Green Tea for Breast Cancer

Green tea has many health benefits, some have been proven and some may just be folklore. One particular effect that green tea seems to have is to fight and/or prevent breast cancer.

I would like to provide some information on this, but please remember that I'm just a lowly tea drinker and not a doctor or a chemical engineer.  Much of the research is just plain over my head, so I will just summarize to the best of my abilities.

First of all, what is green tea? Just like black tea, it comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. Black tea is fermented and green tea is not (oolong tea is partly fermented). Green tea is very popular in China and Japan and is gaining favour in other nations too. They have been drinking green tea for health reasons for over 5,000 years in Asia.

Some of the various chemical compounds in green tea:

• polyphenols and flavonoids
• alkaloids, such as caffeine and theobromine
• carbohydrates
• tannins
• minerals, such as fluoride and aluminum

When it comes to cancer treatment and prevention, it's the polyphenols that are important. Green tea has higher amounts of these chemicals than black tea because the fermentation process alters their composition. Of all the different polyphenols, one seems to stand out above the rest. EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) is a very powerful antioxidant and is believed to be an important player in the therapeutic qualities of green tea. How it works is still unclear, but it may inhibit cell-replication enzymes (preventing cancer growth) as well as other cellular processes that are too complicated to get into.

In various studies, rats with breast tumors were given green tea to drink and compared to similar rats that only drank water. The green-tea-rats had reductions in tumor size, and new tumors were slower to develop. There don't seem to have been any studies on humans yet.

For humans to gain any health benefits, you would need to drink around 3-4 cups every day (without milk or sugar). For people who are at-risk for developing cancer, it might be a worthwhile avenue to pursue. I think for the everyday person, that's a lot of tea to drink. You can also get your green tea in capsule form, but there have been no studies done on the effectiveness of such pills.

A major concern with drinking so much tea is the caffeine. Though there is less caffeine in tea than in coffee, it does start to add up when drinking large volumes. But can you switch to decaf? The answer is, maybe. It all depends on how your chosen tea is decaffeinated. Tea that has been decaffeinated with a solvent (such as Ethyl Acetate) is going to have a much lower level of EGCG, than a tea that has been processed with a water/carbon dioxide method. Water decaffeinated tea will retain almost 95% of its EGCG.

So there is one more good reason for us women to drink green tea. I read that green tea might also help against prostate cancer, but that's another article altogether.

Green tea tripled the breast cancer survival rate*

*One dramatic study showed that green tea tripled the breast cancer survival rate.

At Nagoya University Medical School, Japan, researchers initiated breast cancer in rats. The animals were divided into groups that received no treatment or treatments of various antioxidants including green tea extract.

When the experiment ended, there was 93.8% survival in the green tea extract group compared to only 33.3% survival in the control group that received no treatment. The survival rate for the other antioxidants was between 70-80%.

It’s important to understand that the breast cancer was so severe that every single animal developed breast cancer. But the green tea extract group had delayed onset, smaller tumors, and triple the breast cancer survival rate. In addition, there were no toxic side effects from the green tea extract. (Hirose, 1994)

While this particular breast cancer green tea research study is preliminary, almost 100 studies on green tea and breast cancer have shown remarkable protection through a variety of biological mechanisms including killing cancer cells through apoptosis, protection of normal cells, prevention of cancer adhesion, prevention of cancer initiation, prevention of cancer progression, prevention of cancer metastasis, prevention of angiogenesis, prevention of inflammation, prevention of DNA damage from free radicals, as well as increasing the survival rate. 

Green Tea Extract Increases Metabolism, May Aid in Weight Loss

There are two ways to lose weight -- either reduce energy intake, or increase energy expenditure. Because hypothyroidism -- even after treatment -- may reduce energy expenditure in some people, patients naturally are looking for options that can help safely help raise the metabolism.

In a study reported on in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it was found that green tea extract resulted in a significant increase in energy expenditure (a measure of metabolism), plus also had a significant effect on fat oxidation. While some of the effects were originally theorized to be due to the caffeine content of green tea, the researchers discovered that the tea actually has properties that go beyond those that would be explained by the caffeine. The same amount of caffeine as was in the green tea, administered alone, failed to change energy expenditure in other studies. This led reseachers to believe that there is some interaction going on with the active ingredients of green tea that promotes increased metabolism and fat oxidation. 

