Green Tea And Weight Loss

There's recently been a LOT in the weight loss news concerning green tea.
Green tea's weight loss effects have been causing more and more people to start sipping the ancient Japanese brew.
This article gives you the real facts about drinking green tea to lose weight. And does it really work or is it all just hype? But just how does green tea help you lose weight?
Advantages of Drinking Green Tea for Weight Loss:
1) Green tea revs up your metabolism
A study reported on in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that green tea extract resulted in a significant increase in energy expenditure (a metabolism 'boost').
The researchers also concluded that that over a 24-hour period, green tea extract increases the metabolic rate by 4%. These effects are probably due to the high concentrations of catechin polyphenols found in green tea. These work to help intensify levels of fat oxidation and thermogenesis (the rate at which your body burns calories).
2) Green tea inhibits fat absorption and helps glucose regulation
Experts tell us that the catechins in green tea help to inhibit the movement of glucose into fat cells. Green tea may also act as al glucose regulator. It helps to slow the rise in blood sugar after a meal. This prevents high insulin spikes (lots of insulin promotes fat storage) and the subsequent fat storage.
3) Green tea may help reduce appetite
This may have something to do with the blood sugar regulating effects of green tea. Rats injected with a green tea extract lost their appetites and consumed up to 60 percent less food after seven days of daily injections. Scientists at the University of Chicago found that green tea caused rats to lose up to 21 percent of their body weight.
4) Green tea can help you save calories on your morning brew.
Be it the regular double-cream, double-sugar standard or that mocha, dappa, frappucinno, the calories we ingest just to get our morning caffeine is wreaking havoc on our waistlines. We are a nation hooked on our java.
You'll definitely notice the difference in your waistline after a few weeks. Or have a green tea in the afternoon instead of that 700 calorie mocha-chillate dream. If you want to save mega-calories in the morning but still get your caffeine fix, try substituting green tea for coffee.
So there are 4 ways that green tea can help you with weight loss. But how much do you actually have to drink to get these amazing metabolism boosting effects?
Pretty good for not exercising or cutting calories, right? Doing this can help you burn an extra 70 calories per day which amounts to 7 pounds per year. Experts vary but the general consensus seems to be that 3 - 5 cups of green tea per day is optimal.
However, 3 - 5 cups can be a lot for some people, so you might also want to consider green tea extract, green tea pills or a green tea patch.
Disadvantages of Drinking Green Tea For Weight Loss:
#1) Green tea is not a magic bullet
A healthy diet and increased exercise will go a long way in helping you lose weight and keep it off. You're not going to eat 5000 calories a day, drink a cup of green tea and make it all go away - it just isn't going to happen. While some people will tell you that green tea is the be-all-end-all for weight loss success, I think the keyword here is balance.
#2) Be cautious of the caffeine if you have health problems
Most green tea extract is made from decaffeinated green tea so you can still get the weight loss benefits without the caffeine. If you're worried about the caffeine from green tea, try taking green tea extract. For some people that have heart troubles, high blood pressure or stimulant sensitivities, the caffeine in green tea may not be the best idea.
Also make sure to consult your doctor before starting green tea if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Also make sure to consult your doctor before starting green tea for weight loss. Also make sure to consult your doctor before starting green tea for weight loss.

If you think the caffeine may be a problem, make sure to consult your doctor before starting green tea for weight loss.
While it's not the magic bullet, it can definitely give you a boost in weight loss and in your overall health! Bottom Line: Green tea helps you with weight loss by boosting your metabolic rate, regulating your blood sugar, suppressing your appetite and giving you something else besides that high calorie, high sugar coffee beverage to drink in the morning.
Kathryn O'Neill is a contributing writer to
Diet and Weight Loss Reviews
.
For more free weight loss tips and diet reviews, visit
http://www.FreeToBeThin.com
.

