Whiter teeth are admired and coveted by the whole world. White teeth make your smile shine bright and it gives the impression of cleanliness.

Teeth get yellow because of different reasons, including genetics, what kind of food and drink you consume, and your oral hygiene. A tooth consists of four tissues. Enamel is the strong white tissue that covers and protects the tooth. A second layer is called dentin, which holds the enamel and is a hard yellow material that encompasses nerves. A third layer is the pulp, which is at the center of the tooth and contains blood and lymph vessels. The last one is the cementum, which covers the root of the tooth.

The enamel and dentin layers are responsible for the color of the teeth. While some drinks and food may stain the enamel, the decisive factor is the erosion these elements have on the layer over time. While most remedies focus on whitening teeth that have already lost some white enamel, it's also important to take measures in order to protect the enamel and hinder further erosion.

Baking soda

One famous natural remedy is baking soda. Since baking soda - sodium bicarbonate - is an abrasive compound that can remove the stains that are caused by drinking coffee, tea, smoking, among others, and the debris on the surface of the teeth. Therefore, after the treatment, teeth appear to be whiter and brighter.

Baking soda can be used with water to scrub away the stains on the surface of the teeth. If you want to heighten the whitening effects you can use the baking soda with some hydrogen peroxide. You can also use baking soda with regular toothpastes. In fact, bicarbonate is used commercially in some teeth whitening products and toothpastes.

Baking soda is not only useful as a cheap whitening method, but it can also neutralize and counteract bacterial acids in the mouth too. Additionally, due to its abrasive properties, it can remove plaque which leads to tooth decay and gum disease.

Coconut oil rinse

A coconut oil rinse has been traditionally used to whiten teeth. Coconut oil whitens your teeth because of the lauric acid it contains, which cleanses your teeth of the bacteria found in plaque that can make them yellow. Apart from its whitening properties, by ridding your teeth of the bacteria found in plaque, it also enhances gum health and keeps your breath fresh.

For this, you need about a tablespoon of coconut oil. Before you brush your teeth in the morning, scoop out a tablespoon of coconut oil. You can either put it straight in your mouth or soften it first. Push, swish, and pull the oil through and around your teeth for 10 to 15 minutes. After that time, you can spit it out, rinse with water and proceed to brush your teeth.

Oral hygiene

If you brush your teeth after eating or drinking, your teeth will be whiter. This is hard to achieve as sometimes you eat outside of home and you don't have access to a toothbrush. However, if you are persistent and try to brush your teeth as often as you can, then your teeth will probably be white.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar is not only a natural antibiotic and teeth/gum cleanser, but it also helps to remove stains on the teeth, particularly the ones caused by common culprits such as coffee and nicotine (smoking). Studies show that ACV works as well as professional teeth whitener.

The secret of ACV is that it contains acetic acid, potassium, magnesium, probiotics and enzymes, which kill germs and at the same time foster the growth of beneficial “good” probiotic bacteria. Due to its acidic nature, it also helps break down plaque and other substances stuck on the teeth. The pH of apple cider vinegar can remove stains from your teeth, and therefore whitens your teeth naturally.

The key to whitening your teeth with ACV is being consistent. You have use it for at least a month before you can see results. Although it is a natural product, you must be gentle, since it contains so many acids, it can remove the enamel on your teeth if you brush too hard or use too much. Make sure you brush your teeth with regular toothpaste after brush with ACV. Rinse your mouth out well.

Here are some of the reasons your teeth turn yellow, beige or brown: drinking coffee or tea, smoking cigarettes, thinning tooth enamel due to aging, a poor diet (consuming processed foods high in acid, including soft drinks/soda, candies or certain fruits; some supplements can also damage enamel due to their high content in acids), suffering from dry mouth (less saliva means less protection for enamel), breathing through your mouth due to blocked nasal passages (this results in less saliva and prevents the teeth from getting moisturized), antibiotic use, excessive fluoride intake, and genetic factors.

Just a cup of tea can keep the doctor away. Perhaps that phrase wasn't intended for tea, but it can be applied to it, nonetheless. Researchers attribute tea's health properties to polyphenols (a type of antioxidant( and phytochemicals). Studies have shown that teas can help protect your teeth and your heart.

Here are some of the health benefits tea has:

Digestion

Hot water per sé helps digestion of food at the time it helps to detoxify the body. Some herbal teas, as well, stimulate digestion; for instance, a few slices of ginger root in boiling water, or chamomile, peppermint and cinnamon will help you process your meal faster.

Water retention

Horsetail tea is a powerful diuretic, making you urinate more often and helping you reduce water retention. As a diuretic, horsetail affects the kidneys, increasing the amount of water and salt released into the urine. Apart from being used as a diuretic, horsetail has also been used for skin and nail care, wound healing, osteoporosis, and bone repair. Pu-erh and green tea are also powerful diuretics.

