Patriot Health Digest
Tea is world’s most popular drink after water. And most people don’t know that it packs a range of health benefits.
A recent study in the journal Nutrients found that drinking oolong tea, a type of Chinese tea that is between green and black tea, could help burn fat even while you sleep.
“Oolong tea has caffeine, which affects energy metabolism by increasing your heart rate,” says author of the study, Professor Kumpei Tokuyama.
“But these studies show that tea can also help to breakdown fat, independent from caffeine. We wanted to look at the effects of oolong versus caffeine alone on fat metabolism and energy among healthy volunteers.” ,.,
What they found was very surprising. While the pure caffeine and oolong tea both increased fat burning by around 20 percent, oolong continued to help weight loss even as people sleep. The people in the study consumed two cups per day to get these effects.
Other studies have found these same types of benefits with other teas like green and black, the former appearing to be better for weight loss.
“There is some evidence that the catechins in green tea can boost metabolism and fat burning,” says Julie Upton, R.D..
Tea might also help your gut bacteria, allowing you to shed excess pounds easily. People who are overweight usually have high amounts of a bacteria called Firmictures and low amounts of Bacteroidetes, but tea can help balance this ratio back to normal.
“Researching is coming out that shows that polyphenols in black and green tea changes the balance between these two bacteria’s,” Bond says.
So how much tea should you drink for the benefits, especially if losing weight is your goal? Shoot for around four cups of black, oolong or green tea each day. That will give you a large amount of flavonoids and can help you lower your calorie intake while giving a lift in metabolism.
