Drinking Green Tea May Help You Lose Weight

Green Tea Also Has Anticancer Properties
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Green tea, which has been reported to have anticancer
properties and to raise levels of antioxidants in the blood
that may ward off heart disease, now appears to have the
potential to promote weight loss. A new study in the March
issue of the International Journal of Obesity concludes that
green tea extract increases the burning of calories and fat
needed to lose weight.

Green Tea In Liquid Or Capsule May Aid In Weight Loss
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Previous animal studies showed that green tea extract
increased thermogenesis, which is the generation of body
heat that occurs as a result of normal digestion,
absorption, and metabolization of food. In previous human
studies, the authors showed that consumption of green tea
increased thermogenesis as well as energy expenditure and
fat loss in healthy men, suggesting that green tea in liquid
or capsule form may be an effective way to aid weight loss.

In the new study, conducted by Abdul Dulloo, from the
Institute of Physiology at the University of Fribourg in
Switzerland, researchers exposed a particular type of fatty
tissue from rats to caffeine and to green tea extract
containing small concentrations of caffeine.

Green Tea Containing Caffeine Can Raise Metabolism
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Green tea containing caffeine significantly increased
thermogenesis by 28% to 77%, depending on dose, whereas
caffeine alone resulted in no significant increase. When the
stimulant ephedrine was added to green tea with caffeine,
the increase was even more significant compared with
caffeine alone and ephedrine alone. Caffeine and ephedrine
are used together in some herbal weight loss preparations,
but there are many safety concerns regarding ephedrine
because it raises heart rate and blood pressure.

Dulloo and colleagues also tested the plant compound EGCG
found in green tea. They found that the stimulant ephedrine
alone had no effect on thermogenesis, but that caffeine plus
ephedrine resulted in an 84% increase. However, adding EGCG
to the caffeine plus ephedrine mix increased thermogenesis
even further.

"Our studies ... raise the possibility that the therapeutic
potential of the green tea extract, or indeed a combination
of EGCG and caffeine, may be extended to the management of
obesity," Dulloo and co-authors write.

A researcher who reviewed the study for WebMD says that
while the work is interesting and extends this group's
previous findings by showing that compounds in green tea
other than caffeine are involved in thermogenesis, caution
should be used in interpreting animal data and applying it
to humans.

"They used [a particular type of fatty tissue] from rats and
we don't really know how significant that tissue is in
humans or if it is different in obese vs. non-obese people,"
says Sheri Zidenberg-Cherr, PhD. "It doesn't rule out the
significance of the findings, and it is a good model to use
to look at the effects of caffeine and the combination of
caffeine and the [plant] compounds that are present in green
tea, but until better clinical trials are done in humans,
it's hard to say what the physiological significance of this
actually may be."

Zidenberg-Cherr, who is an associate professor of nutrition
at the University of California, Davis, also points out that
thermogenesis plays only a very small role in energy
expenditure in adults. Most of the energy expended is used
to maintain basic body functions such as breathing and the
flow of blood throughout the body.

She says green tea may have many health benefits due to its
plant compounds, but cautions that it is not the answer to
weight-loss woes. "Green tea can't be used, and it shouldn't
be used, as a 'magic bullet' for weight loss," she tells
WebMD. "You've got to combine it with other changes,
including increasing physical activity and reducing a
high-calorie diet."

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