| Tea & Obesity |
Preliminary research suggests that drinking tea may have effects on body
weight, fat accumulation and insulin activity. While it may be premature to draw
firm conclusions based on early research, key findings include the following:
*Green Tea extract was found to significantly increase 24 hour energy
expenditure and fat oxidation in healthy men.
*After three months of consumption of Green Tea extract by moderately obese
patients, body weight decreased by 4.6 percent and waist circumference
decreased by 4.48 percent.
*Researchers examined mice which were fed either a low-fat diet, high-fat diet or
high-fat diet supplemented with 0.1-0.5 percent tea catechins for 11 months.
The scientists then measured body weight, fat tissue mass and liver fat content
and discovered that supplementation with tea catechins resulted is a significant
reduction of high-fat diet-induced body weight gain and visceral and liver fat
accumulation.
*Researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducted
a study to examine the insulin-enhancing properties of tea and its components.
An in Vitro test using a fat cell assay found that tea, as normally consumed,
increased insulin activity > 15-fold. Green, Black, and Oolong Tea all yielded
insulin-increasing results. The researchers separated the components of the tea
using a high-performance liquid chromatography and discovered that several
known compounds found in tea were shown to enhance insulin., helping cells
recognize and respond to the hormone- the greatest activity was elicited by
EGCG followed by epicatechin gallate, tannins, and theaflavins.
*Researchers compared the body weight and fat mass of mice that were fed
low-fat or high-fat diet, tea catechins helped reduce fat accumulation by 18
percent and exercise alone reduced accumulation by 14 percent. However, mice
that exercised and had catechins reduced fat accumulation by 33 percent. This
evidence suggests that tea catechins may increase fat metabolism, enabling the
body to burn fat as fuel and store less in the body.
*Animals fed high-fat, high-calorie diet to promote excessive weight gain and
obesity were given Green Tea extract or placebo and their energy expenditure
and fat oxidation were measured. The researchers found that Green Tea
extracted alone, as well as when combined with exercise, increased energy
expenditure and stimulated fat catabolism. The researchers concluded that
Green Tea extract combined with regular exercise stimulates fat metabolism and
may attenuate obesity caused by a high-fat diet more effectively than green tea
extract or exercise alone.
*A follow up study of the effects of tea catechins on body fat reduction in
humans was conducted by examining the effect of drinking oolong tea with
added green tea extract in healthy, moderately overweight men. A double-blind
study was performed in which the test subjects ingested one bottle of oolong
tea containing 690 mg of catechins and control subjects ingested one bottle of
oolong tea containing 22 mg of catechins for 12 weeks. Researchers found that
body weight,
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