Green Tea and Obesity

Green Tea and Obesity

(Source:http://www.greentealibrary.com/GT%20&%20Obesity%20-Article.htm)

Green tea has become the latest weapon in the war on weight. Oprah is a recent enthusiast, vowing that she’d trade her coffee for green tea when Dr. Nicholas Perricone told her she could lose weight simply by making this substitution. But does it really work?

The results of some new studies are promising, indicating that green tea can increase the rate of calorie burning, prevent excess weight gain and even reverse established obesity. And although most tests have been performed on laboratory animals, at least one with humans showed that taking in the equivalent of 3 cups of green tea per day helped the body burn a significant amount of additional calories.

Increased rate of fat burning - A 1999 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at the effects of green tea extract on energy "burning" in humans.1 Men who took daily doses of a green tea extract containing EGCg plus caffeine, in an amount equivalent to that found in about 3 cups of green tea, burned about 80 more calories per day than those who didn’t take the extract. (Taking the caffeine without the EGCg didn’t have the same effect.) While burning an extra 80 calories per day may not seem like much, over the course of a year that adds up to 29,200 calories, or a little more than 8 pounds lost – without making any other changes!

Prevention of excess weight gain - In a study involving animals, green tea extract helped prevent obesity. Two groups of mice were placed on a high-fat diet designed to ensure they would gain weight, with only one group also receiving green tea extract. The mice that were given green tea extract ended up gaining 47% less weight than those that didn’t get the extract.2

Reversal of obesity - In a 2005 study published in the Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, green tea extract actually helped to reverse established obesity. Rats were deliberately overfed to make them obese. But when the obese rats were given supplemental EGCg, the amount of fatty tissue on their bodies decreased markedly, reversing their obesity.3
What happens in the body to produce such fat-fighting results? Green tea’s EGCg is believed to rev up the fat-burning effects of brown fat,4 a special kind of body fat that burns calories at a very high rate. In animal studies, green tea has been found to help send glucose to muscle tissue where the glucose is more likely to be burned, rather than to fat tissue, where it’s more likely to be stored.5 And in test-tube studies, green tea extract inhibited the action of fat-digesting enzymes,6 meaning the fat from foods may be less likely to be broken down and absorbed in the digestive tract.

More research is needed before we can say that green tea definitely helps you lose weight, but it certainly looks like a good bet!