Green Tea's Effect On Body Fat

Losing weight is a subject on the minds of many. Our eat on therun, tv watching lifestyle has led many of us to have biggerwaistlines than we'd like; and bigger waistlines than arehealthy for us. In fact, the US Centers for Disease Controlestimates that over 60 million Americans, or 30% of the adultpopulation, are obese.Obesity related illnesses are going to lead the pack as causes ofdeath in our country very soon if we don't get ourselves back ontrack. Obesity leads to heart disease, high blood pressure, TypeII diabetes and increases your risk for some forms of cancer. Asour weight increases, so do our risk levels.So, how do we go about losing the weight? Well, most of us areaware that we need to eat less and exercise more. Putting morecalories into our bodies than we burn off in a day leads toweight gain. Cutting calories and getting exercise can help youget your expenditure and intake in line. There's certainly nogetting around this basic weight loss principle.But, research is showing that there are some foods that can helpyou lose weight, and other foods that will pack on the poundsfaster than you can say "calorie". I'm not talking strictlycalories here - I'm talking about foods that help you burn fator stay full longer versus foods that cannot be used by the bodyas energy, so they automatically turn to fat.Let's look at foods that can help you. You might be surprised atsome of these - they're not all low calorie. However, they'reknown to help you feel full longer or burn fat.Nuts - Nuts, especially almonds, have been found to be helpful atlosing weight. Now, nuts are not exactly a low calorie food, andthey must be eaten in moderation. However, they are verynutritious.Nuts are high in fat, but it's HDL fat, which is the kind thatpromotes good cholesterol in the blood. HDL cholesterol helps ridthe body of LDL cholesterol, which is the bad cholesterol thatclogs arteries and leads to heart attacks and strokes.Nuts are thought to make us feel full longer. In addition, theycontain protein that seems to burn a lot of calories duringdigestion. Doctors are somewhat unclear as to how nuts work, butthey do seem to have an effect on weight loss.Milk - Research has shown that those who drink 24 ounces of lowfat milk every day tend to weigh less than those who do not drinkmilk. Again, the reasons are not clear, but low fat milk doesseem to speed up the metabolism. One study showed that women whoate a reduced calorie diet that included 3-4 servings of low fatdairy products and exercised lost more weight than those who atea reduced calorie diet with fewer servings of dairy andexercised.Green Tea - In recent years, green tea has gained a lot ofattention for its ability to protect health and prevent disease.Green tea has been shown to prevent heart disease, cancer,Alzheimer's disease and even Type II diabetes. But, more andmore, we're finding out that green tea may have lots ofpotential to help weight loss, too.First, let's talk about what's so special about green tea. Themagic is in the anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants are importantbecause they fight free radicals in our bodies.Free radicals are damaging molecules that are created as weconvert the food we eat into energy. Free radicals damage cellsand DNA, leading to disease, if left unchecked. That's why it'sso important to get anti-oxidants in our diets each day. Fruitsand vegetables are also good sources of anti-oxidants.But, some of the most potent anti-oxidants around are those foundin green tea. Tea anti-oxidants are known as catechins, and theymake up about 25% of the weight of a dry tea leaf. Tea containsfour main catechin substances: epicatechin (EC), epicatechingallate (ECG), epigallocatechin (EGC) and epigallocatechingallate (EGCG). Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is the mostabundant catechin in tea.Health professionals favor green tea over black tea because itretains more of these catechins in their natural form than blacktea. Black tea goes through a fermentation process that changessome of these catechins from their original state into one thatis less healthy. It's these catechins that seem to have theability to help us lose weight.One particular study looked at Japanese men. All of the men werefed the same healthy diet for two weeks before the actual studybegan. Then, a 12 week study period began, in which some of themen drank one bottle of tea that contained 690 mg of teacatechins each day. The rest of the men were fed one bottle oftea that contained just 22 mg of catechins each day. All of themen continued on a healthy diet.At the end of the study, the men who ingested 690 mg of teacatechins each day had significantly lowered their BMI, bodyweight, waist circumference and body fat mass, when compared tothe men who consumed fewer tea catechins. The study concludedthat the catechins in tea can help to reduce body fat when partof a healthy diet.So, while we know that to lose weight we have to reduce ourcalories and get regular exercise, it's nice to know that thereare foods out there that can help us meet our goals more easily.So, add some nuts, milk and green tea to your healthy diet, andwatch how your body changes!-------------------------------------------------------Jon M. Stout is Chairman of the Golden MoonTea Company. For more information about tea,(http://www.goldenmoontea.com/greentea) green tea (http://www.goldenmoontea.com/blacktea) and black tea go to http://www.goldenmoontea.com