Some take their coffee black; I take my tea green.

I love green tea. It’s a wonder brew, full of antioxidants that can hunt down free radicals in the body. Research increasingly shows that including green tea in your daily diet can help protect your body against cancer, arthritis, cardiovascular problems, high cholesterol, infection, and a weak immune system. Now you may be able to reap even more benefits of green tea by doing more than drinking a plain cup of it.

Here are some other fun ways to enjoy it:

Boost Your Daily Cup – According to a study at Purdue University, adding citrus juice or vitamin C to your daily brew of green tea can help green tea’s antioxidants stay in your body longer after digestion. So use either some citrus juice (lime is a quite tasty addition) or add some vitamin C to your tea and your body may reap more benefits.

Make a Green Tea Acne Treatment – Green tea acne treatments have become increasingly popular because they contain ingredients known to detoxify, reduce inflammation, swelling, and clear oil build-up. Treatments can be purchased or made at home. To make your own green tea acne treatment, boil some green tea, allow it to cool, and mix it with an egg white. Apply the treatment to a freshly washed face, wait for the mask to dry and harden on your face, and rinse it off with warm water. You can also skip the full green tea acne treatment concoction and apply a warm and wet green tea bag to the areas of your face affected by acne. I can’t personally vouch for it since I haven”t tried it yet. However, green tea in itself is quite mild and shouldn’t do you any harm.

Use Green Tea Shampoo – Most brands of green tea shampoo are quite gentle on the scalp and hair. They are full of antioxidants and vitamins, and they are known to strengthen and thicken hair as well as help repair damaged and dry hair. Brands such as June Jacobs Green Tea and Cucumber Conditioning Shampoo are helpful with hair that has been treated with dye and other chemicals.

Other Green Tea Products – The list of green tea products increases as green tea’s health benefits become well-known. If you’re curious, try some green tea ice cream, green tea toothpaste, green tea dessert bars, green tea-infused chocolates and caramels, and maybe even some green tea mints.

If you know of any other good ones, let me know.

There is no way to completely avoid toxins.

“The Toxoblaster 28000 Wipes Out Toxins!”

“Eliminate toxins with the new super detox fast!”

“Drink lots of water to flush out the toxins.”

I hear the word “toxins” so frequently that I can’t help but think that my body has become a noxious waste cesspool on the verge of explosion.

What are toxins, anyway? Are they little green monsters with evil grins? Are they really the murky gunk that fills up ionic foot baths? Should I resort to fasting and jumping into an ice cold lake twice a month in an attempt to purge my body of those occasional extra glasses of wine? Probably not.

Toxins are: everywhere. Environmental chemicals, food additives, the stuff we drink at parties, the bath product ingredients that are impossible to pronounce, and even compounds in seemingly innocent foods such as soy.

Toxins are not: avoidable.

Toxins creep up on us whether or not we eat food from our own pesticide-free gardens. They will find a way to sneak into our bodies even if we buy organic body wash. I’m not entirely sure, however, that the sneaky ones—the untested, potentially poisonous chemicals that we breathe in on a daily basis—are what will eventually kill us. (That isn’t to say I’m not concerned about our pollutant-ridden environment.)  However, I’m convinced that what matters more than anything is what we blatantly do to our systems on a daily basis.

I have a lot of faith in the human body. I think that humans are blessed with an amazing, adaptable network of toxin filters (e.g. liver, kidneys, and urinary systems) that have allowed us to thrive on this planet for a long time. The problem is, these systems weren’t made to withstand lots of abuse. I know of people who smoke, try recreational drugs, binge drink, eat junk food, and avoid exercise. Some of these people also sit in sweat lodges, order ionic foot baths, go on “detox fasts,” and obsessively cleanse their colons in an attempt to flush out the toxins.

I can think of an even better and more cost-effective method of flushing them out: drink lots of water, cut back on the junk, and go for a run every now and then. Maintain your body instead of trying to put Band-Aids on preventable damage. If you want to do the extra cleansing rituals in addition to the daily maintenance, your body might reap some extra benefits.