Green Tea: A Weight Loss Guide

Green tea is guaranteed to speed up your metabolism and to aid you to melt away the pounds and all you have to do is drink it.

Right?

Not so fast.

While green tea has many wonderful health benefits, it is no magic pill. Studies have shown that people have a slight increase in weight loss from drinking green tea while exercising at least 3 hours a week and maintaining a healthy diet. That is wonderful news, however just drinking green tea alone has shown no difference in ones weight.

Let's discuss some benefits and myths of green tea.

Green tea is high in a powerful antioxidant called EGCG. Antioxidants such as this help rid the body of free radicals. This can dramatically help with stroke and cancer protection, providing that there aren't other risky behaviours to counteract them such as smoking.

Green tea is also an excellent digestive aid as well as a diuretic. This helps the drinker loose weight by way of releasing excess water in their body. Weight loss with green tea is often attributed to green tea speeding up ones metabolism. While there are a few studies that point to this, much of the loss can be attributed to the diuretic property of the tea.

Green tea pills are no substitute for drinking true brewed green tea. That is because when they attempt to extract the essential ingredients of the tea, inevitably some compound that aids the green tea in its work is missing. Pills will never be a substitute for good healthy food.

Green tea, especially when used for weight loss is best when brewed fresh from loose leaves or from a tea bag. That is when you will receive the most of green teas beneficial antioxidants and catechins. Beverages that are green tea flavored have little or no actual tea in them and are there fore of no use in the weight loss quest. In fact, many such drinks are sugar laden and will actually set you back in your weight loss goals.

There are many wonderful places where you can buy loose or bagged green tea, both online and in person. I would recommend Seven Cups of Tea and Inpursuit of Tea for your online purchases. In person, Teavana has many wonderful stores nationwide (with tea tastings throughout the day) as well as any local organic food co-ops such as The Wedge here in Minneapolis, MN.

So, in essence, adding green tea to your diet and exercise program will indeed help you live a longer, healthier life and may aid in dropping an additional pound or two but it can't do it alone. It may be wonderful tea but it is not magic.

source: http://nutritiondiva.quickanddirtytips.com/green-tea.aspx
source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15611129/