The researchers indicated that their findings have substantial implications for weight control. A 4% overall increase in 24-hour energy expenditure was attributed to the green tea extract, however, the research found that the extra expenditure took place during the daytime. This led them to conclude that, since thermogenesis (the body's own rate of burning calories) contributes 8-10% of daily energy expenditure in a typical cubject, that this 4% overall increase in energy expenditure due to the green tea actually translated to a 35-43% increase in daytime thermogenesis. 

Of critical importance to thyroid patients is the fact that none of the research subjects reported any side effects, and no significant differences in heart rates were noticed. In this respect, green tea extract is different from some of the prescription drugs for obesity, and herbal products like ephedra, which can raise heart rates and blood pressure, and are not recommended for many individuals, in particular, those with thyroid disease who may be particularly sensitive to stimulants. 

Implications for You?

If you were to incorporate green tea into your weight loss efforts, how is the best way to go about it? 

One way would be to choose a reputable brand of organic green tea at a health food store or natural grocery, and start by taking a cup of tea every day. You can also take a green tea extract, in the form of a supplement. 

Either way, says dietitian Lynn Moss, M.S., R.D., a continuing education specialist for Pharmavite, makers of Nature Made and Nature's Resource supplements and herbs, you should definitely take the green tea with meals, to reproduce the study's conditions as much as possible. 

Moss also feels that green tea may be a good choice for thyroid patients because, unlike caffeine, " green tea has the potential to accelerate metabolism -- which can help weight loss slightly -- without overstimulating your adrenal glands."

And even a small effect can go a long way, when you are dealing with a metabolism that may not rebound entirely, despite hypothyroidism treatment. 

SPECIAL NOTE: Is Green Tea Dangerous to the Thyroid?

In response to my article, some readers expressed concerns regarding the high fluoride content in tea, and the negative relationship between ingestion of too much fluoride and thyroid problems, as well as other health concerns. 

This is definitely something to be considered before deciding to take green tea. 

While green tea has some definite benefits in the cancer-prevention and metabolism-boosting arena, the fluoride content may, according to some practitioners, be a concern for the public in general, but specifically for thyroid patients. 

Green Tea Fights Fat

Green Tea Ingredient May Promote Healthy Weight Loss
Need another healthy reason to drink green tea? Aside from fighting heart disease, cancer, and other diseases, a new study shows that drinking green tea may also fight fat.
The study showed that people who drank a bottle of tea fortified with green tea extract every day for three months lost more body fat than those who drank a bottle of regular oolong tea.
Researchers say the results indicate that substances found in green tea known as catechins may trigger weight loss by stimulating the body to burn calories and decreasing body fat.
The findings appear in the January issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Green Tea: Fat Fighter?
Black tea, oolong tea, and green tea come from the same Camellia sinensis plant. But unlike the other two varieties, green tea leaves are not fermented before steaming and drying.

Most teas contain large amounts of polyphenols, which are plant-based substances that have been shown to have antioxidant, anticancer, and antiviral properties.

However, green tea is particularly rich in a type of polyphenols called catechins. These substances have also been shown to have anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties, but recent research in animals show that catechins may also affect body fat accumulation and cholesterol levels.

In this study, researchers looked at the effects of catechins on body fat reduction and weight loss in a group of 35 Japanese men. The men had similar weights based on theirBMI (body mass index, an indicator of body fat) and waist sizes.

The men were divided into two groups. For three months, the first group drank a bottle of oolong tea fortified with green tea extract containing 690 milligrams of catechins, and the other group drank a bottle of oolong tea with 22 milligrams of catechins.

During this time, the men ate identical breakfasts and dinners and were instructed to control their calorie and fat intake at all times so that overall total diets were similar.

After three months, the study showed that the men who drank the green tea extract lost more weight (5.3 pounds vs. 2.9 pounds) and experienced a significantly greater decrease in BMI, waist size, and total body fat.

