Green Tea and Your Health

July 23rd, 2008 Jennie Posted in Green Tea |

The History of the Green Tea Diet

Green Tea is now a well know health drink in the Western culture although it has been around the Far East culture for over 4,000 years.  Tea is actually the most widely consumed beverage in the world behind water.  Now that we know more about the health benefits of drinking tea and more specifically green tea it is becoming one of the most popular drinks for health and weight loss.  After numerous studies have been conducted regarding green tea and weight loss, more and more companies are jumping the bandwagon and adding green tea to their food or drink, and other skin products and promoting the green tea as a weight loss aid. 

What is green tea is so great about helping with dieting and losing weight?

It all comes down to antioxidants that are in the camellia sinensis plant that green tea and others such as oolong and black tea are derived.  More specifically, the polyphenols that are in the camellia sinensis plant.  Polyphenols are found to be what increases a person’s metabolism and speeds up the break down of fat in the body.  It is turns flushes the body of these bad lipids (fats) and promotes weight loss.  Thus, the birth of the green tea diet.  The green tea diet is now taking on a life of it’s own in the weight loss industry.  It is becoming one of the fastest growing weight loss aid primarily due to the health benefits that you can get in addition to the weight loss effects.  As a bonus to all of this is that green tea is a safe weight loss aid compared to chemically engineered diet pills.

How green tea is consumed for weight loss.

Green tea, oolong tea or black tea are all great for weight loss.  What makes one better than the other is the amount of polyphenols or antioxidants levels in the tea.  Tea can be taken as loose tea in an infuser, or in tea bags in hot water so that the powerful antioxidants of the green tea (or oolong) will seep into the water.  It is also becoming more popular in the green tea diet world to take in the capsule form.  When this is done it is imperative that the extract contain a high amount of polyphenols and antioxidants (Catechins and EGCG’s) or the capsules will not be very beneficial to green tea diet consumer.

Green tea can now also be found in gum, coffee and in a liquid form and in other beverages such as soft drinks.  Green tea for dieting has also been added to well know diet pills although you have to be careful and read the labels of diet pills to see what else may be in the supplement.

Other benefits of Green Tea.

Other benefits of green tea have been well documented.  These can range from reduction in developing cancer to the lowering of cholesterol levels, as well as improving the ratio of good (HDL) cholesterol to bad (LDL) cholesterol.

To sum up, here are just a few medical conditions in which drinking green tea is reputed to be helpful:

·         cancer

·         rheumatoid arthritis

·         high cholesterol levels

·         cariovascular disease

·         infection

·         impaired immune function

Green tea can even help prevent tooth decay! Just as its bacteria-destroying abilities can help prevent food poisoning, it can also kill the bacteria that causes dental plaque. Meanwhile, skin preparations containing green tea - from deodorants to creams - are starting to appear on the market.

Harmful Effects? 

To date, the only negative side effect reported from drinking green tea is insomnia due to the fact that it contains caffeine.   However, green tea contains less caffeine than coffee: there are approximately thirty to sixty mg. of caffeine in six - eight ounces of tea, compared to over one-hundred mg. in eight ounces of coffee so drink your green tea for health and now weight loss benefits!