Paleo Diet: Raw Paleo Diet and Lifestyle Forum
Raw Paleo Diet Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: yon yonson on November 19, 2008, 12:27:50 pm
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do you guys see anything wrong with drinking herbal tea? just wondering. i know it's not technically raw, but it would definitely help me get through the winter if i could drink a hot cup of tea every night. anyways, im gonna do it regardless, but i just wanted to hear if any of you had opinions on the subject.
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Great question...I too would love to hear what anyone else knows about this. I stopped drinking coffee when I went raw, and only occasionally have had herbal or green tea since then. It seems to me that if we know high temperatures denature cells, why would tea be any different? Maybe sun-brewed tea is okay since it never really gets all that hot?
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That's an interesting question and something that I, too, have often wondered.
Technically, I don't think tea would qualify as an acceptable beverage on a raw diet - particularly if heated to excess and drunk whilst still hot. However, I do personally still drink herbal tea. I consider it a small vise made in the name of being sociable. This diet is isolating enough without cutting out tea - the social cement of English society! :) I do limit my intake (perhaps a cup a day - usually less), only use good quality water & dried herbs (aim to ideally dry these myself at sun-dried temperatures) and don't use excessively hot water. Obviously I can't control all of these factors when drinking in a cafe/bar/restaurant so just do the best possible.
Through the winter particularly, I think the warming mental and physical benefits of tea outweigh the drawbacks.
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My compromise, early on in the diet, was to just drink hot water without dipping the tea-bag in - I used to do that a lot when skiing in blizzard conditions. I don't think it matters if mere water is heated as only steam is the result. Nowadays, my ability to withstand temperature extremes is a lot better than it was pre-raw diet so I'm less in need of it.
Technically speaking, teas are not really acceptable on a rawpalaeo diet given the heating involved. However, many of us compromise on minor issues(eg:- eating a little cooked-food on occasional social occasions, using chemicals re deodorants or whatever) so, as long as it's natural herbal tea and not commercial tea and drunk rarely, then that's OK. My father once invited an Indian to speak at his university, who told the assembled guests that the usual tea that's imported from India and similiar countries has come from the floor of the factory, has been treated with endless chemicals and is basically considered inferior to truly high-grade tea.
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Tea is one of my favorite things in the entire world, so I'm choosing to compromise as I transition to RPD. I drink green tea, instead of the more oxidized oolong or black tea, which I used to prefer. Matcha has changed my preference.
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Tea is a difficult issue for me too. The reason we are going raw is because of the loss of nutrition in cooking foods and toxins that cooking creates, yes? Tea isn't really used for nutrition so the first reason is not an issue. So the question is what if any toxins are in heated tea? Anyone have an info?
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Tea is a difficult issue for me too. The reason we are going raw is because of the loss of nutrition in cooking foods and toxins that cooking creates, yes? Tea isn't really used for nutrition so the first reason is not an issue. So the question is what if any toxins are in heated tea? Anyone have an info?
Hulda Clark says the tea bags are polluting. Do get your tea from loose dried leaves or freshly picked leaves. Green tea has lots of fluoride in it.
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I agree with you guys talking about the heat. The heat is really the only drawback.
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I'm tolerating cold better than ever. You haven't been at this a full year yet, I have (+). You may not even need tea once next Winter comes. I went swimming with non-paleo friends the other day. I tolerated the water temperature better than them. That is so unlike the old me. I wouldn't even go in the water many a time in the past, as it was too cold for me.
That being said, no use feeling guilty for drinking a cup of tea some day if you feel cold. I think your body will tell you when you don't need that kind of help. Eating saturated (raw) fats helps me keep healthy in cold. When your body says give tea up, listen then, no worry now.
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I didn't decide to eat raw because of a concern about "heat," I did it for health benefits. So it doesn't bother me that hot tea is hot. My question remains, what toxins, if any, are created by heating organic loose-leaf green tea leaves? I don't know one way or the other myself.
I do notice that drinking too much cold green tea sometimes seems to give me mild acid reflux. Don't notice that with black tea, for some reason. Any ideas why this might be? Green tea tastes very smoky to me. Why is that?
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Through the winter particularly, I think the warming mental and physical benefits of tea outweigh the drawbacks.
I don't think so. For me hot tea wouldn't make me feel warm - that's illusionary, as Inuits once said. In winter I still eat meals at a room temperature and they make me feel warm, as they consists of meat and quite a lot of fat :)
In winter I drink only water.
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The flavor you are talking about depends on the type of tea you are drinking. Gunpowder tea is very smokey and has an even more pronounced smokey after taste. I have been drinking green tea for years and no matter what, will continue.
