Health briefs: Brewed vs. bottled

When you buy a bottled tea, you may not be getting the health boost you expect. A new study finds that these increasingly popular beverages may contain far lower levels of antioxidants called polyphenols than green or black tea that you brew at home. In fact, some commercial tea beverages contain such small amounts of polyphenols that you would have to drink 20 bottles to get an amount equal to what's in one cup of home-brewed tea.

Water: A diet plus

Lose the diet books and skip the pills. The latest weight-loss trick may be as simple as gulping a couple of glasses of water before you eat. A new study found that middle-aged and older adults who drank two cups of water before each meal consumed fewer calories and lost more weight than those who skipped drinking water.

- HealthDay