7 Health Benefits of Green Tea

Want to enhance your health in surprising ways? Drink green
tea.
We're not talking about a new health discovery here. This
beverage has been used for thousands of years by the
Chinese. It has proved itself for centuries as worthy of being
included in our diet for its health properties.
Not only has this drink been endorsed for ages, but modern
science also has discovered astonishing facts about what
it may be able to do for your health.
There are a lot more benefits to drinking green tea than are listed below, but here are seven:
Drink it to help shed extra pounds. 1.
It shows that this drink may enable people to burn more calories. A study published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in November, 1999, is encouraging.
This ancient brew may help combat signs of aging. 2.
That's because it contains large amounts of vitamins E and
C which are antioxidants. Antioxidants have the reputation
of being able to combat free radicals that damage cells.
Cancer, heart attacks and diabetes can result from damaged
cell membranes.
In April, 1999, researchers at Case Western Reserve
University in Cleveland revealed that green tea may ease the
symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
This drink may help asthma sufferers. 3.
Because it contains theophylline (a muscle relaxant), it can
help the muscles surrounding bronchial tubes to relax. This
helps asthma sufferers to breathe with less restriction.
Green tea may help lower blood pressure. 4.
This ancient brew may also keep blood clots from forming. High blood pressure makes you susceptible to heart attack and stroke.
5. Green tea has been reported to help in the fight against
cancer.
Doctors from the prestigious Mayo Clinic found that green
tea extract given to four leukemia patients seemed to help
three of them experience regression of the disease. And even
the fourth patient showed some improvement. The reason the
doctors tried green tea extract is that a 2004 test tube
study showed that leukemia cells were killed by the
extract.
By the way, in Japan there are fewer reported cancer deaths.
Could it be because the Japanese drink a lot of green tea?
Drinking this beverage my help lower cholesterol. 6.
Your ability to fight heart disease and ward off stroke is tied in with your cholesterol count. Lowering cholesterol with no side effects has been reported in studies using green tea.
7. This brew may help your body fight infections.
The New York Times reported in April of 2003 that the immune
system's ability to fight disease may be strengthened by
drinking green tea. Microbiologist Milton Schiffenbauer,
professor at Pace University (New York) stated, "Our
research shows tea extracts can destroy the organism that
causes disease. If we can stimulate the immune system and at
the same time we are destroying the organisms then it makes
sense to drink more tea."
Now that you've learned 7 ways green tea has been shown to
help your health, why not give it a place in your daily
diet? It's not a magic cure, but this proven ancient
beverage may just help you to be healthier.

The Benefits of Green Tea

It is a miracle. People have been drinking green tea as treatment for everything from weight loss to curing cancer to skin problems.
In the 1994 edition of the Journal of National Cancer Institute, the results of an epidemiological study showed that one of the health benefits of drinking green tea is that it can reduce the risk of esophageal cancer in Chinese men and women by up to 60%.
A powerful antioxidant, EGCG can not only inhibit the growth of cancer cells but can also destroy them without harming healthy cells. The rich presence of catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is the reason why green tea has so many health benefits.
This is a leading cause of strokes and heart attacks. Also another benefit of green tea is its ability to lower down cholesterol levels and improve the ratio between good (HDL) cholesterol and bad (LDL) cholesterol.
Green tea has greater health benefits compared to other Chinese teas like oolong and black tea, which come from the plant Camellia sinensis. What makes green tea different is the process by which it is made. Green tea owes much of its health benefits to how the Camellia sinensis leaves are steamed. The process stops the EGCG health benefit of green tea from oxidizing.
Many People have embarked on green tea dieting with great success and benefit. This was proven in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1999, men who take both caffeine and green tea burn down more calories than men who only take caffeine or a placebo. Drinking green tea can allow more calories to be burnt which will result in weight loss.
Another health benefit of green tea is that it can help prevent food poisoning and also prevent tooth decay.
Well known for its countless health benefits such weight loss and curing cancer, green tea is a miracle.

