Green tea fights cancer, lowers blood lipids, and helps lose weight? Study: Green tea catechins effectively help reduce visceral fat

Free radicals are terrorists in the body! Excessive accumulation of free radicals in the body may cause damage to DNA in cells, leading to the occurrence of cancer. To fight free radicals, we can moderately supplement antioxidant foods, such as vitamin C, anthocyanins and catechins in green tea, to prevent cell canceration. According to a US study, catechins in green tea can not only help fight cancer, but also help reduce visceral fat.

Visceral fat causes chronic inflammation in the body, which in turn leads to various chronic diseases

What is visceral fat? Visceral fat, also known as abdominal fat, accumulates on the mesentery of the abdominal organs and surrounds the internal organs. Compared with subcutaneous fat, it is more threatening to body health. These abdominal fats accumulated on the abdominal mesentery of the human body will release many cytokines that promote inflammation into the blood, which will not only cause dysfunction of insulin in controlling blood sugar, but may also increase the risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease or hypertension.

Past studies have pointed out that visceral fat can be eliminated by moderate intake of foods rich in Omega-3 or brisk walking every week. However, in addition to moderate exercise every week, can we easily remove visceral fat through simpler methods in our daily diet?

Study: Drinking 4 cups of green tea a day can reduce visceral fat and blood lipids after 8 weeks

According to the British Daily Express, a study conducted by Dr. Arpita Basu and his research team from the Department of Nutritional Science, College of Human Environmental Science, Oklahoma State University and published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition pointed out that moderate supplementation of green tea can help reduce the weight of patients with metabolic syndrome.

The study took 35 obese patients with metabolic syndrome as subjects and randomly divided them into an experimental group and a control group. The researchers gave the experimental group 4 cups of green tea a day, or 2 green tea extract capsules and 4 cups of water a day; the control group was given 4 cups of water a day. Among them, the active ingredient in green tea extract capsules, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), is similar to that in 4 cups of green tea.

Visceral fat causes chronic inflammation in the body, which in turn leads to various chronic diseases.

Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in catechins helps increase the body's metabolic rate and burn fat.

After 8 weeks of the experiment, the researchers found that the BMI index of the group drinking green tea was significantly lower than that of the control group that only drank water, and their weight was 2.5 kg less on average than the control group; the weight of the group taking green tea extract capsules decreased by an average of 1.9 kg. In addition, it was found that both high-density cholesterol (HDL) and low-density cholesterol (LDL) in the subjects' blood showed a downward trend.

Study: Green tea catechins are highly bioavailable to the human body

The researchers said that although catechins have a slow effect on weight loss, when the blood of the subjects was drawn after the 8-week experiment, no catechins were detected in the subjects' plasma, which shows that the body's bioavailability of catechins in green tea is quite high.

Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in catechins helps increase the body's metabolic rate and helps burn fat

As for how catechins help us reduce visceral fat? In this regard, the British Daily Express mentioned that a study previously published on Science Direct, an online database of academic journal publishers, analyzed the effects of catechin-rich green tea and how it helps reduce visceral fat. The study found that green tea extract or epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) supplements can moderately increase the body's metabolic rate and fat burning rate, helping to reduce visceral fat.

Among them, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is a type of catechin and has the most biological activity among all catechins. It is also known as the "master of capturing free radicals". It is not only a hero in anti-oxidation, but also can help prevent chronic cardiovascular diseases. In addition, EGCG can chelate large fats, causing them to break down into small fat bodies to form unsaturated fatty acids. Unsaturated fatty acids are easily used by the human body, easily burned and metabolized, and then excreted from the body. Therefore, EGCG can not only help anti-oxidation, but also help the human body metabolize stubborn visceral fat.

In addition to helping reduce visceral fat, green tea's antioxidant properties can also help reduce the risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes, and even protect the brain.

In addition, the British Daily Express also mentioned that in addition to helping reduce visceral fat, green tea's antioxidant properties can also help reduce the risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes, and even has a protective function for the brain. It seems that drinking a few more cups of green tea in your life can kill two birds with one stone! If you want to reduce visceral fat and stay away from obesity, chronic diseases, cancer and other diseases, you might as well try drinking green tea in moderation to achieve the effect of preventive health care.

Pregnant women, breastfeeding women, people with anemia, etc. should be aware of the possible effects of drinking green tea on the body

Although drinking green tea in moderation is beneficial for reducing visceral fat, some groups should not drink it, such as pregnant women and breastfeeding women, as the caffeine in green tea may have adverse effects on the fetus or baby. Therefore, even though green tea has many benefits to the body, the above groups still need to assess whether it is suitable for drinking based on their personal circumstances.