ROTW: Easy Crockpot Shredded Chicken | Benefits of Matcha Green Tea | POTW: How to Navigate Toxic Food & Hidden Chemicals w/ Dr. Mark Hyman
Easy Crockpot Shredded Chicken | Health Benefits of Matcha Green Tea | Toxic Food & Hidden Chemicals Are Everywhere: Here's What You Can Do
Easy Crockpot Shredded Chicken
Yes, you read that right! Easy crockpot shredded chicken. Prep this dish in the morning and let it cook all day, come dinner time you’ll have a nice meal to serve! You can even plan ahead and prep it the night before, set in the fridge, then come morning, turn the crockpot on and let it go for the day. Crockpot meals are a great way to batch cook to have leftovers throughout the week or store in the freezer for those food emergency nights.
Chicken is one of the highest sources of animal protein. A 4oz chicken breast can have up to 20 grams of protein, but as always, make sure you focus on quality whenever consuming meat. Pasture raised chicken is the superior choice of chicken, so talk to your local farmer if you get chicken from them and aquire about how they raise their chickens. Be an informed consumer and don’t be afraid to demand for higher quality sources of meat, your health will thank you!
I buy pasture raised chicken through a meat delivery service called Butcherbox to ensure that I am getting quality meat, so I highly recommend this as an option if you are having a tough time finding quality chicken or any other type of meat in store that doesn’t break the bank.
Some other meat delivery services you can check out are:
Primal Pastures
Force of Nature
Wild Pastures
99 Counties
Without further ado, check out this recipe and let me know what you think!
Easy Crockpot Shredded Chicken
Health Benefits of Matcha Green Tea
If you’re a green tea drinker, you might have heard the term “matcha” get thrown around a bit. If you aren’t a matcha green tea drinker already, you might want to reconsider!
Matcha green tea is a concentrated from of green tea that has been used for centuries in China and Japan. This type of tea is specifically grown in shaded areas for up to two weeks, increasing the chlorophyll levels before leaves are harvested. Afterwards, they are steamed, dried, and ground into a fine powder.
So what makes matcha far superior to any other teas?
The secret behind matcha tea’s superiorority is found in its polyphenol compounds called catechins, a type of antioxidant found in superfoods like green tea, cocoa and apples. Valued as being very catechin dense compared to most foods, those who drink it regularly reap some awesome health benefits.
Matcha Green Tea Benefits
May help prevent cancer
Could potentially reduce the risk of cancer, including bladder, breast, colon/rectal, and prostate cancer
Promote Weight Loss
Studies have found that matcha tea can help promote and sustain long-lasting weight loss, increase metabolism, and boost fat burning
Benefits Exercise Performance
May help speed up muscle recovery in athletes whose focus is high-intensity workouts, reverse cellular damage caused by oxidative stress, preventing damage to muscles and tissues
Best Food Source of Disease-Fighting Catechins (higher than regular green tea)
Catechins (antioxidants) are thought to be even more powerful than both vitamins C and E in stopping oxidative damage to the cells, playing a key role in health and disease, with studies showing that they could help protect against chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes and cancer
High Levels of L-Theanine for an Alert Calm
Contains L-theanine, an amino acid, found naturally in teas that promotes a “relaxed alertness”, and promotes increased levels of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) in the brain that can benefit anxiety and depression conditions
Some other benefits to drinking matcha green tea include:
Reduced risk of heart disease and hypertension
Lowered risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Detoxifies the body
Protects brain health
May aid fertility
Supports bone health
May help protect the liver
Not all matcha is created equal. Here are a few recommended tips to help you get the best matcha powder possible:
Check the ingredients label, and look for a matcha powder that only contains matcha
Opt for organic and non-GMO varieties whenever possible
Although you can find matcha in tea bag form as well, keep in mind that you don’t consume the whole leaf
Matcha purity and quality do come at a cost, and a low price tag can often be a sign of a poor-quality product
Although Chinese matcha is cheaper, it may be more likely to contain contaminants and pesticides than Japanese matcha.
I’ve been a fan of Republic of Tea for years, and love drinking their matcha green tea on a regular basis. Highly recommend this as an option.
One final note about matcha green tea……
I have found for myself personally that I can get a little nauseous if drinking matcha green tea on an empty stomach, so if this happens to you, try pairing it with some peppermint tea, or eat something before consuming matcha.
Cheers!
Podcast of the Week: The Dr. Mark Hyman Show
Toxic Food & Hidden Chemicals Are Everywhere: Here's What You Can Do - 1 hr
What you’ll learn:
How using a Functional Medicine approach, rather than merely suppressing symptoms with medications, seeks to identify and address the underlying disruptions driving immune imbalance - getting to the root of the problem
How compromised gut health, mitochondrial impairment, and chronic inflammation further erode the body's capacity for resilience and repair
How cleaning up our diets, improving gut health, removing toxins, and decreasing stress can do wonders for our immune systems
By restoring balance at the root level, we can cultivate a more robust and adaptive immune system. Take a listen!
