Weight Loss: Green Tea Slow Weight Gain

According to the scientists at Penn State, a few cups of green tea each day can slow weight gain and be a new option, naturally, in the fight against obesity. Green tea is an entirely appropriate option because its polyphenol, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) has the property of inhibiting an enzyme that helps to digest fats. By preventing the digestion of fats, it limits the weight gain.

This study was conducted on obese mice fed on this compound present in green tea and a high fat diet. "The mice that received the polyphenol gained weight more slowly than the group of control mice," said Joshua Lambert, professor of nutrition in agricultural sciences.

Tea has already shown its preventive effects against obesity in laboratory studies, the researchers assumed that a compound, called a tea polyphenol epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) may reverse the metabolic syndrome models of obese mice and that these effects were related to inhibition of pancreatic lipase, an enzyme that helps digest fats.6 weeks, 44% less weight : After a diet with polyphenol EGCG during the six weeks, the researchers found a 44% reduction in body weight of obese mice * compared to controls. This diet with EGCG actually increased fecal fat content of 29.4%. EGCG supplementation therefore reduces weight gain in obese mice, and some of these effects are due to inhibition of pancreatic lipase by tea polyphenols.
"Our results suggest that if you supplement your diet with green tea, you will gain weight more slowly," said J. Lambert. "First, because EGCG reduces the absorption of fats and, secondly, because EGCG improves the ability to burn them." A human would have to drink ten cups of green tea each day to consume the amount of EGCG equivalent to that given to mice in this experiment. But the researchers said that recent studies indicate that only a few cups of green tea can already help control weight.

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