Antioxidant properties, fibres, other foods and getting fit

There are all kinds of teas we could drink. Besides herbal teas, infusions and yerba mate, there are various green and black teas.
In more and more trendy joints these days, you can order exotic-sounding teas such as chai latte with oat milk or yerba mate.

Yerba mate is served in a separate cup made of gourd or clay and is drunk with a special straw with a kind of tea strainer at the end: a so-called ‘bombilla’. Yerba mate is an invigorating tea that also offers other health benefits. The tea also has an intriguing history.

Just as some cannot do without their cup of coffee, others, like Rishi Sunak , cannot do without their tea.

“Tea is rich in polyphenols – natural bioactive plant compounds – that have antioxidant effects in the body,” says Dr Carrie Ruxton, a dietician from the Tea Advisory Panel. “Getting enough antioxidants in the diet from fruit, vegetables, wholegrains and drinks is important for fighting the effects of ageing and modern lifestyles which cause damage to cells (via oxidation of cell membranes).”

Discover | The health benefits of tea – and when to drink it

 

 

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The skies in Beijing turned an apocalyptic orange when the city was hit in March 2021 by its worst sand and dust storm in a decade.

Visibility fell to under 300 metres and toxic particulate levels were 160 times higher than the safe level set by the World Health Organization. People were advised to stay indoors, and flights and public transport systems were halted.

“It looks like the end of the world. In this kind of weather, I feel that I really don’t want to be outside,” Beijing resident Flora Zou said at the time.

As the number of storms increases across the planet, scientists are now racing to explain the trend – with deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion and climate change all identified as potential factors. They are also trying to understand its impacts on human health.

Then there is the question of whether this phenomenon will come to threaten life here in Europe and the UK. The skies in Athens were turned orange by Saharan dust on Tuesday April 23, one of the worst episodes since 2018.

> Dust storms are becoming ‘more frequent and severe’ – so are we prepared?

As haze from the Sahara envelops Athens, scientists are racing to explain a worrying global trend>

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