In addition, LDL "bad" cholesterol went down in the men who drank the green tea extract.

The catechin content varies by amount of green tea used and steeping time. But general recommendations, based on previous studies on the benefits of green tea, are at least 4 cups a day. Green tea extract supplements are also available.

Researchers say the results indicate that catechins in green tea not only help burn calories and lower LDL cholesterol but may also be able to mildly reduce body fat.

"These results suggest that catechins contribute to the prevention of and improvement in various lifestyle-related diseases, particularly obesity," write researcher Tomonori Nagao of Health Care Products Research Laboratories in Tokyo, and colleagues.

Green tea appears to prevent cancer in men

prostate cancer developed the disease, compared to nine out of 30 in a control, according to a team of Italian researchers from the University of Parma and University of Modena and Reggio Emilia led by Saverio Bettuzzi, Ph.D. " After a year's oral administration of green tea catechins (GTCs), only one man in a group of 32 at high risk for prostate cancer developed the disease, compared to nine out of 30 in a control, according to a team of Italian researchers from the University of Parma and University of Modena and Reggio Emilia led by Saverio Bettuzzi, Ph.D.
Their results were reported here today at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"Numerous earlier studies, including ours, have demonstrated that green tea catechins, or pure EGCG (a major component of GTCs), inhibited cancer cell growth in laboratory models," Bettuzzi explained. "We wanted to conduct a clinical trial to find out whether catechins could prevent cancer in men. The answer clearly is yes."

Earlier research demonstrated primarily that green tea catechins were safe for use in humans. Bettuzzi and his colleagues had found that EGCG targets prostate cancer cells specifically for death, without damaging the benign controls. They identified Clusterin, the most important gene involved in apoptosis, or programmed cell death in the prostate, as a possible mediator of catechins action. "EGCG induced death in cancer cells, not normal cells, inducing Clusterin expression" said Bettuzzi.

To gauge susceptibility for prostate cancer among their research subjects, the team of Italian scientists recruited men with high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia – premalignant lesions that presage invasive prostate cancer within one year in nearly a third of cases and for which no treatment was given.

Eligible men were between 45 and 75 years of age. Vegetarians and men consuming green tea or derived products, or those taking anti-oxidants or following anti-androgenic therapy were excluded.

Of the 62 volunteers, 32 received three tablets per day of 200 mg each GTCs; the remainder were given a placebo. Follow-up biopsies were administered after six months and again at one year. Only one case of prostate cancer was diagnosed among those receiving 600 mg daily of GTCs, while nine cases were found in the untreated group. The 30 percent incidence rate among controls is consistent with previous findings, as was the absence of significant side effects or adverse reactions.

The interest in green tea catechins and other polyphenols – antioxidants found in many plants that give some flowers, fruits and vegetables their coloring – derives from traditional Chinese medicine, and the observation of lower cancer rates among Asian populations.

Bettuzzi observed that the Mediterranean diet is rich in vegetables, and lower rates of prostate cancer are found in that region, as well.

The 600 mg-per-day dosage of caffeine-free, total catechins (50 percent of which is EGCG) given to participants in the Italian study is one or two times the amount of green tea consumed daily in China, where ten to 20 cups a day is normal.

"We still don't know enough about the biological processes leading to prostate cancer," Bettuzzi noted. "The only thing we know for sure is that prostate cancer is diffuse, related to age and more prevalent in the West. Thus, prevention could be the best way to fight it. Although our follow-up will continue for up to five years, a larger, confirmatory study is needed."

Even so, Bettuzzi hints at the exciting prospect of using green tea catechins as a prophylactic against prostate cancer in men believed to be at higher risk, such as the elderly, African-Americans, and those with a family history of prostate cancer.

Green tea helps keep teeth healthy

WASHINGTON: What ancient Chinese and Japanese believed about green tea's health giving properties is being borne out by ongoing scientific
studies, especially in weight loss, heart health, and cancer prevention. Researchers also found that routine intake of green tea may also help promote healthy teeth and gums, after analysing the periodontal health of 940 men.