Health Benefits of Green Tea and Green Tea Extracts

Green tea, and more recently green tea extracts, have been used for centuries as not only a beverage, but as a medicine as well. Practitioners of natural healing and medicines have long expressed a belief in several health benefits of green tea. Green Tea Extract [Immune System, Circulatory System] contains catechins, a type of polyphenol with powerful antioxidants that neutralize free radicals. Green tea also provides antimicrobial immune system support, helps support the vascular blood clotting function and helps maintain cholesterol levels already within the normal range. It also appears to support healthy kidney function.
GREEN TEA AND WEIGHT LOSS
A study published in the December 1999 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Urology show that substances which are abundant in green tea extracts may promote weight loss through thermogenesis (the body's rate of burning calories). Green tea seems to help in raising the metabolic rate and burning fat. In this study, subjects taking a green tea extract burned more fat calories than those in a control group. Another interesting point is that the affect was accomplished without the increase in heart rate experienced with more common diet pills and weight loss supplements which often have a stimulant base.
One obesity study indicates that long-term tea drinkers (those who drink tea over a period of years) appear to have lower body fat percentages.
GREEN TEA AND HEART HEALTH
Therefore, if you are unsure of the affect of your green tea brand, you might consider green tea extracts as an altenative or supplement. A recent analysis of green tea brands found however, that antioxidant levels of common teas have a great deal of variance. This was reported in an article from the American Association for the Advancment of Science: "Green tea shows antioxidant benefits in human plasma". Catechins, found in green tea, apparently increase the antioxidant capacity of human plasma, which could help reduce cardiovascular disease risk.
A recent Penn State study supports the view that the flavonoids in tea can reduce the risks for cardiovascular disease. Just to make the news better, the study also found that chocolate had similar health benefits as well. Green tea and green tea extracts have high antioxidant properties.
In addition to the normally brewed tea which is available in almost any neighborhood grocery store, green tea extract is a handy option for those who like to supplement their nutritional intake without having to find a place and time to actually brew a pot or cup of green tea.
GREEN TEA AND CHOLESTEROL
Studies have indicated that green tea and green tea extracts can help lower cholesterol levels.

Green Tea The Natural Way To Lose Weight

Green Tea has now become a popular way to lose weight. Green tea, besides being a typical beverage around the world, provides numerous health benefits in addition to its weight loss properties. The best green tea has lots of advantages; there are no additives or preservatives in this product. The best green tea might be able to help boost your immune system and also enhance other capacities in your life
Many people have discovered that green tea is a powerful weapon to fight fats and obesity, including celebrities like Oprah. It also helped to aid weight loss by increasing the metabolic rate, causing those who use it to burn more calories. Green tea is one of the only, all natural fat burning products that can selectively increase fat oxidation without jitters and mood swings, increased heart rate, heart palpitations, and other similar side effects associated with Ma-Haung, (ephedrine). This makes Green Tea perfect for individuals wishing to remove stimulants from their diets.
Proper diet and an effective exercise program will be the key to wringing the most out of green tea. It's no "magic pill" I guess you could say. Many would say it's definitely helpful, but not earth-shatteringly effective. Believe it or not, more and more often you'll find green tea included in the compilations of many of the more popular weight loss supplements today.
Green tea becomes an active ingredient used in many of the top weight loss products claim they contain natural ingredients, green tea is almost always in the list.
The benefits of green tea can be had by drinking freshly brewed tea, or through supplements. Either way is rather inexpensive compared to other health and diet products so why not give green tea a try.
I have made a site that is all about green tea
http://enjoygreentea.com
.

Why Choose Green Tea Diet And Are There Any Downsides?

Due to the popularity of recent findings, green tea diet has almost become a must for every person wanting to lose weight. The addition of green tea into diet pills and weight loss supplements is perhaps spurred by reports of harmful side-effects of other drugs like ephedra.
Why choose green tea diet?
For four thousand years, this type of dieting has been used all throughout Asia as a beneficial health and medicinal drink. It is different from all other tea diets because its liquid is extracted by steaming the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant as opposed to full oxidation. In this way, the tea manages to preserve a lot more antioxidants and keep them intact for the body to use.
Green tea diet is an excellent source of polycatechin polyphenols, a group of antioxidants that act on free radicals. These free radicals have harmful effects on the body since they are the major causes of diseases and aging. With green tea's polycatechin polyphenols, a person has a better chance of avoiding ailments and keeping himself healthy for a much longer period of time.
Another antioxidant in green tea is also being studied as a potential cure for cancer. Epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG has been discovered to destroy cancer cells while keeping surrounding healthy cells unharmed.
The EGCG also acts with another compound, caffeine (a small amount of this is found in green tea). The interaction of these two compounds causes green tea to promote thermogenesis in the body.
This is roughly equivalent to losing more than 10 pounds of weight a month. It has been noted by a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that with the consumption of green tea, the body's total 24-hour energy expenditure is increased by up to four percent.
Green tea diet helps increase the body's metabolic rates too. With its thermogenic properties, it is only natural that it can also promote faster metabolism of fats and sugars. Excess glucose found in the body is turned into fats by the hormone insulin. Because green tea has an inhibiting effect on insulin, it therefore helps keep sugar from being stored as fats and instead, send them directly into the muscles for immediate use.
The downside to a green tea diet
Although this type of diet has a reputation for boosting health, scientific proofs of its health benefits are still somewhat mixed. However, in an article published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, American researchers collaborated with their Chinese counterparts to discuss the beneficial effects of green tea on cholesterol levels.
Using 240 men and women (average age 55) who possess mild to moderately high LDL cholesterol levels, the researchers instructed them to retain their usual low-fat diet, green tea diet intake, and activity levels. After twelve weeks, it was found that those who consumed green tea with their regular meals lost more than fifteen percent of their total LDL cholesterol levels.
Although the researchers never explained how the tea may influence cholesterol levels, previous studies have shown that certain compounds in green tea play a role in reducing the amount of cholesterol absorbed by the body, increasing amount of cholesterol excreted, and thus keeping cholesterol from being stored in the liver.
They found that green tea diet has no significant effect on the cholesterol profiles of their subjects. Their results were contradictory. Subsequent studies were made to test the findings of the first group of researchers.
There is no such thing as a miracle diet. Green tea diet, like all other diets, needs a lot of work and input from those who enroll in it. It required both discipline and heart for it to make any significant impact on your weight loss goals.