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what about herbal teas like rooibos (grown only in south africa). i understand they are heated but surely they can still give you positive benefits from all the antioxidants or is that just a myth? rooibos tea is said to have a ton of antioxidants.
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I think it's not a myth, good quality organic tea can be very good for you.
Sure if you don't want to put hot water on it you can just chew it up but that would not be as effective or enjoyable -v.
Also putting the tea in hot water is not to 'cook' it (its not a steak), it's to create the extraction process of the potent substances that it has!
If you were really cooking the tea you'd have to put it into a skillet with oil and fry it hot, then that may not be so good for you ha ha
Also there are a lot of potent natural medicines that need to be made in the form of brewing up various herbs and plants (and have been around way before modern medicine) so I think it can be very good.
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In a similar manner to previous discussions of herbal medicine, I think herbal tea can provide medicinal properties. But, I'm not convinced these would be necessary or beneficial for one who has followed a lifelong natural paleo diet/lifestyle. In the context of our sickly modern society they do, perhaps, have their place.
For me, occasional tea drinking is merely a social connection tool.
I don't think so. For me hot tea wouldn't make me feel warm - that's illusionary, as Inuits once said. In winter I still eat meals at a room temperature and they make me feel warm, as they consists of meat and quite a lot of fat :) In winter I drink only water.
My own experience is that warm tea (even if plain warmed water) does provide mental and physical warmth during cold periods. For myself at least, I don't believe this is at all illusionary. The warming effect of a warm cup in one's hands alone has a significant effect in various respects.
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do you guys see anything wrong with drinking herbal tea? just wondering. i know it's not technically raw, but it would definitely help me get through the winter if i could drink a hot cup of tea every night. anyways, im gonna do it regardless, but i just wanted to hear if any of you had opinions on the subject.
Life is to be lived. I will drink and eat whatever I please. I eat paleo style for the sake of my health obviously, but just by doing it 90% of the time I am well ahead of the game. I love a good cooked meal and even a bucket of B&J ever now and then. The point is that we are getting sick because these things has taken root as fundamental foods and not the rare item of luxury should be. FFS I smoke pot every so often, the last thing I would worry about concerning health would be the tea I drink! also, it would be hipocritical to do so in the context. But ofcourse, if your food is your religion then....
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In a similar manner to previous discussions of herbal medicine, I think herbal tea can provide medicinal properties. But, I'm not convinced these would be necessary or beneficial for one who has followed a lifelong natural paleo diet/lifestyle.
Yes that's true they would not have a place if you live in a completely and untouched natural environment, are never around cars, never drive cars, don't sit at a computer, don't live anywhere even close to a city or urban area, don't take showers in normal water, don't use soap, shampoo, don't spend any of your time sitting and working, dont take public trans, only hunt and gather hunt your own food etc etc... so you can see my point, I think most URBAN(or semi-urban)-raw-paleos can benefit from this natural medicine.
And even if something is not 'necessary' it can still be good!
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I drink up to 5 cups of tea a day. I love tea while I fast during the day (fast every day). Tea is a medicinal plant--the only "plant" food I injest.
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The major reason you put your tea bag in hot water is not to cook the tea, but rather to speed the process of dissolving useful compounds out of the tea leaves or herbs into the water. Water doesn't have to be hot for this to happen, but the cooler the water is the longer it takes to dissolve a meaningful amount of the compounds you want.
What I've started doing is harvesting my own tea herbs, and drying them at room temperature and out of the sun (sunlight makes some compounds in some herbs more available, but breaks down most compounds in most herbs, rendering them less available and/or less medicinal). Once the leaves are dried, I store them in airtight jars in a cool, dry, dark place.
When I want to consume them, I'll fill a jar with water, put in the herbs, and leave it out for a day or so, until the water takes on the color of the tea. If I want something warming, I'll pour this (straining out the bits of herbs) into a pot and warm it slowly until it's above my body temperature but not hot enough that I feel like I'm at risk of being burned while my finger is in the warming water. I've found that this is warm enough to give me the warming feeling I used to associate with hot tea, while still keeping the temperature low enough to avoid cooking the herbs.
Finally, although I have a lot of herbology books, I'm becoming skeptical of a lot of the claims made regarding the medicinal properties of herbs. I think placebo effect plays an enormous role much (though not all) of the time. I've also met several herbalists who doctor themselves with all their fantastic concoctions, and many of them just aren't healthy people. That alone makes me wonder...