Periodontal disease is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the gums and bone supporting the teeth, and has been associated with the progression of other diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

"It has been long speculated that green tea possesses a host of health benefits," said study author Yoshihiro Shimazaki of Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan.

"And since many of us enjoy green tea on a regular basis, my colleagues and I were eager to investigate the impact of green tea consumption on periodontal health, especially considering the escalating emphasis on the connection between
periodontal health and overall health."

Male participants aged 49 through 59 were examined on three indicators of periodontal disease: periodontal pocket depth (PD), clinical attachment loss (CAL) of gum tissue, and bleeding on probing (BOP) of the gum tissue.

Researchers observed that for every one cup of green tea consumed per day, there was a decrease in all three indicators, therefore signifying a lower instance of periodontal disease in those subjects who regularly drank green tea, said a Kyushu release.

Green tea's ability to help reduce symptoms of periodontal disease may be due to the presence of the antioxidant catechin.
These findings were published in Periodontology, the official publication of the American Academy of Periodontology.

Health Benefits of Green Tea

For centuries, doctors, healers and tea drinkers have known that green tea possesses remarkable healing properties. Today, after decades of research, it’s become apparent that green tea truly is a "steaming cup of medicine." The results of hundreds of studies performed by top scientists at leading universities and research centers demonstrate that green tea, even in moderate amounts, may help ward off or combat a variety of ailments by:

• Boosting the immune system 
   

• Regulating cholesterol levels 
   

• Fighting the build-up of sticky plaque in the arteries 
   

• Interfering with the cancer process 
   

• Assisting in weight loss 
   

• Fighting harmful bacteria and viruses 
   

• Protecting the body against free radical damage

What is Green Tea?
Tea is a hot water infusion made from the leaves of the camellia sinensis bush. The way the leaves are processed determines whether the result is green, black or oolong tea. For green tea, the leaves are steamed or pan-fired immediately after picking to prevent them from fermenting. For black tea, the leaves are crushed and left to wither to encourage fermentation. For oolong, the leaves are withered for a shorter time, so they become only partially fermented.

Unfermented tea leaves contain large amounts of catechins, which are the powerful antioxidants and disease fighters responsible for green tea’s many health benefits. And while you can find some catechins in black and oolong tea, they’re found in much larger quantities in green tea. It’s the quick processing of green tea that keeps the catechins in place. When tea leaves are allowed to ferment, the catechins convert to another form that doesn’t have nearly as many health benefits. There are five types of catechins, but the most potent is epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg, for short).

Most studies have concluded that you need 3-10 cups of green tea per day, or up to 1,000 mg. of catechins for maximum health benefits. (The average 6-ounce cup of green tea contains between 50 and 100 mg catechins.)

What Can Green Tea Do For Your Health?
A wealth of laboratory, animal and human studies has provided evidence that green tea can help promote heart health, ward off cancer, fight obesity, lessen free radical damage to the cells, and even slow the progression of age-related cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Samples of some interesting findings:

Green Tea and Cholesterol
Many researchers believe that green tea helps reduce cholesterol by lowering its absorption in the digestive tract and increasing its excretion.

• Italian researchers studying two groups of volunteers following a controlled diet found that those who drank two cups of green tea (about 250 mg of catechins) per day for 6 weeks reduced their LDL "bad" cholesterol by an average of 13 mg/dl.¹

• A double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study involving 240 people with mildly to moderately-elevated cholesterol found that taking 375 mg of theaflavin-enriched green tea extract daily for 12 weeks caused a reduction in total cholesterol of 11.3% and in LDL cholesterol of 16.4%, while the HDL "good" cholesterol increased by 2.3%.²

• Animal studies have shown that even when consuming a diet rich in lard and cholesterol, rats who receive green tea catechins have much lower cholesterol levels than those who don't receive the catechins.³

Green Tea and Cardiovascular Disease
Green tea is associated with a reduction in many risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Besides improving cholesterol values, it may also help lower blood pressure, decrease blood stickiness, and prevent of LDL oxidation (a crucial beginning step in the atherosclerotic process). And while no one has actually proven that green tea can prevent heart disease, some recent findings are exciting:

