Do you have a big belly? Does someone you love?
It’s been known for quite some time that green tea helps raise metabolism and assists in weight control. Now a growing body of research confirms that powerful antioxidants in green tea called catechins actually target belly fat.
Belly fat is notoriously unhealthy. It’s been linked to increased risk for diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis in men, liver disease and even certain kinds of cancer. It’s really simple: A beer belly indicates that fat is also surrounding your abdominal organs, impairing their performance and leaving you vulnerable to disease.
So, if you have a big belly, the latest Chinese research can help. It seems that the effects of drinking green tea were compounded in people with excess belly fat.
And Japanese research confirms that green tea encouraged double the fat burning rate among big-bellied volunteers. Just 625 mg of catechins (about four cups of green tea) a day results in an impressive loss of 7.7 percent of their abdominal fat in just 12 weeks, even though they only lost 5 pounds. What’s more, participants were told not to change their dietary intake, but they were encouraged to be more physically active.
So what’s so great about green tea?
Those catechins, formally called EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), are among the most powerful antioxidants known. Not only is it study-proven to target belly fat, it also raises your metabolic rate in general, revving up calorie burning.
Green tea has also been proven to:
Prevent diabetes by keeping blood sugars stable
- Prevent heart disease by improving blood pressure and lowering cholesterol
- Improved memory and stop the formation of the plaque that is characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease
- Prevent cancer by promoting healthy cell development and possibly destroying cancerous cells
Plus, green tea can help relieve stress. It’s a rich source of theanine, an amino acid with a well-studied calming effect.
What’s the downside? There really isn’t one, except that green tea does contain some caffeine. One cup of green tea typically has about 25 mg of caffeine, while the average cup of coffee have 100 to 150 mg. The small amount of caffeine is probably balanced by the calming theanine.
Decaffeinated green teas are available, but the decaffeination process reduces the EGCG levels by about 30%.
You won’t be surprised to learn that not all green teas are created equal, but you don’t have to break the bank to take advantage of this healthiest of all drinks (except water).
Consumerlab.com, an independent supplement testing company, recommends Lipton and Bigelow green teas as excellent low-cost sources of the all-important EGCG. There is at least one brand that has higher levels, but it is considerably more expensive and was not considered a worthwhile expenditure considering the insignificantly higher levels of EGCG.
Stay away from the bottled drinks that supposedly contain green teas. Most of them are nothing more than sugar water with only tiny amounts of EGCG, if any at all.
So brew yourself up a cup or several cups of green tea a day. Even one cup will improve your health.
Here’s how:
- Boil your water and then let it cool to about 170 degrees Fahrenheit. This allows the maximum extraction of nutrients from the tea leaves.
- Let it steep for at least 10 minutes. Drink it cold if you prefer.
- Add lemon. Vitamin C makes the healthy compounds in green tea easier to absorb. Dairy, on the other hand, makes it harder to absorb the catechins, so don’t add milk.
- Sweeten with stevia, if you like.
- Aim for at least four cups a day.
See more articles from Kathleen on healthy eating and drinking!
