New Findings About an Old Drink

Green tea….the Chinese have used it as a medicine for over 4,000 years. Even today, some people say it can help treat a myriad of ailments, from headaches to depression--but can it help you lose weight?

An Early Study

Back in 1999, research findings out of Switzerland's University of Geneva and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggested that green tea might indeed help with weight loss. When the researchers gave study subjects either a combination of caffeine and green tea or one of caffeine and placebo, they found that the participants given green tea burned up calories faster than did those in the placebo group.

EGCG in Green Tea

Now, a new animal study from Penn State University has put forward the idea that one of the active ingredients in green tea, a powerful antioxidant called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), might help prevent weight gain.

This new research, published recently in the online (ahead-of-print) October issue of the journal Obesity, revealed that mice fed a diet high in fat and supplemented with EGCG, gained weight 45 percent more slowly than did the mice in another group that were fed the same high-fat diet but without any of green tea's EGCG.

The study was conducted over a 6-week period, with both groups of obese mice being fed the same amounts of food. The Penn researchers suggested that EGCG might be decreasing the amount of fat that gets absorbed by the body, while at the same time increasing the body's use of fat. Thus, the slower rates of weight gain in the EGCG mice might be due to decreased fat absorption--a hypothesis that is logical, since the fecal matter of the EGCG mice was found to be carrying 30-percent more fat out in their bodies, as compared with the feces of the non-EGCG mice eating the same high-fat diet.

Other Benefits of Green Tea

• lowers LDL (aka “bad”) cholesterol
• inhibits the formation of blood clots

Indeed, these two valuable features of green tea have both been associated with a lower risk of heart attacks and stroke.

Green Tea and Risks of Diseases

Studies have also suggested that EGCG lowers the risks of some cancers, rheumatoid arthritis, and infections. A 1997 University of Kansas study, for example, found EGCG, an antioxidant, to be twice as powerful as resveratrol in terms of lowering your risk of heart disease. Resveratrol, if you remember, is the potent antioxidant found in the skin of red grapes that's been strongly associated with lowering heart-disease risk. Red wine consumption, in fact, is thought to be one of the reasons why Japanese men enjoy such a low rate of heart disease, despite the fact that approximately 75 percent of them are smokers.

How About Other Types of Tea?

Can black or oolong teas give you these same benefits? Apparently not, because an 8-ounce cup of green tea has 30 milligrams to 40 milligrams (mg) of powerful antioxidants (polyphenols), as compared to only 3 mg to 10 mg in a cup of the other teas. These other types of tea happen to be fermented during the production process, whereas green tea is merely steamed, a difference in production that might account for this. 

My Thoughts About Green Tea

Caffeine. While green tea might indeed have quite a few health benefits, it’s important to keep in mind that it still contains caffeine, although not nearly as much as coffee. An 8-ounce cup of green tea contains about 30 mg to 60 mg of caffeine, compared to over 100 mg in a same-sized coffee.

How much green tea? Studies have suggested that a person needs to drink a minimum of 4 to 6 cups of green tea per day to reap EGCG's health benefits.Therefore, decaffeinated green tea might be the way to go for some people.

Green tea supplements are unregulated. Because no one is analyzing the pill forms of green tea to see what they contain, right now you can't know exactly how much EGCG you’re getting in a pill. Caffeine could also be a problem for some, so stick with real green tea rather than supplements.

It's not a cure-all. The potential health and weight-loss benefits of green tea cannot offset an unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle. Even if you increase your green-tea consumption, keep making healthy diet choices and exercising regularly.

Consult your physician. Green tea can potentially interfere with certain medications or medical conditions, so be sure to ask your doctor whether green tea would be appropriate for you.