"Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage," says Japanese author Kakuzo Okakura in "The Book of Tea." In ancient China, he explains, people used tea for "relieving fatigue, delighting the soul, strengthening the will and repairing the eyesight" as well as for topical pain relief. Modern science has confirmed that regularly drinking tea yields numerous potential health benefits, including enhancing weight-loss efforts. Check with your doctor before including green tea in your weight-loss plan.
Green Tea vs. Black Tea
Green tea and black tea both offer cancer-fighting and cholesterol-lowering benefits, but drinking green tea regularly may provide greater health benefits than drinking black tea, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Green tea undergoes less processing than black tea. As a result, green tea contains higher concentrations of antioxidants called polyphenols, including catechins. Green tea catechins, or GTC, appear to be at least partially responsible for green tea's apparent fat-burning and weight-loss effects.
Green Tea Catechins
"The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry" published a review in January 2011 examining the possible mechanisms behind GTC's promotion of healthy changes in body composition, as illustrated by numerous scientific studies. "Results from a number of randomized, controlled intervention trials have shown that consumption of GTC may reduce body weight and fat," comment the reviewers. An extensive study on green tea consumption appearing in the August 2009 issue of "Obesity" supports this conclusion.
Green Tea and Caffeine
"A green tea-caffeine mixture improves weight maintenance through thermogenesis, fat oxidation and sparing fat free mass," according to a review published in the April 2010 issue of "Physiology and Behavior." Green tea naturally contains caffeine. The authors believe that the combination of GTC and caffeine may cause a synergistic fat-burning effect. Taken together, these substances appear to have a greater impact on body weight and body-fat reduction than either substance does on its own.
How Much Green Tea to Ingest for Weight-Loss Effects
In the study published in the August 2009 issue of "Obesity," participants drank six to 10 cups of "a regular Chinese type of green tea" daily. This translates to consuming 500 to 900 mg of GTC plus 200 mg of caffeine or less per day for at least three months to experience relevant weight-loss results. The 2011 review published in "The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry" gave a range of 270 mg to 1,200 mg of GTC per day to see results.
References
- "The Book of Tea"; Kakuzo Okakura; 1906
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Green Tea
- "The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry"; Antiobesity Effects of Green Tea Catechins: A Mechanistic Review; Tia M. Rains, et al.; January 2011
- "Obesity"; Effects of Catechin Enriched Green Tea on Body Composition; Hongqiang Wang, et al.; August 2009
- "Physiology and Behavior"; Green Tea Catechins, Caffeine and Body-Weight Regulation; M.S. Westerterp-Plantenga; April 2010
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