Speed up your metabolism

White tea is known for speeding up metabolism and increasing how many calories you burn a day. It also detoxifies your body. These properties can also be found in Pu-erh and green tea.

Scientists have found that the catechins (antioxidants) in green tea extract increase the body's ability to burn fat as fuel, which accounts for improved muscle endurance. Tea also has an energizing effect in some people.

Fight diseases

Drinking tea could help reduce the risk of heart attack, protect against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases. “There's a lot of literature out there on tea and heart health,” says Anna Ardine, clinical nutrition manager at Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “This is a health effect for which there is the strongest evidence.”

It can also help protect against a boatload of cancers, including breast, colon, colorectal, skin, lung, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver, ovarian, prostate and oral cancers.

According to Leslie Bonci, nutritionist and owner of Active Eating Advice, studies on how tea may help battle cancer are mixed. In the meantime, however, “ if you've go a strong family history of cancer and you want to do anything you can, you might increase your tea consumption,” she adds.

Drinking tea is also linked to a lower risk of Parkinson's disease and could be beneficial to people with Type 2 diabetes. According to research, compounds in green tea could help diabetics better process sugars.

Tea is packed with antioxidants

Antioxidants prevent the body's version of rust; therefore, it helps to keep us young.

Tea is good for your teeth

“Japanese researchers have found that tea can decrease tooth loss,” Ardine says. “It changes the pH in your mouth when you drink it and that may be what prevents cavities.” Beyond that, tea, unlike many other beverages does not appear to erode tooth enamel, Bonci says.

Here are some quotes about tea to inspire you:

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” - C.S. Lewis

“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground.

“I shouldn't think even millionaires could eat anything nicer than new bread and real butter and honey for tea.” - Dodie Smith, I capture the Castle.

“In Ireland, you go to someone's house, and she asks you if you want a cup of tea. You say no, thank you, you're really just fine. She asks if you're sure. You say of course you're sure, really, you don't need a thing. Except they pronounce it ting. You don't need a ting. Well, she says then, I was going to get myself some anyway, so it would be no trouble. Ah, you say, well, if you were going to get yourself some, I wouldn't mind a spot of tea, at that, so long as it's no trouble and I can give you a hand in the kitchen. Then you go through the whole thing all over again until you both end up in the kitchen drinking tea and chatting.

In America, someone asks you if you want a cup of tea, you say no, and then you don't get any damned tea.

I liked the Irish way better.” - C. E. Murphy, Urban Shaman. 

Although genes are relevant when it comes to determining your metabolism, you can trick your body into burning more calories efficiently. One of the best ways to do this is by hitting the gym. According to human studies professor at the University of Alabama Gary Hunter, by strength-training a few times a week, you'll reverse 50% of the seemingly inevitable metabolism slow-down that comes with age.

Ramp up the intensity

When you exercise - run, swim, or even walk - ramp up the intensity for 30-seconds intervals, returning to your normal speed afterward. This strategy will help you consume more oxygen and make your cell powerhouses, the mitochondria, work harder to burn energy, according to Mark Hyman, an integrative and functional medicine specialist in private practice in Lenos, Massachusetts. He is also the author of Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss. “You increase the number of mitochondria and how efficiently they burn throughout the day,” he explains. Therefore, you can burn more calories in less time.

Get your omega-3's

Back in the 90s a war against fat started. This war targeted all food that had any fat in them. Today, this theory has been proved wrong. Not all fats will make up stock up kilos. What you need to avoid are the trans-fats. However, healthy fats will help you lose weight. Eating plenty of fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids (salmon, herring and tuna) will help you balance blood sugar and reduce inflammation, helping to regulate metabolism. They may also reduce resistance to the hormone leptin, which is linked to how fast fat is burned. A study in Obesity Research found that rats that ingested large doses of fish oil while exercising lost weight.

Strength-training boosts your metabolism

Muscle uses more energy than fat. Studies find that an average woman in her 30s who strength-trains 30 to 40 minutes twice a week for four months will increase her resting metabolism by 100 calories a day. That means that you are burning extra calories even when you don't go to the gym.

Turn to green tea

Although green tea has always been praised for its antioxidant polyphenols, new evidence suggests that this kind of tea has catechin which may crank up metabolism. According to a study, catechins may improve fat oxidation and thermogenesis - the latter is your body‘s production of energy from digestion. If you drink five eight-ounce cups of green tea a day, you can increase your energy expenditure by 90 calories a day. If it's summer, you can also opt for iced tea.

Don't starve yourself

While many dieters resort to cutting out too many calories, this is not the best way to lose weight as your metabolism thinks your there's a scarcity of food and stops fat burning to conserve energy. The trick to keeping your metabolism revved up while dieting is eating enough calories to at least match your resting metabolic rate (what you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day).