• A study of nearly 400 people scheduled for coronary angiography found that those who drank at least 1 cup of green tea per day were 42% less likely to have a heart attack than those who didn’t drink green tea.⁴

• Green tea may also reduce a person’s risk of dying of a heart attack. Researchers interviewed 1900 people four days after having a heart attack. Four years later, those who consumed tea in moderate amounts (about 2 cups per day) decreased their risk of dying by 31%, while those who drank more than 2 cups per day decreased their risk by 39%.⁵

• Green tea seems to be particularly protective against stroke-induced deaths.  In a 2006 study, researchers who had been tracking 40,530 Japanese age 40 or older over an 11-year period reported that women who drank five or more cups of green tea daily were 42% less likely to die of a stroke than those who drank less than one cup.⁶

Green Tea and Obesity
Green tea has recently become the latest weapon in the war on weight. But does it really work? The results of some new studies are promising, finding that green tea can increase the rate of calorie burning, reduce body fat levels and even prevent excess weight gain. Although most tests have been performed on laboratory animals, at least one with humans showed that taking in the equivalent of 3 cups of green tea per day burned an additional 80 calories per day.

• In a study of energy expenditure in men, those who took green tea extract containing EGCg plus caffeine three times daily burned about 80 more calories per day than those who didn't take the extract. (Taking caffeine with EGCg didn't have the same effect.) They took in roughly the amount of EGCg found in 3 cups of green tea a day.⁷

• In another study, green tea extract actually helped prevent obesity. Two groups of mice were placed on a high-fat diet that ensured weight gain, and one group also received green tea extract, while the other did not. The mice that got the green tea extract gained 47% less weight than those who didn't get the extract.⁸

• Finally, green tea extract helped to reverse established obesity. Rats that had become obese through deliberate overfeeding had their obesity reversed by supplementation with EGCg, which markedly decreased the amount of adipose tissue.⁹

Green tea is believed to help prevent obesity by revving up the fat-burning effects of brown fat, sending glucose to muscle tissue where it’s more likely to be burned, rather than to fat tissue, and inhibiting the action of fat-digesting enzymes so the fat that you eat is less available to the body.

Green Tea and Cancer
Animal studies have clearly shown that green tea can help prevent the growth of tumors in the breast, prostate, lung and skin. And many studies of large populations have linked green tea to a reduction of cancer of the stomach, lung, pancreatic, breast, colon, esophageal, prostate and skin.

Green tea’s catechins (particularly EGCg) appear to inhibit the cancer process at all stages. Specifically, they protect the body from free radical damage by acting as an antioxidant, lower the toxicity of certain carcinogens, interfere with the binding of carcinogens to the DNA of healthy cells, inhibit cancer activation, slow tumor growth and spread, inhibit the growth of blood vessels to feed the tumor, and encourage cancer cells to “commit suicide” (programmed cell death). Some of the more interesting studies of green tea’s effects on cancer include:

Stomach Cancer
Researchers from Shanghai, China compared 206 people newly diagnosed with stomach cancer to 415 healthy control subjects. After studying the volunteers’ health, diet and lifestyle habits, the researchers concluded that drinking green tea reduced the risk of developing stomach cancer by as much as 41%.¹⁰

Lung Cancer
The diet and lifestyle habits of 649 nine women with lung cancer were compared to those of 675 healthy women. The researchers found that drinking green tea reduced the risk of developing green tea by as much as 35% (in the nonsmokers only), and that the more green tea consumed, the greater the protection.¹¹

Breast Cancer
A study of 1,100 Asian-American women, half of whom had breast cancer, showed that those in the non-cancer group were much more likely to be green tea drinkers. The researchers concluded that "green tea drinkers showed a significantly reduced risk of breast cancer..." and the more green tea consumed, the greater the protection.¹²

The combined results four studies (a meta-analysis) showed a 12% reduction in risk of developing breast cancer for those drinking the most green tea compared to those drinking the least.¹³

Pancreatic Cancer
A case-control study of cancer of the pancreas involving over 200 people found a significantly decreased risk of developing the disease in those who consumed green tea.¹⁴

