As with all tea, and even more so with teas that contain caffeine, green tea has many benefits, and the best part is that many of them have already been scientifically proven. People who drink it at least three times a week are less likely to have a heart attack or stroke. It can also help reduce inflammation in cells, make you live longer, and, best of all, kick-start your metabolism so you can burn fat from your belly and the rest of your body more easily.
Green Tea: Its Compounds and Properties
The second most popular drink in the world is green tea, which comes from the Camellia Sinensis plant. If you drink too much, it can taste a little bitter, but it’s also very strange and guilt-tasting, like coffee. Green tea also has a lot of polyphenols. At first, these substances were the ones that were studied the most because they were even found to fight cancer. And it was because of this that scientists were interested in this plant and started to learn more about other chemicals in it that might have more health benefits.
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This led to the study of chemicals like catechins. After that, antiobesogenic properties started to show up, such as the ability to reduce fat mass, stop weight gain, or even control hyperlipidemia, which is when there are too many fats in the blood, like cholesterol.
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So, in addition to polyphenols, which make up between 18 and 36% of the dry leaf, it has catechins, flavonoids, flavonols, anthocyanins, leucoanthocyanins, phenolic acid, and other chemicals like chlorogenic acid and theogallin. On average, there is 3% caffeine in coffee. Why is this tea so full of antioxidants and other things that are good for your body? Simply because it is made from leaves that haven’t been oxidized and is one of the least processed types of tea. This means that it is made in a way that stops things like polyphenols from becoming oxidized.
Can Green Tea Help You Lose Weight?
If you’re not sure what the best remedy is to help you lose weight along with diet and exercise in a more natural way that doesn’t involve all those pills that can hurt your body, you might want to try something like green tea.
Yes, the Chinese are right. One of their traditional beliefs is that drinking green tea will help you lose weight, which is true. Studies show that green and oolong teas, which contain both caffeine and catechins, can speed up your metabolism for up to two hours. This helps you burn calories and lose weight. Also, there is evidence that drinking 2–4 cups of both can help you burn 17% more calories when you work out moderately hard for a short time. This means that it helps burn fat even more than exercise does on its own.
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An important review from 2014 called “The antiobesity effects of green tea in human intervention and basic molecular studies” says that most of the trials with green tea, for effects to emerge regarding weight and fat mass, included an equivalent of 3 to 4 cups of green tea prepared for 12 weeks, whose results were the decrease in weight and body fat, comparing the results with the data that were available at the time.
This same article shows that you should be careful about calling green tea a metabolic stimulant because of the role of caffeine. And yes, it has been shown over and over again that eating the extracts of this tea burns more fat and uses more energy, especially when combined with a stimulant like this last one, which is found in coffee. Keep in mind that the latter also speeds up lipid oxidation and makes the body produce more heat.
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Also, its antiobesity effects come from the fact that it controls both the production of adipocytes (fat cells) and their death. It helps digestion and is a key factor in nutrition and controlling how energy is used. Most animal studies have not shown that it affects food intake, at least not through the mouth, despite what you may have heard.
And What about Belly Fat?
Some controlled trials showed that taking green tea supplements led to an average weight loss of up to 3 pounds; another study found that green tea extract helped obese people lose up to 3.3 kilograms and burn an extra 183 calories per day, so it’s safe to assume that you’d lose some body fat as well as belly fat.
Even while studies using green tea catechins have shown only minor weight loss, a sizeable percentage of participants also had a reduction in visceral fat, the most dangerous type of body fat. Green tea has been shown to improve cognitive function, thus it’s recommended that you drink three cups a day, preferably with coffee.