Don't skip breakfast

Eating a nutrient-rich morning meal shortly after getting out of bed will get your metabolism up and running. “Eating breakfast gets the engine going and keeps it going,” Hyman explains. According to the National Weight Control Registry, 78% of the people who lost an average of 66 pounds and kept it off more than five years had breakfast every day.

Say “no” to trans fat

These are the types of fat you must avoid. They are not only unhealthy but they also slow down your body's ability to burn fat. “They have an altered shape and make your biochemistry run funny,” Hyman said, explaining that trans fat binds to fat and liver cells and slows metabolism. Trans fat also lead to insulin resistance and inflammation, both of which slow down metabolism and can lead to weight gain.

Trans fat products include doughnuts, cookies, muffins, pies and cakes - particularly with frosting. Although breakfast sandwiches might save you time in the morning, these usually contain 1 gram of trans fat. If you look at the ingredients, you are likely to find partially hydrogenated oils in the top five. Besides, they are packed with sodium. Margarine might also contain trans fat. The trick is that if you can keep them in your fridge for a long time, they probably have trans fat. Avoid fried fast food and frozen pizza at all costs as they will hinder your weight-loss efforts.

The human body is a wonderful machine and you can get it to do what ever you want. You just need to know how to use it. These easy tips will help you burn fat fast.

Go to bed earlier

It is important to sleep at least 7 hours a day. If you don't sleep enough, your body will be stressed and you will store more calories. Also, short sleep is associated with reduced leptin, elevated, ghrelin and increased body mass index. Basically, leptin is the chemical that tells your brain when you're full, when it should burning up calories and when it should create energy for your body to use. While you sleep, leptin levels increase telling your body you don't need energy. When you don't sleep enough, your leptin levels decrease and that can result in a constant feeling of hunger and a general slowdown of your metabolism.

Sleep deprivation also results in higher levels of gherlin - the hormone responsible for telling your brain when you need to eat, when it should stop burning calories and when it should store energy as fat. When you sleep, gherlin levels decrease because sleep requires less energy than awake does. When you don't sleep enough, you end up with too much gherlin in your system. As a result, your body thinks it's hungry and it needs more calories, and it stops burning those calories because it thinks there's a shortage.

A study in Finland examined sets of identical twins and discovered that in each set of siblings, the one who sleep less and was under more stress had more visceral fat.

Eat more protein

Your body needs protein to maintain lean muscle, otherwise when you lose weight, your body will take it from the muscle instead of burning fat. Protein can also increase post-meal calorie burn by as much as 35 percent. Protein also helps you stay full because it doesn't give sugar spikes. On the contrary, carbohydrates make you full when you eat them but they turn into sugar that make your glucose go up very fast and at the same speed it goes down again, resulting in a feeling of tiredness and hunger.

According to a 2006 article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers found that the current recommended daily intake for protein (0.36 grams per pound of body weight) is inadequate for anyone doing resistance training, and recommended that women get between 0.54 and 1 gram per pound of body weight.

Drink Cold Water

According to a study carried out in Germany, researchers found that drinking 6 cups of cold water a day can up resting metabolism by approximately 50 calories daily. This might be a result of the work it takes to heat the water to body temperature.

Vary your calorie intake

When you vary your calorie intake every few days rather than eating the exact same amount of calories daily, you outsmart your metabolism and continue to burn fat.

According to Dr Jim Stoppani:

“Although in today's society good tends to be accessible and abundant, our bodies are designed to store as much energy as possible to prepare for times of scarcity. One way the body does this is by adjusting its metabolic rate based on calorie intake.

If you stick with the same calories every single day while dieting, your body will adjust by lowering metabolic rate to prevent you from burning off too much body fat. It's all about hormones.

When leptin levels are high, your metabolic rate stays high; when leptin levels drop, so does your metabolic rate.

When calories are low and steady, leptin levels fall and so does metabolic rate. Eating higher calories on some days and lower calories on others helps keep leptin levels up.”

Eat spicy

Capsaicin, the compound that makes chili peppers hot, can also speed up your metabolism. According to a study published in the Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology, eating about 1 tablespoon of chopped peppers (red or green) boosts your sympathetic nervous system (responsible for your fight-or-flight response). As a result, chili peppers can boost your metabolism by 23 percent.

Drink coffee or tea

You can also boost your metabolism by drinking either coffee or tea. Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant, and it can spike up your metabolism by 5 to 8 percent. As a result, your body burns about 98 to 174 calories a day. According to a Japanese study, a cup of brewed tea can raise your metabolism by 12 percent. The researches believe that the boost is caused by antioxidants called catechins found in tea.