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Oolong Tea & Dieting

Oct 12, 2010 | By Milo Dakota
Oolong Tea & Dieting
Photo Credit chinese tea cup with lid image by Roman Sigaev from Fotolia.com

Oprah Winfrey is among the celebrities hailing the weight loss benefits of oolong tea, which reduces the fattening effects of carbohydrates, according to Britain's "Sunday Express." Some research suggests that oolong tea outperforms the fat-burning powers of the much-heralded green tea. Oolong tea contains fewer antioxidants than green tea, but the molecular structure of those antioxidants may be better aligned with your body's fat-fighting mechanism.

Origins

Oolong is one of four types of tea derived from the Camellia sinensis plant. The others are black, white and green teas. Oolong, brown in color, is less oxidized than black tea but more oxidized than green and white teas. Oolong is the least popular of the four teas, according to the "China Daily." Only about two percent of tea consumed is oolong and its primary drinkers live in southeastern China. But oolong tea could gain in popularity if recent studies linking it to fat loss hold up.

Oolong Tea and Polyphenols

Polyphenols in oolong tea promote weight loss, according to Guo Xirong, director of the Nanjing Institute for Pediatrics in China. Guo, an award-winning obesity researcher, says that oolong tea fared better than green and black teas in battling obesity in a five-year study he and others conducted. Masatoshi Nakano, of Japan's Aichi Medical University, also says that polyphenols in oolong tea help burn fat. In Nakano's experiment, nine out of 12 participants experience fat loss in their waists and eight out of 12 also lost fat in their upper arms.

Fat-Dissolving Hormone

All tea and some other beverages and foods, including red wine and blueberries, contain polyphenols. Nakano says the size of the polyphenol molecules in oolong tea give it greater fat-burning potency than other teas. The molecules in oolong tea are perfectly matched with an enzyme called lipase. The molecules in oolong activate the fat-dissolving properties in lipase, Nakano says.

Home-Brewed Oolong Tea

Processing affects the properties in tea so you will get the greatest benefits of oolong tea if you brew it yourself from loose leaves. Although buying loose leaf tea can be expensive initially, particularly when you add in the cost of strainers and pots, it is more economical in the long run, according to Teng Wang, a tea house proprietor in Australia. He says you can get at least 100 cups from a 50 g canister and that oolong tea leaves can be brewed six to seven times.

Considerations

Oolong tea is generally safe to drink, but its caffeine content could cause adverse reactions in some. Side effects of caffeine include headaches, irritability, blurred vision and accelerated heart rate, according to the Mayo Clinic. Pregnant women should limit their intake of caffeine to no more than 100 g a day to prevent the risk of giving birth to an underweight baby, according to the "British Medical Journal." Pregnant and nursing women and persons with anxiety disorders should consult their physicians before adding oolong tea to their diets.

References

Article reviewed by Margarett Wolf Last updated on: Oct 12, 2010

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