Drinking Tea

[Sooboopa]

I've never been a tea or coffee drinker. At the moment I'm in China and have had a bit of a hard time staying raw. I have been eating fruit, but I've needed something a bit more solid. Twice I've bought what I thought were raw nuts. The first were walnuts and they tasted like bacon. The second were almonds, and they had a salty-like coating over them. We have been eating at a vegetarian restaurant in Shanghai called Godly, which specialises in fake meat...which I loathe. I can handle it if it is dry, but not it if it is some kind of textured soy or wheat protein that is flobbery like real meat. So I pad it out with rice. I definitely aim to be all raw one day. It is certainly harder staying raw when travelling. At least for me. I've been away from home (Australia) for around five months and been to England, Holland, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco and China. I've been to quite a few electronic music festivals, where I felt I was starving, due to a lack of vegetarian, let alone raw options. Sometimes travelling can be a whirlwind, and it's hard to always be prepared. I could have stayed 100% raw if I could subsist on just sweet fruit without nuts...but I can't handle that. I really felt starving at the party on the beach in Morocco. We were there for around a week. I was getting really skinny. My boyfriend took me on a donkey ride down the beach (we sat on a cart it was pulling, not on its back, but I still felt sorry for it...) (we could have ridden a camel, but didn't take that option) to a restaurant a few kilometres along the beach. I was looking forward to this meal. With the language barrier and my boyfriend ordering, I ended up with a large salad, with a lump of tuna in the middle of the plate, so I couldn't touch it. I ended up dining on a couple of French Fries.

Anyway, back to the point of this thread. In China I've been drinking tea at dinner. I was thinking maybe I'll have a cup a month or something, when I get home, just for social reasons. I still eat some cooked food, so I can accept this, although it's not raw. I think herbal teas, and green tea and Asian teas will be quite okay. But what about ordinary tea, like Earl Gray or something...no sugar or milk. It's just leaves in water, right? Or is there some reason why I should be avoiding these teas? Are they a lot worse for you than herbal teas and the like, or are they all variations on a theme?

[Kathy Fields]

I agree that herbal teas, and green Teas and most asian teas are great and have really good health benifits. Other great teas are herb teas like mint, and rooibos (red bush) etc. The only concern I would have about other more ordinary teas like earl grey is that often they have colouring and flavourings added, also if they contain black tea (like in earl grey) they will have a caffeine in them. Caffeine is good to avoid as it is an excitotoxin. Meaning it shuts down the bodies natural relax response and makes your cells continue with excitement untill they drop dead.

[Raw Magwene]

Green tea and black tea come from the same plant (camelia sinensis). They both contain considerable amounts of caffeine. the difference is that the black tea is allowed to oxidize for 2-4 weeks before being heated to dry, which is why it is dark. This is also why green tea contains higher levels of antioxidants than black.

Early grey tea's distinctive flavour comes from oil of bergamot, a natural flavoring from a citrus plant. I would think that a cheap brand of earl grey could have artificial flavoring, but a nice, organic brand would be just fine.

If you live in an area with a sizeable chinese or japanese population (as I am lucky enough to), they have very serious tea aisles in their markets. Some teas, due to growing conditions or ?? have less caffeine than others.

Yerba mate also contains loads of caffeine (which my Argentine roommate referred to as "mateine").

[JinxieKat]

I was going to give up tea, even though I adore it, when I went raw. I did give it up for the 30 day challenge but I missed it so much that I've decided that when I finish transitioning I am going to keep tea in. I generally drink roobius or an green tea with ginger. Hmmm.. If I can get my vices down to one or two cups of tea a day that will be a major improvement over my fast food habit. I may find somewhere down the road that I give up the tea, but for now I enjoy it.

Jinx

[Sooboopa]

Thanks for your responses guys. I will check packaging in supermarkets to see if they list artificial flavourings to get my head around this more... :o