Is that green tea in your cup?
Are you aware that besides being a morning
pick-me-up, there are several other possible benefits
of supplementing your diet with green tea?
- Green tea
may help to prevent certain cancers.
- Green tea may
improve tooth and bone health.
- Green tea may
improve heart health.
It seems like every day another
benefit of green tea makes the headlines. Apparently
for good reason, here are the latest findings.
A weight loss aid
Researchers believe that the antioxidants in green tea,
known as catechin polyphenols, enhance weight loss
by causing the body to bum additional calories as
well as speed up the body's rate of metabolism. A
number of studies continue to show that when
combined with caffeine, these effects are significantly
increased.
For example, in Switzerland, volunteers were given a
green tea extract with every meal. Throughout the
next 24 hours, the participants displayed a 4 percent
increase in energy expenditure. At first glance,
4 percent may not seem like much, but over time
4 percent can translate into a significant amount
of burned calories - especially if combined with
physical activity and a healthier eating plan.
A potent antioxidant
When you exercise intensely, your body needs
to increase its use of oxygen to produce energy. This
process results in the creation of free radicals. Free
radicals can damage DNA, lipid (fat) and protein
molecules, which can ultimately destroy living cells.
However, athletes can help neutralize the damaging
free radicals by consuming sufficient amounts of
antioxidants.
There are four primary antioxidants present in green
tea and research suggests that they are considerably
more effective at neutralizing free radicals than other
potent antioxidants such as Vitamin C, Vitamin E,
and Beta Carotene, and even many fruits and
vegetables. The most abundant antioxidant found in
tea, epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG, is estimated
to be 100 times more potent than Vitamin C and 25
times more potent than Vitamin E!
What about black tea?
Because of the higher concentration of EGCG,
researchers have focused the majority of their
attention on green tea. But, recent studies show that
black tea can be beneficial too.
The Rotterdam Study in the Netherlands discovered
that among the 4,807 men and women who
participated in the study, those who drink about two
cups of black tea a day have a 50 percent less chance
of a first heart attack than the subjects who don't
drink any black tea.
In addition, the antioxidants found in black tea,
theaflavins and teasaponins, appear to be just as
potent as the antioxidants in green tea. According to
studies at Tufts University in Boston, one cup of
black tea has more antioxidant power against the
most common type of free radical in your body, the
peroxyl radical, than a half cup serving of broccoli,
carrots, spinach, or strawberries.
How would you like your tea?
Of course drinking green or black tea is an excellent
way to receive all of the potential benefits associated
with tea, but it is not the only way. Dietary
supplements containing tea are available in capsules,
tablets, and powders. Some supplements even
combine the benefits of green and black teas to give
you the best of both worlds, such as Lean Tea
Complex by Optimum Nutrition. So if you don't
like the taste of tea, don't have the time to brew it,
or you are concerned about keeping your
"pearly whites" white, Lean Tea
Complex is now
available at Spinelli's Nutrition.
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As if you need another reason to... |
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Use Green Tea |
Researchers in Japan have discovered that EGCG
(epigallocatechin gallate) - the same compound
found in many green tea weight-loss supplements -
may act as an anti-allergenic substance by blunting a
cell receptor involved in producing an allergic
response. Though this study was done in vitro (in a
test tube), researchers are hopeful that future
studies, conducted with human subjects, will
continue to substantiate 1000's of years of anecdotal
evidence that tea, particularly green tea, effectively
reduces the sneezing, coughing, and watery eyes
associated with allergies.
Yoshinori Fujirnura, Hirofumi Tachibana, Mari Maeda-Yamamoto,
Toshio Miyase, Mitsuaki Sano, and Koji Yamada. Antiallergic Tea
Catechin, (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-0-(3-0-methYD-gailate,
Suppresses Fc RI Expression in Human Basophilic KU812 Cells.
4gdc. Food Chem.; 2002; 50(20) pp 5729 - 5734. |