Real men drink tea. This may be the message to be gleaned from evidence that Chinese green tea can help men lose belly fat, lower their cholesterol and protect them against heart attacks and strokes. And you needn't sip Chinese green tea from a porcelain cup and serve it with cucumber sandwiches to reap the health benefits. You can down it from a shot glass or take it in pill form.
Green Tea and Belly Fat
Abdominal obesity is among a half dozen proven risk factors for obesity, according to "The New York Times." And men are more prone than women in collecting extra fat around their middles. Green tea helped men substantially reduce their waist sizes as well as overall body weight in a study conducted by Kevin Maki, president of a private United States research firm. In Maki's study, men either drank green tea containing 660 mg of catechins, fat-burning antioxidants, or black tea containing 22 mg. The men that drank green tea lost 5.4 lbs. in 12 weeks, compared to the 2.9 lbs. lost by the black tea drinkers, according to the study published in Feb. 2009 in the "Journal of Nutrition."
Weight Loss Without Dieting
In Maki's study, men also exercised and followed reduced calorie diets. But green tea drinkers lost weight independent of other factors in a study led by Arpita Basu and conducted with her colleagues at Oklahoma State University. In Basu's study, participants drank 4 cups of strong green tea, 4 cups of water and green tea capsules containing 460 mg of catechins or 4 cups of water and two placebo pills. After following this daily regimen for eight weeks, the green tea drinkers lost 5.5 lbs. and the participants that consumed green tea in pill form lost 4.9 lbs., according to the study published in August 2010 in the "Journal of the American College of Nutrition."
Green Tea and Cholesterol
High cholesterol is another risk factor for heart disease. In an animal study conducted by researchers from South Korea, green tea seed oil reduced the cholesterol levels of mice by nearly 1/3, according to a report published in the "European Journal of Physiology" in March 2009. The mice also lost weight during the 85-day clinical trial, according to the study's lead author, N.H. Kim, a researcher at Kyung-Hee University.
Green Tea and Longevity
Green tea may also help explain why people in Japan live the longest, according to "The Globe and Mail." Shinichi Kuriyami, a researcher at Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, led a study that examined the health of 40,000 Japanese for 11 years. Men and women that drank five or more glasses of green tea daily lived longer ans suffered fewer heart attacks and strokes, according to the study published in September 2006 in the "Journal of the American Medical Society." People born in Japan are 30 percent less likely than North Americans to suffer strokes or heart attacks.
Getting the Most From Green Tea
The best way to drink green tea is straight and strong because it contains no calories and possesses the greatest amount of catechins. Green tea brewed from loose leaves contains the most catechins, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. You will get 125 mg of catechins in a cup, 10 times the amount you'd find in a bottle of commercial green tea. You can also purchase green tea in powdered or pill form. Aim for tea sources with the greatest number of green tea catechins. Some green tea pills contain additional ingredients that may boost or detract from the benefits of green tea.
References
- "The New York Times"; New Thinking on How to Protect the Heart; Jane E. Brody; Jan. 13, 2009
- "Journal of Nutrition"; Green Tea Catechin Consumption Enhances Exercise-Induced Abdominal Fat Loss in Overweight and Obese Adults; Kevin Maki et al; February 2009
- "Journal of the American College of Nutrition"; Green Tea Supplementation Affects Body Weight, Lipids, and Lipid Peroxidation in Obese Subjects with Metabolic Syndrome; Arpita Basu et al; 2010
- "Drug Week"; Researchers from Kyung-Hee University Publish New Studies and Findings in the Area of Obesity; March 20, 2009
- "The Globe and Mail"; Green Tea a Possible Factor in Why Japanese Live So Long; Michelle Fay Cortez; Sept. 13, 2006
- "Journal of the American Medical Association"; Green Tea Consumption and Mortality and Mortality Due to Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, and All Causes in Japan: The Ohsaki Study; Shinichi Kuriyama, Yoshikazu Nishino, Yoshitaka Tsubono, Ichiro Tsuji; September 2006
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