Biren _a pa cans IEE eT RRS ORT OEE TIDE ere Green tea—not just for old biddies and Japanese restaurants By Natalie Nathanson reen tea is more than just something to sip on. It has been proven to be beneficial to your health in many ways. Having one third the amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee, it is refreshing and light in taste. High in polyphenols and antioxidants, green tea has many potential health benefits. In numerous studies, green tea extracts were shown to inhibit the growth of many different types of cancer cells, while other studies have shown that regular green tea drinkers are less likely to develop cancer. It has also been suggested it can be an aid in cardiovascular health and lowering a person’s cholesterol rate. According to a Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine study, antioxidants in green tea may prevent and reduce the severity of rheumatoid arthritis. Green tea is also believed to increase metabolism, resulting in weight loss when consumed on a regular basis. It’s also been suggested that green tea can kill the bacteria that causes dental plaque. As far as frequency goes, four to five cups a day or roughly a cup with every meal seems to be ideal. Many studies looked to the Japanese, who, despite 75 per cent of their population smoking regularly, also have the longest longevity rate. The culture of Japanese drinking green tea on a regular basis is what is believed to have provided them with long, cancer-free lives. But this tea isn’t just good for your inner body, it can even help you on the outside as well. A study in Germany concluded that green tea, when applied to the skin for ten minutes, three times a day could help people with damaged skin from radiation therapy. Personally, when I finish my delicious cup of tea, I take the tea bag and rub it on my face. It’s goes on hot and wet, which then cools and I find it leaves my skin feeling refreshed and very soft! Cheesy, I know, and would look weird in public, but in the comfort of your own home, give it a try! I know you would need to have three cups of green tea to make up for that one cup of early morning coffee we all desperately need to wake up in the morning, but how about it? Maybe a cup to go with lunch or dinner? Given the information, I think it might be worth it. Ready to turn over a new leaf? Student unions and the CFS are the burden By Nikalas Kryzanowski, Opinions Editor hat does the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) have to do with you? This is the umbrella organization under which many student unions across the country belong, including our very own Douglas Students’ Union. They seem to think that that means you’re a member too. And if paying a mandatory fee every semester towards services you may not want and towards political campaigns you may not agree with means that you’re part of the club, well then, welcome aboard. You pay this organization your hard earned money and then they take and use it towards political campaigns. It doesn’t matter what you believe, they have their own agenda that they wish to implement. Even on social issues. Just a few weeks ago CFS Ontario passed a motion that it would support student unions that wish to ban pro- life groups from forming on campus. The reasoning? According to Sandy Hudson the Women’s Commissioner of the CFS, being pro-life is akin to being a white supremacist or neo-Nazi. If you’re a pro-life student, you paid her to say that. If you’re pro-choice, you’re paying to stifle free speech. An organization that enforces mandatory fees on students should never ever use those fees for contentious political purposes. CFS’s slogan is “I am CFS.” If I had a choice I most certainly wouldn't be CFS. CFS doesn’t seem to believe that philosophical discourse has any place on university and college campuses in Canada. Financially speaking, the CFS’s medical and dental plan is a huge hindrance on my own personal education. Full-time students (those enrolled in three courses or more) are automatically billed $260 every September. As a result, I have been forced to decide whether I can afford this third course and be forced to pay that extra sum. As a starving student, paying through the nose for just about everything on a very tight budget, I have always had to opt for just the two courses to save money. And since I don’t have three courses—I don’t get an all-zone bus sticker. Great. This plan should definitely be opt-in and those who truly feel that it is valuable can take advantage. Choice is good, but how much would that cost the unions? Ironically, to afford that third course, I would have to consider a student loan. Most services offered by the CFS and the unions are already available to the general public. For free sex advice and condoms, go to your nearest health clinic. For its student cell phones and plans service, the price differences versus going the regular route are negligible. For student housing options—it’s called Craigslist. Instead of the Bookswap, for dirt cheap textbooks try Abebooks.com. Travel Cuts, the student travel agency is another unnecessary service, it doesn’t seem to be that much better than other online travel agents. A comparison between Travel Cuts and discount travel agent cheapticketscanada.com for identical flights from Vancouver to Toronto yielded a measly one dollar advantage in price for the CFS travel agent, but even if you don’t travel that year, you still pay CFS. The CFS’s current campaign calls attention to the spiralling debts that students face yet student union fees at Douglas are $20.95 for 3.0 credits which represents an 8.2% premium, on top of tuition fees. Or in more frank terms—of the $13 billion of debt that they claim students are drowning in, nearly $1 billion of those dollars would have gone to CFS and the unions. Think of what Canadian students could do with $1 Billion. Anytime they want to reimburse burdened students for that and disband would be fine with me. It’s the quality of the education that matters; not the forced frills, feeble discounts and left- wing lobbying.