|
|
Green Tea Diet
Aid
Green tea
diet aid has been used in China as an herbal and medicinal
beverage for more than four thousand years. The Chinese were so
convinced with green tea’s healing powers and diet aids that
they used green tea as treatment for everything from headaches
to depressions and even as a diet aid.
Over the last few years, several researches have been
conducted to identify what compound is present in green tea
that makes it such a potent health drink and diet aid. The
scientists have discovered that green tea diet aid has a high
amount of antioxidants. These antioxidants present in green tea
are responsible for many of green tea’s health benefits and
diet aids.
A research published in the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition highlighted the diet aids of green tea. According to
the American and Swiss scientists who conducted the study at
the University of Geneva, green tea diet aid is due to the
presence of certain compounds that help in promoting
thermogenesis in the body.
Lead scientist, Dr. Abdul Dulloo said in a press release that
there are only two ways to weight loss and diet aid. Diet aid
can be achieved either by reducing energy intake or increasing
energy expenditure. Green tea, it seems, has compounds that can
increase the body’s normal metabolic rates and at the same time
suppress the appetite. This makes green tea the perfect diet
aid to use.
At the University of Geneva where the study was conducted, Dr.
Dulloo and his assistants used ten healthy young men as
experimental subjects. They supposed that the main substance
that makes green tea a possible potent diet aid is caffeine. To
their hypothesis on green tea diet aid, they provided their
participants on a typical “Western” diet, which is about forty
percent fat, thirteen percent protein, and forty-seven percent
carbohydrates.
Everyday, the researchers measured their subjects’ energy
expenditure (the measurement used in determining the amount of
calories burned within 24 hours) three times. They also kept
tabs of the respiration quotient of their subjects to find out
how well their carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are
utilized.
When the data they collected were interpreted, they discovered
that the men receiving regular dosages of green tea diet aid
showed a significant four percent increase in their 24-hour
energy expenditure. They also found that green tea diet aid can
reduce the respiration quotient. This means that green tea diet
aid can cause more fats to burn. On the other hand, those men
who were not given green tea diet aid showed only minimal
increases in their metabolic rates and almost no reduction in
their respiration quotient.
Based on their findings, the scientists construed that the
substance catechin polyphenol that occurs in high percentage in
green tea makes it a very potent diet aid. These substances in
green tea alters how the body utilizes the hormone
norepinephrine, which is responsible for increasing metabolism
and thus leading to diet aid.
In their conclusion, the scientists deduced that green tea
owes its diet aid benefits to its high antioxidant content and
the substance, catechin polyphenol. These substances in green
tea help increase the speed of fat and calorie burning and
optimize diet aid.
|
|
|