Still, some herbs are very nutrient dense, and are worth keeping around for winter when fresh green plants are gone. I stock up on dandelion root, burdock root, red clover flowers, and nettle leaves. The roots and the nettle leaves are among the most nutrient dense plant foods available in my part of the world, by virtue of their life strategies (i.e. send deep taproots into the subsoil to draw minerals up that most other plants don't gain access to). I have to work for the dandelion and burdock roots, but nettle grows so abundantly that i can fill a pillowcase with fresh leaves in an hour. Clover flowers yield an antioxidant rich, sweet tea that just tastes nice, and the flowers are very easy to gather, like nettle leaves.
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Life is to be lived. I will drink and eat whatever I please. I eat paleo style for the sake of my health obviously, but just by doing it 90% of the time I am well ahead of the game. I love a good cooked meal and even a bucket of B&J ever now and then. The point is that we are getting sick because these things has taken root as fundamental foods and not the rare item of luxury should be. FFS I smoke pot every so often, the last thing I would worry about concerning health would be the tea I drink! also, it would be hypocritical to do so in the context. But of course, if your food is your religion then....
Geeze, what is B&J ? Am I missing out on some rare Danish treat???
Is the pot smoked at less than 120 degrees? LOL
I find since I started on this diet cold doesn't bother me as much. AV's suggestion of ditching water is alright with me also. Never did like it except real spring water.
I used to like tea occasionally but now it is unnecessary and makes me feel not so good, so I avoid it, however for me it is not such a great loss.
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Geeze, what is B&J ? Am I missing out on some rare Danish treat???
Is the pot smoked at less than 120 degrees? LOL
hehe. Well yo can eat the stuff raw, but the taste is not really all that. B&J? Ben and Jerry's!. Their icecream is divine. Ofcourse you well get bloated by all the sugar and crash badly...but it's worth it! :D
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hehe. Well yo can eat the stuff raw, but the taste is not really all that. B&J? Ben and Jerry's!. Their icecream is divine. Ofcourse you well get bloated by all the sugar and crash badly...but it's worth it! :D
I used to believe this. Ice cream was one of the most difficult foods to get away from for me. After years of trying, I think I have finally reached the point where it isn't worth it.
However, this is even more delicious to me:
1 pint raw heavy cream
1 heaping TBSP raw cacao powder
1 TBSP raw unfiltered honey
2 raw egg yolks
Blend and chill. It is like a chocolate-honey milk shake. Might even freeze in an ice cream maker. Kills my cravings for ice cream, fills me up, and doesn't leave me craving more sweets. No bloating no crash.
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Funny thing about me and ice cream, when I used to eat it, it was one of my fave foods too!
And it was also the ONLY food which ever made me throw up!
I would have two decent bowls of it, or a bucket :'( and literally 30 seconds later had to lean over the garbage and it would come out as a perfect smoothy -v This was not a bulimic thing, no other food was ever thrown up...the second a certain amount of ice cream reached my digestive system, it would quietly and merrily go back up the way it came, no discomfort feeling what so ever....I thought I was lactose intolerant but I could gorge on all kinds of cheeses and yoghurts...weird....I guess it was the lactose and sugar combo...very bad, so bad my body didn't even want to try to digest it.
My bf made a joke that I could regurgitate it back in the bucket freeze it again and then have new ice cream EWWW its nasty but always made me laugh.
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Once I went for my medical and started chatting with the doctor. Somehow conversation turned to ice cream. He told me that he ate roughly 1.5 litres of ice cream per day. WTH, he looked healthy. Human body is amazing.
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He said he ate it - not digested it, maybe he was doing it my way -v
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He said he ate it - not digested it, maybe he was doing it my way -v
Maybe. If he didn't bring it back up, his digestive tract must be an incinerator. I have very strong digestion but ice cream as much as I love it puts me to sleep if I eat a worthwhile amount... LOL 1/2 litre
Have you ever had it with bakeapples? In Norway apparently they call them cloudberries. They are orange, segmented like raspberries with larger segments and a lot less. It is very hard to pick a decent amount as they are scattered. Apparently their seeds have to go through a bird's digestive system in order to be able to sprout. They are divine with ice cream.
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Mm ice cream. I have to learn how to make that, and a good akutaq.
I do notice that drinking too much cold green tea sometimes seems to give me mild acid reflux. Don't notice that with black tea, for some reason. Any ideas why this might be? Green tea tastes very smoky to me. Why is that?
Black tea is fermented, could be smoked too. Black tea is an old time stomach remedy. It was given to me as a child, to calm my stomach. It did the job. Black tea can be relaxing in a way. I have no use for it now though. It doesn't really combine for me with raw meat. Green tea is unfermented. Also, being green, I imagine it would have different affect, maybe on bile or liver, dunno. If tea has been fermented for people of the past hundred fifty years, maybe there's a health reason. Maybe non-exotic black tea has some health benefits over green.