Another study found that those who drank 2 or more cups of green tea per day had a 60% lower risk of developing pancreatic cancer.¹⁵ In test-tube studies, green tea has been shown to fight pancreatic cancer by damaging the mitochondria of the cancer cells and inhibiting cancer activation.¹⁶

Prostate Cancer
A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of green tea’s ability to fight prostate cancer was published in Cancer Research in 2006. Sixty men with HG-PIN, a condition that can quickly progress to prostate cancer, were divided into two groups. One group received 600 mg of green tea catechins per day; the other did not. After one year, only one prostate tumor was found among the green tea group compared to 9 in the control group.¹⁷

Skin Cancer
Much of the research of green tea’s effects on skin cancer has been done on hairless mice since their skin is very similar to human skin. And it’s been found that green tea extract, whether taken internally or painted on the skin, does help prevent skin cancer at both the induction and promotion phases. Mice given green tea extract in their drinking water for 50 days, then injected with a powerful skin cancer-inducing substance, got 44% fewer skin tumors than rats that hadn’t been given the extract.¹⁸ In another study, mice exposed to UVB rays who received green tea catechins through their water supply developed 41% fewer skin tumors than mice treated in the same manner, who didn’t get green tea. The tumors that they did develop were smaller.¹⁹ And recent test-tube studies have found that EGCg inhibits the growth and spread of the deadly skin cancer melanoma.²⁰

Green Tea, the Health Elixir
Perhaps the Japanese Buddhist monk Eisai was right when he wrote circa 1211 that “Tea is a miraculous medicine for the maintenance of health.” Countless studies have shown that not only can green tea aid in heart health, interfere with the cancer process and help ward off obesity, it can also fight deadly bacteria, including the kind that cause tuberculosis²¹, guard against dental cavities^22,23, inhibit the action of viruses²⁴, fight free radical damage to the cells²⁵ and preserve the freshness of foods^26,27 and cosmetics.

How Much Do You Need?
Most experts agree that a daily intake of 3-10 cups of green tea (the equivalent of 300-1,000 mg of catechins) is ideal for maximum health benefits. In extract form, to get 300 mg of catechins you’d need to take about 480 mg of a 50:1 extract containing 60% catechins (60% of 480 mg = 300 mg).

But even a single cup of green tea per day can be beneficial (just this small amount confers powerful protection against dental cavities and breast cancer). So pour yourself a steaming cup of medicine and enjoy! It could be the beginning of a life-long love affair with a potent and delightful health-enhancer.

Green Tea Weight Loss 10 Important Facts To Avoid Being Ripped Off!

During spring 2007, my friend and customer Ellen told me that drinking green tea has helped her shed 25 pounds in 6 months. Although I have drunk green tea for many years, and am aware of its slimming effect, I still can't helped being impressed. You can read how she did it here...

Green Tea Burns Calories - How I Lost 25 Pounds In 6 Months

Doesn’t that sound too easy? Or was it just a one off success? I was skeptical at first. So I delved into it, reading all the scientific studies that I could lay my hands on.

Here are my findings. Enjoy.

Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #1:
Scientifically Proven?

"Drinking tea for a long time makes one thin," says ancient Chinese medicinal classicBencao Shiyi. Fast forward 1,300 years, and that is exactly what scientists have found today.

For those of you who are skeptical, I highly recommend you read Swen Wolfram's excellent review paper Anti-obesity effects of green tea.

In his peer review of 74 studies, he concluded that weight loss due to green tea consumption has been demonstrated in laboratory studies involving cell culture and animals. According to Dr. Wolfram, 9 human studies have been conducted, with "most of these studies reporting decreased body weight and fat mass."

There is still a need for well-designed human studies to better understand the underlying mechanisms, but there is no question that it works!

Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #2:
Why Do Most Diets Fail?

What is wrong with conventional dieting?

When you go on a diet and starve, your body's survival instinct is triggered and you automatically go on "energy saving" mode. This reduces your metabolism and makes you burn fewer calories.

In addition, your body begins to feed on itself. Although some fat may be used as energy, the most readily available source is protein i.e. muscle.

You may see your weight going down on a scale, but actually you are losing muscle, not fat.

