With many herbs vying for the tag of weight loss panacea, green tea still stands out as a potential option to help beat the battle of the bulge. One of the world's most widely consumed beverages, green tea drink has demonstrated its ability to stimulate fat burning in scientific tests.
Green Tea
Green tea comes from brewing the leaves of the camelia sinensis plant in hot water. The shrub, which can grow up to 30 feet tall in the wild, is the source for both green and black tea. Whereas black tea undergoes processing that oxidizes the leaf, green tea remains unprocessed. As a result, it retains a higher level of antioxidants and compounds known as catechins.
Catechins
Catechins, a subgroup of the polyphenols, stand out as a particularly useful phytonutrient in green tea and accounts for around a tenth of the dry weight of green tea. David Tolson, a nutritional researcher and contributor to BulkNutrition.com, reports that half of these catechins come in the form of EGCG, or epigallocatechin-gallate, a particularly potent catechin.
Thermogenesis
EGCG and the other catechins can affect the rate of fat burning in the body through their effects on the central nervous system. These compounds inhibit the breakdown of noradrenaline, which increases availability of the peptide hormone. Noradrenaline increases the rate of thermogenesis, the process through which the body burns fat to produce body heat.
Evidence
In 2002, two French scientists investigated the effects of a green tea extract on body weight and waist size. They gave volunteers a green tea extract each day for three months and saw significant improvements at the end of the test period. Their results, published in the journal Phytomedicine in January 2002, showed that average waist size fell by an average of 4.6 percent and body weight by an average of 4.5 percent.
Dosage
Although the strength of most capsules varies, most manufacturers standardize their products by their EGCG content. Dr. Joseph Mercola, physician and author of several books on natural health care, believes that three cups of green tea per day provides sufficient amount of this compound for cardiovascular health and weight loss benefits. This translates to around 100 mg of EGCG per day.
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