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Leaf Tea and Weight Loss

Jun 14, 2011 | By Milo Dakota
Leaf Tea and Weight Loss
Photo Credit Aromatic black and flower tea leaves image by eAlisa from Fotolia.com

Tea contains caffeine and antioxidants. If you want to get the full potency of both, you should brew tea from leaves. It takes longer to brew your own tea and the initial cost may be higher, but you will save money and gain more health benefits in the long run. And you can lose weight drinking just a few cups of freshly brewed tea rather than dozens of cups of bottled tea.

Four Teas, One Plant

Only one plant -- Camellia semensis -- produces tea leaves. Four types of tea come from the plant: black, oolong, green and white. Black tea, which spends more time on the vine and is oxidized the longest, contains more caffeine and fewer antioxidants than the other three teas. White tea contains the least amount of caffeine and the greatest number of antioxidants. Oolong and green tea fall in the middle for both caffeine and antioxidant content.

Caffeine

Caffeine is a stimulant that speeds metabolism and suppresses appetite. According to the Mayo Clinic, if you drink black tea brewed from loose leaves, you will get about 120 mg of caffeine per 8 oz. cup. By comparison, you'd get between 95 mg and 200 mg in a cup of coffee, depending on the type of grinds and brewing method used. But processing strips tea of its caffeine content. Black tea brewed from tea bags contains about 25 mg of caffeine -- less than in green tea brewed from leaves -- and bottled black teas contain as few as 7 mg. This is less than you'd find in most decaffeinated black tea, which contains 2 to 10 mg.

Antioxidants

If you're drinking tea for its fat-burning antioxidants, you will also find more in loose leaf tea. A 6 oz. cup of green tea brewed from fresh leaves contains 127 mg of catechins, the main antioxidant in tea. But processing also deprives tea of many catechins. Organic green tea bags retain a high percentage -- you get 100 mg per cup. But some commercial brands of tea bags provide fewer than 20 mg of cup. And bottled green tea provides only 12 mg, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. White tea, the least oxidized of tea, contains more catechins than other teas, but the exact amount hasn't been quantified in scientific studies.

Catechins and Weight Loss

Catechins boost your metabolism and burn fat, especially belly fat. Numerous studies support a connection between catechins, overall weight loss and proportionately greater reductions in abdominal fat. One of the most promising studies illustrates both the importance of catechins and the superiority of loose leaf tea. In a study by Kevin Maki, a United States scientist, men who drank 660 mg of catechins daily lost 5.4 lb. in 12 weeks. You would need to drink 5 cups of green tea brewed from loose tea to consume that many catechins. If you were drinking bottled green tea, you'd need to drink 55 cups a day and perhaps three times as many cups of bottled black tea to achieve the results in Maki's study, published in the "Journal of Clinical Nutrition."

Brewing Loose Leaf Tea

You can brew loose leaf tea by pouring water over the leaves. You can pour boiling water over black tea leaves, but water temperature should be cooler -- about 175 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit -- for white, green and oolong teas. Oolong tea is traditionally steeped in a clay pot. You can save tea leaves and brew them up to a half dozen times. Some of the caffeine and catechin content will be lost in each brewing, but will remain higher than in other forms of teas. The caffeine content in tea, especially black tea, could be problematic for some people. Green and white teas may be better choices for pregnant women, who should keep their daily caffeine content below 100 mg, according to the "British Medical Journal."

References

Article reviewed by Ed Garcia Last updated on: Jun 14, 2011

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