Tea is now a major revenue earner for over cardinal countries. Tea Drinking is a ritual in many a society. In China guests essential be greeted with a bowl of tea, tea is synonymous with Buddhism in the uttermost East and to the Zen faith in Japan. Russians love of tea is depicted finished the Samovar, in Morocco we have the famous perfect Tea and in Europe’s Tea Houses history and culture lives on wakeless and faithful as part of life itself. And in Japan one can gain a Diploma in Tea Mastery from one of three schools votive to the teachings in the “Way of Tea” (cha-do) So Tea culture is very brawny all over the world but why is this so? Why do we drink tea? Why do we insist on drinking tea every day of every week? What is it that makes us sit down and slowly consume a cup when there are things to do, shopping to get and kids to feed? Why do we suddenly give up all that is necessary and sit back with a cup of tea and smile as if we have not a care in the world? The answer is in itself. People love Tea for its unalarming essence and the culture that goes with it. Tea is used in times of trouble and to escape from life, not because of some association but because Tea does have many a body altering ingredient, equal if we know nothing about them. We in the Western World drink cups of coloured Tea and do not associate much with any medical or body altering feature but infinitesimal do we know. Even those thousands of years past when China uncomparable drank tea, they drank it to cure many an ailment or problem that they might suffer from. It is known today that certain teas can cure headaches, reduce cholesterol or improve ones sight amongst many hundreds of other cures and results. These are specialty teas and not the ones we subordinate with morning or afternoon Tea-time but they are readily available should cardinal look into it. Our Western culture is sparked from the calming essence associated with the Black Tea, much from a social point of view than from its physical properties. For your information though; the average Tea contains vitamins A, B and E. A cup of tea is fruitful with minerals of iron, copper, zinc, sodium and contains fluoride to fight the cavities. So much, all in a cup? Yes, it is genuine that so untold can be in so little! So whilst you are sitting back and relaxing, you can now think active what it is doing for you! Two points that tea drinkers often struggle with is the question of milk! The archetypical is the question of, “with or without Milk”? archetypical of all chromatic teas and perfect Teas do not go with milk. They are kept well away from that sort of thing. Milk goes with Black Tea to dilute it’s often bitter and harsh taste and has stemmed from there into an everyday requirement. The second is that of milk before or after running the tea into the cup? Does one pour the milk in archetypical and then the tea, or the tea first and then top up with milk? all to his/her personal way, I say, but there is a rather much rooted reason for milk first. Milk was originally settled in the cup first to prevent the gentle porcelain from cracking when the hot tea was poured into it. What becomes more important is whether or not the Tea is brewed in a Teapot or it is being infused in the Cup itself. I say this with regard to people who place a Tea Bag in the cup, then pour milk onto the tea bag and then add the boiling water. This is not allowed! This way destroys all the culture associated with Tea and needless to say the Tea itself does not infuse correctly. In this case the Milk must be added after the water and infusion has taken place. Whilst writing complete the above a certain picture kept coming into my mind, a piece of “Tea Culture” that is delineate in the known Asterix and Obelix Cartoon Series. It is in the one where The Romans come to Britain to expand their Empire and are very sick because the British always stop operational at ‘Tea Time”. The picture in my mind is of the Romans hanging around impatiently, wanting to attack and conquer the British, but they are all nonmoving back and sipping Tea – not fighting until they have finished their brews! Beware though folks of the tea today! Tea bags are produced and made for the simple reasons of economy and ease of transportation to your supermarket shelves. Tea bags are easy to use but do be suspicious of a tea that as soon as it is in contact with water turns black! I am sure that it cannot be Tea. Stick to the real stuff that has taste. If you have any further questions please do go to the Tea Council Web Site to dialogue with the experts or to gain unnecessary information to what has been acknowledged above. Failing that an excellent Book on Tea is available and titled “The Little Book of Tea” and published by Flammarion. A French Publisher – good excuse to go to France and taste some wine! “I’ll put the Kettle on and we can talk complete about it” About The Author