Recipes N Stuff

Health Drinks: A History

Ancient Chinese have long believed in the benefits of drinking natural health drinks to improve one?s health disposition. Tea has been drunk for at least 4,000 years. While coffee has been around for centuries. Both have immense benefits for health improvement.

Tea was first discovered in China in 2737 B.C. According to Chinese records, the emperor would only drink water which is boiled to make sure that it is indeed clean. During a trip, a servant boiled water and a dried leaf fell on the boiling water. It turned the water brown but was still served to the emperor. The emperor drank the concoction and found it very refreshing.

Coffee, on the other hand, has can be traced as early as the 9th century. Coffee was largely cultivated in Ethiopia. Soon, the Arabs started trading it, bringing it to northern Africa where it was mass-cultivated. After being popular in Africa, it started to enter Indian and European Markets.

Europe and Asia pioneered energy drinks. In 1901, the first energy drink was released in Scotland called Im-Bru. While in Japan, their energy drinks can be traced as early as 1960s. Although they cite that there are already some attempts in mixing different minerals with water before World War II they released Lipovitan in early 1960s. South Korea also produced ?genki drinks? which are also energy drinks.

In 1929, Lucozade Energy was used as a hospital drink in the United Kingdom. This drink was primarily for helping the speedy recovery of hospital patients. In the 1980s, this drink was commercially released as an energy drink meant to replace lost energy.

The worldwide leading energy drink, Red Bull, was created and marketed by an Austrian entrepreneur. This leading energy drink was created in Europe. It was based on a Thai drink called Krating Daeng, which is also based on Lipovitan. Red Bull entered the United States market in 1997, and currently the dominant brand. It?s approximate market share is as big as 47 percent.

For sports drinks, the first one created was for the purpose of improving the performance of athletes and sports star, was for the Florida Gators. That is why the first product, which was released during 1960s, was called Gatorade. The main purpose of this drink is to provide to lengthen the performance levels and aid hydration of athletes.

As early as 1985, the United States have started to introduce energy drinks. They had the Jolt Cola. While in 1995, PepsiCo launched the Josta. This was the first energy drink made by a leading United States beverage company.

Since then, energy drinks have started to gain fair market share and popularity. More and more companies are taking advantage of such popularity and high demand. Most people who consume energy drinks are within the range of 13 to 35 years old. Young adult and male drinkers comprise 65 percent of the target market. Since 2001, the increase of the energy drink market has been increasing by 50 percent every year. Since this market is relatively new, with 20 years under its belt, there is still much hype about it.

More and more people seek out energy drinks and new developments. People are trying to be heath conscious amidst all the pressure of a high and fast paced life. With the demand increasing, there are unlimited possibilities. We are trying to discover ways in fitting all the nutrients and more vitamins and minerals that we can have in just one gulp. Health can be just in one drink after all.

Tea is a Health Drink

When you travel, the stewardess will go around the plane serving food, snacks and drinks. When he or she asks what you want to drink, try asking for tea instead since it is considered to be a health drink.

Tea has been served for thousands of years. They come from leaves and when heated, provide us with a lot of health benefits.

For one, tea contains antioxidants which prevent or slow down the oxidative damage to our body. This simply means lowering the risk of suffering from various diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Tea also happens to be much healthier than coffee because in terms of caffeine content, you only get about 30 to 40mg per cup compared to coffee which has about 135 mg. of caffeine.

Another benefit of drinking tea is its ability to strengthen your immune system. For instance, no one knows yet the cause of the common cold but it still happens. If you drink tea regularly, your immune system will be strong enough to prevent you from getting this contagious infection.

Although water is the best thing to drink whenever you feel dehydrated, studies have shown that tea can provide the same thing as well. This is because tea is a diuretic making you urinate regularly so there is a balance between what goes in and out of your body.

Tea does not have any calories unlike those found in energy drinks. This is because it does not contain any sugar. The only time that you will be ingesting calories is when you decide to add sweetener or milk with this drink

Overweight people can benefit from drinking tea because drinking tea regularly increases your metabolism. In short, you burn faster what you eat making it possible for you to burn at least 70 to 80 calories per day. At that rate, you can lose almost 8 pounds after one year.

But what kind of tea should you drink? Well there are too many to mention so let?s just stick with two namely black and green tea. Both come from the same plant but what sets these two apart is how these are processed. The leaves for making green tea are dried for a shorter period of time compared to the other one. Black tea also goes through a fermenting process before this is packed and sold in the market.

The best part about making this your regular health drink is that you can serve this hot or cold. This allows you to have it any time of the day or night so all you need is some water, a cup or a tall glass.

You can buy tea in the grocery and in some specialty stores. Remember, all teas contain the same amount of flavonoids. What tea will be your favorite depends from what tree it comes from and which of these is suitable to your taste. You could say that this depends on the person similar to what choice of coffee you order when you decide to go to Starbucks.

Tea has been around for many years and its success all this time is because it is a health drink. You should try one today and then see if you like it. Who knows? You might even be addicted to it and never again coffee.