Green Tea Benefit Number One is Fat Burning and Weight Loss

Perhaps the one green tea benefit the greatest number of people are excited about has to do with weight loss and burning fat.

Researchers have found that green tea not only helps the body burn the existing fat but also helps surpress the appetite which is responsible for overeating in the first place!

Catechins are natural polyphenols which are found in great concentrations in green tea. Studies show these plant based elements seem to stimulate the body into burning fat.

In one such study started with a group of men of similar weight based on their Body Mass Index (BMI). For three months they ate identical meals at breakfast and dinner.

They were also under strict guidelines to control their fat and caloric intake in order to maintain near identical diets.

After three months the men who were drinking green tea extract lost almost twice as much weight as the group drinking oolong tea.

The researcher Tomonon Nago stated, “These results suggest that Catechins contribute to the prevention of and improvement in various lifestyle-related diseases, particularly obesity,”

Another extensive study done which involved one thousand and three subjects showed that those who drank green tea at least once a week for ten years showed the tea drinkers were close to 20% slimmer than the non-tea drinkers.

Remember, that’s with only drinking green tea once a week – which is far less than daily use which both Dr. Oz (the famous doctor who has appeared many times on Oprah) and Dr. Perricone recommend. It’s fair to say the green tea benefit would be substantially greater with daily use.

Current green tea research also points to another green tea benefit which is the suppression of appetite by reducing Leptin levels – which is a protein generated by fats. Leptin plays a key role in how our bodies manage fat storage via brain signals.

Many people know that green tea is packed with a natural substance called EGCG. Rats that were injected with EGCG were found to have major reductions in their Leptin levels
according to the March issue of the medical journal Endocrinology. These effects were noticed after just several days of the injections.

The human body was designed to absorb as much food energy as possible whenever it was available. That’s because man was around a long time before refrigerators, supermarkets, and restaurants being open 24/7. For thousands of years people ate their food immediately when they could find it.

Essentially speaking, it (the body) was saying, “Hey, I don’t know when (or even if) my next meal is going to present itself so I’m going to store (make into fat) any ‘extra’ food I’m eating now.

It was a survival mechanism that still exists in our bodies even through we have since outgrown its usefulness – at least for us folks living in modern society.

We were programmed for survival and depositing the ‘extra’ food we were consuming was a means of surviving for longer periods between meals.

The green tea benefit in this case is the news that green tea is packed with the antioxidant EGCG which also does a great job of depressing Leptin which in turn decreases appetite.

Scientists from the Tang Center for Herbal Medicine at the University of Chicago also confirmed a strong connection between the EGCG found in Green tea with a significant reduction in the appetites of their test subjects.

Still another green tea benefit was highlighted in a study which showed a that a significant increases were seen in metabolism (our bodies energy expenditure), and beyond the effects of limited caffeine found in green tea.

There seems to be some sort of synergistic energy effect that can not be attributed to caffeine! One study tested three groups of subjects which compared the energy generated by caffeine, green tea, and a placebo.

Surprisingly enough – the green tea drinkers actually ranked better than the caffeine drinkers!

Ok, here’s one last secret about green tea that only a small group of ‘in the know’ people are aware of. Consider buying your green tea in powder form.

That’s because when’re using green tea powder you actually consuming the whole tea leaf which means you’re getting up to 30% more of the nutritional goodness green tea holds. That’s worth reading again!

The Japanese have been stone grinding tea leafs into powder for hundreds of years and it’s actually a art form all to itself!. So if you’re going to invest money on green tea make sure you’re getting fresh high quality tea and consider using green tea powder to get the most out of your green tea experience.

Clearly the green tea benefit of helping people both lose extra weight (as well as curbing overeating) could have a wonderful impact on the millions of American looking for a answer to being overweight.