Your natural metabolism rate is largely determined by the amount of muscle you carry. Most diets fail because they help you lose the wrong kind of weight!

According to studies conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, the real problem starts after the dieting period, because this slowed metabolism can continue for up to weeks afterwards.

This causes the familiar yo-yo phenomenon, where you not only regain the lost weight, but rebound to even higher weight than what you started with.

Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #3:
Why Does A Green Tea Diet Work?

Green tea weight loss works because it does not require you to eat a very low calorie diet.

Scientific studies have discovered that the main ingredients responsible for green tea slimming effects are caffeine andEGCG (epigallocatechin gallate). There are at least 5 proven ways they can help you lose weight:

• Increase metabolism

• Burn fat

• Block conversion of energy into fat.

• Help your body absorb less dietary fat.

• Regulate your blood sugar levels and reduce food cravings.

To learn more, read Green Tea Lose Weight - 6-Way Magic

Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #4:
Suppresses Appetite?

Some green tea fat burner products claim that they can help to suppress your appetite. This is highly misleading.

A 2000 study conducted by University of Chicago found that rats consumed less food only when they were injected with green tea extract, but not when they drank green tea.

Therefore, for green tea to act as an appetite suppressant, you would have to either drink green tea constantly or consume tea extract at much higher levels than what is found in the market today.

Beware of companies making misleading claims on green tea's appetite suppressing effect. Products such as Mega-T and Applied Nutrition can make you feel less hungry because they contain very high levels of Chromium, not because of the green tea extract.

Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #5:
Exercise Longer

Doing exercise can help you lose weight in three different ways:

• Burns calories. Your burn extra calories when you engage in physical activities.

• Boosts metabolism. Your energy level stays high for a period of time after you finish exercising.

• Increases muscle mass. When you exercise, you develop lean muscle mass. Your metabolism rate is determined largely by how much muscle you carry. So having more muscle makes it easier for you to keep slim.

Getting into an exercise routine is hard work. The good news is that drinking green tea can increase your endurance level by up to 24%.

When is 1+1=3?

Researchers found that mice that exercised regularly lost 24% of additional weight gain introduced by a high fat diet. Mice that drank green tea lost 47%. Mice that exercised AND drank green tea lost 89%!

It was found that mice that exercised and drank green tea burned the most energy and fat even when they were resting. Mice that drank green tea also burned more fat during exercise.

Surprisingly, the study found that drinking green tea alone helps lose more fat and weight than exercising alone would for mice.

Green tea Diet and Exercise - Visceral Fat Burning and Stamina

Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #6:
Water, Muscle or Fat Loss?

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the largest and most respected health, medical and exercise organization in the world, has established guidelines for healthy weight loss. They recommend a weight loss goal of one to two pounds per week.

According to Tom Venuto, author of the excellent book Burn the Fat, it is possible to lose more than two pounds per week, but if you do, most of the additional weight will usually be water and muscle.

When you lose water weight, you will gain it back immediately as soon as you rehydrate yourself. When you lose muscle, your metabolic rate slows down, making you more likely to regain the lost weight later.

Green tea weight loss is no exception! Permanent weight loss is slow because it involves fat loss, not water or muscle loss. And green tea is proficient in promoting fat burning.

Green Tea Burn Fat - Cholesterol, Triglycerides and Visceral

Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #7:
Acts Fast?

Don't let anyone fool you into thinking that green tea acts fast!

Studies by Dulloo and Rumpler used a state-of-the-art metabolic chamber to measure the energy expenditure of their study subjects over 24 hours. They found that green tea increases metabolism by 2.9% and 4% and fat burning by 12% and 35% respectively.

Green Tea Thermogenesis

If you burn 2,000 calories a day, this translates to a savings of up to 80 calories, or 8 pounds a year, not bad for just a few cups of soothing tea! After a few years, each little cup adds up to a gigantic slimming effect.

How quickly you lose weight depends on your diet and lifestyle. No one can guarantee how many pounds you can shed in a week!

Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #8:
Dosage Versus Duration

More green tea will help you lose more weight, but only up to a certain amount. So far scientists have not found evidence that consuming a lot more green tea will help you lose a lot more weight (i.e. dose-dependent relationship is not well established).

