Weight Loss and Green Tea Extract (as found in CortiSlim and Cortisyn)

January 31, 2005 – You really don’t need another reason to drink green tea or take green tea supplements (like Cortisyn). Researchers are finding evidence that green tea fights cancer and heart disease, but you already knew that.

A new study about weight loss and green tea was released in the January American Journal of Clinical Nutrition publication. This study indicates that consuming green tea with high levels catechins, of a type of polyphenol and a major constituent of green tea, lost significant amounts of body fat.

Green tea catechins are believed to activate weight loss by making the body burn more calories. Provided your caloric intake remains constant, your body will then burn fat as a source of energy the study indicates.

Green tea is different from the tea Americans drink

Green tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant as does the black tea you drank for lunch. However, black tea is fermented before processing and green tea leaves are not.

Polyphenols are plant building blocks that occur in large quantities in all teas. Polyphenols are known to be strong antioxidants, and thus fight cancer and the ravages of aging. These anti-ageing properties are especially prominent in catechins, a big component of the polyphenols in green tea.

Green tea’s catechins have shown that they are great at fighting inflammation in arthritic patients.  Animal studies indicate they fight body fat and lower cholesterol.

This study showed men supplemented with green tea catechins (690 mg per day) and consuming similar diets lost 5.3 pounds of fat. The control group lost 2.9 pounds over the same three month period. The control group consumed 22 mg of catechins per day. (That’s probably why they lost weight, too.) The green tea group also experienced a significantly greater decrease in BMI, waist size, and total body fat.

More Green Tea Good News

If you can’t drink green tea, take supplements. Here’s why: the study also showed LDL “Bad Cholesterol” was also reduced when consuming the larger amounts of green tea catechins.

The lead researcher at Health Care Products Research Laboratories in Tokyo concluded by stating "These results suggest that catechins contribute to the prevention of and improvement in various lifestyle-related diseases, particularly obesity."

Source: Nagao, T. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, January 2005; Volume 81: pages 122-129.