• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Green Tea May Help Promote Weight Loss, New Research Finds

Posted on: Monday, 28 September 2009, 11:27 CDT

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- In a new study conducted in China, regular consumption of green tea - which is rich in naturally-occurring tea actives called catechins - helped promote weight loss and improve body composition in moderately overweight individuals.

The 90-day trial, conducted at Fudan University, in Shanghai, China, and funded by the Lipton Institute of Tea, supports existing evidence that green tea may help improve body composition in Asian populations.

This new investigation monitored the effects of green tea consumption on body weight, body fat mass, as well as the distribution of fat. 182 moderately overweight Chinese subjects, aged between 18 and 55, were divided into four groups, with each group allocated a regular dose of green tea containing a different quantity of catechins. Amounts consumed ranged from 30mg to almost 900mg; an average cup of green tea contains between 50 to 100mg of catechins.

Participants in the study drank their designated tea divided in two daily servings. On days zero, 30, 60 and 90, measurements of body composition were taken to assess the effects that the tea had on body mass and fat.

The results showed that, relative to the control group consuming no green tea catechins, body weight, waist circumference, intra-abdominal fat and the total lean mass all decreased after 90 days in the group that drank the tea with the highest concentration of catechins. The authors concluded that, in this study, regular consumption of green tea with very high catechin content over a 90-day period, helped reduce body weight, body fat mass and waist size in moderately overweight Chinese individuals.

Dr Niels Boon, the research scientist at the Lipton Institute of Tea who led the research program, explained: "In this latest research, green tea providing significant catechin levels helped promote weight loss and positively affected body shape. During the investigation, participants drank green tea that contained as many catechins as found in between six to ten regular cups of green tea.

"Using state-of-the-art measurement techniques, we analysed the effect of the green tea consumption on body fatness and the distribution of fat across the body. We observed significant decreases in body weight and fat mass. These effects were more pronounced in the group consuming the highest amount of catechins and the results also suggest that the effects were particularly strong on fat located in the abdominal region. In addition, they did not consume any other beverages containing catechins or caffeine during the intervention period - so we can be confident that the effects seen are a consequence of the green tea intervention."

"In recent years, a body of scientific evidence has shown that regular tea drinking may have an important role in health and wellness," says Douglas Balentine from the Lipton Institute of Tea. The existing evidence that green tea may help improve body composition in Asian populations is compelling, although more research is needed, particularly to determine whether the same effects occur in other populations.

"We are proud that the Lipton Institute of Tea was involved in this research and look forward to furthering our knowledge of tea's other potential health benefits," adds Balentine.

The original research paper, Effects of Catechin Enriched Green Tea on Body Composition, has just been published in Obesity:

Wang H et al. Effects of Catechin Enriched Green Tea on Body Composition. Obesity advance online publication, 13 August 2009 (doi 10.1038/oby.2009.256)

Notes to editors

The Lipton Institute of Tea is Unilever's dedicated tea research facility, headquartered at Sharnbrook, just outside London in the UK. It is entirely funded by Unilever, and works with both its own in-house experts and external tea researchers to uncover new physical and mental health properties of tea.

The Lipton Institute of Tea publishes regular academic papers, aimed at uncovering and sharing the physical and mental health benefits of tea. It publishes The Lipton Institute of Tea Quarterly Tea Science Review, a quarterly overview of key tea science research developments from both internal and external sources and compiled to share recent studies and findings to a broader, non-specialist audience.

The Lipton Institute of Tea also operates the world's most northerly tea 'plantation' at its Sharnbrook headquarters. This facility enables tea to be studied in a controlled environment, as representative samples of tea from around the world are grown.

More information on the Lipton Institute of Tea can be found at: www.liptoninstituteoftea.org.

SOURCE Lipton Institute of Tea

Source: PR Newswire

More News in this Category