However, there is emerging evidence that the amount of time during which you drink green tea is important. The longer you drink it, the more fat it burns.

A Taiwanese population study found that 140 people who were regular tea drinkers for more than 10 years had 20% body fat. This is significantly lower than the non tea drinkers with 25% body fat.

Green Tea Burn Fat - A Population Study

In other words, develop the good habit of drinking high quality green tea, and you will stand a much better chance of staying healthy and slim in the years to come.

Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #9:
Ideal For Weight Control

After you have successfully regained your curvy shape, what comes next?

The beauty of green tea is that, unlike other herbs and supplements, you can drink 3 to 6 cups daily for the rest of your life without having any side effects. Together with its other powerful health benefits, this means green tea is an ideal weight maintenance beverage.

A study conducted by Maastricht University in United States found that green tea extract consisting mainly of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and caffeine can limit initial weight loss to 5% to 10%.

Green Tea and Weight Control - Weight Maintenance Aid

Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #10:
High Caffeine Consumers Beware!

If you are a heavy coffee drinker and are hooked on caffeine, you may want consider switching over to green tea for two reasons:

• Green tea contains less caffeine. A widely accepted rule of thumb is that it contains half the amount of caffeine found in coffee.

• Green tea also contains a natural relaxant called theanine, which is known to promote a feeling of well-being. If you are at work, it will improve your concentration and productivity.

But there is a catch. Although you will reap the many health benefits of green tea, you will lose less weight than a low caffeine consumer.

In the same study quoted above, participants maintained their weight by drinking a caffeinated green tea (consisting of 270 milligrams of EGCG and 150 milligrams of caffeine).

High caffeine consumers did not benefit from the green tea. But low caffeine consumers continued to lose weight in the weight maintenance phase through higher metabolism and fat burning.

So by all means drink more green tea for its health and fat burning effect, but have a more realistic expectation of what it will do for you in term of weight loss!

For further information about effective tea dieting, visit Green Tea Diet - How To Be A Successful Loser.

The Miracle of Green Tea

"Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one." (Ancient Chinese Proverb)

Is any other food or drink reported to have as many health benefits as green tea? The Chinese have known about the medicinal benefits of green tea since ancient times, using it to treat everything from headaches to depression. In her book Green Tea: The Natural Secret for a Healthier Life, Nadine Taylor states that green tea has been used as a medicine in China for at least 4,000 years.

Today, scientific research in both Asia and the west is providing hard evidence for the health benefits long associated with drinking green tea. For example, in 1994 the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published the results of an epidemiological study indicating that drinking green tea reduced the risk of esophageal cancer in Chinese men and women by nearly sixty percent. University of Purdue researchers recently concluded that a compound in green tea inhibits the growth of cancer cells. There is also research indicating that drinking green tea lowers total 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

What makes green tea so special?

The secret of green tea lies in the fact it is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant: besides inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue. It has also been effective in lowering LDL cholesterol levels, and inhibiting the abnormal formation of blood clots. The latter takes on added importance when you consider that thrombosis (the formation of abnormal blood clots) is the leading cause of heart attacks and stroke.

Links are being made between the effects of drinking green tea and the "French Paradox." For years, researchers were puzzled by the fact that, despite consuming a diet rich in fat, the French have a lower incidence of heart disease than Americans. The answer was found to lie in red wine, which contains resveratrol, a polyphenol that limits the negative effects of smoking and a fatty diet. In a 1997 study, researchers from the University of Kansas determined that EGCG is twice as powerful as resveratrol, which may explain why the rate of heart disease among Japanese men is quite low, even though approximately seventy-five percent are smokers.

Why don't other Chinese teas have similar health-giving properties? Green, oolong, and black teas all come from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. What sets green tea apart is the way it is processed. Green tea leaves are steamed, which prevents the EGCG compound from being oxidized. By contrast, black and oolong tea leaves are made from fermented leaves, which results in the EGCG being converted into other compounds that are not nearly as effective in preventing and fighting various diseases.

Other Benefits

New evidence is emerging that green tea can even help dieters. In November, 1999, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the results of a study at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. 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.

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.