The Health Benefits of Green Tea - Fact or Fairytale?

The Case For Green Tea
Here are some examples. The Chinese have been using it for thousands of years to treat everything from headaches to depression and some of those claims are now starting to be verified by scientific research. Green tea devotees claim that is has many health benefits.
In addition, researchers at the University of Purdue concluded that a compound in green tea inhibits the growth of cancer cells. Cancer: The Journal of the National Cancer Institute published the results of a study in 1994 which indicated that drinking green tea reduced the risk of oesophageal cancer in Chinese men and women by nearly sixty percent. 1.
It improves the ratio of HDL cholesterol (that's the good kind) to LDL cholesterol (the bad kind). Cholesterol: Some research indicates that drinking green tea can lower your overall cholesterol levels. 2.
In other words the green tea accentuated the stimulant properties of caffeine which raise the metabolic rate. University researchers found that men who were given a combination of caffeine and green tea extract burned more calories than those given only caffeine or a placebo. Weight Loss: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the results in 1999 of a study conducted at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

3.
Tooth Decay: Green tea kills the bacteria that causes dental plaque, thus helping to prevent tooth decay. 4.
Skin preparations containing green tea - from deodorants to creams - are starting to appear on the market. Infection: Green tea's anti-bacterial properties mean that it can also be used to fight infections and to prevent food poisoning. 5.
What Is Green Tea's Magic Ingredient?
EGCG has also been shown to be effective in lowering LDL cholesterol levels, and inhibiting the abnormal formation of blood clots that are the leading cause of heart attacks and strokes. EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant that can inhibit, or even stop, the growth of cancer cells without harming normal healthy tissue. The benefits you can get from green tea arise because it is rich in beneficial antioxidants, in particular EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate).
EGCG is twice as powerful as another beneficial antioxidant called resveratrol. This antioxidant occurs in red wine and is the main reason why the French have a lower incidence of heart disease than Americans, even though they have a diet rich in fats, dairy produce and red meat.
The fermentation means the EGCG is converted into other compounds that are not as beneficial. The other part of the secret behind green tea is that the leaves of the same Camellia sinensis plant but the leaves are fermented during processing.
The Case Against Green Tea
On the other hand, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a report in May 2006 stating there is no credible scientific evidence that drinking green tea reduces the risk of heart disease.
The FDA report said it reviewed 105 articles and other publications submitted as part of the petition, but it could not find any evidence to support claims of the beverage's health benefits.
Are There Any Harmful Side Effects?
As you could reasonably expect, if you drink too much green tea you may suffer from insomnia and to date, insomnia is the only negative side effect reported from drinking green tea. Green tea does contain caffeine, however it contains less than coffee - approx one third to just over half the amount for the same weight.
Better put the kettle on! So it seems you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by drinking it. Green tea can certainly do you no harm, except to keep you awake at night if you drink too much, whether because of the caffeine or the frequent trips to the bathroom. Research is now steadily accumulating scientific evidence that proves these benefits.

Green tea has been recognized for its curative properties for thousands of years.