Tea is the most-consumed beverage worldwide next to water. For some 5,000 years, people have been getting a lift from brewing tea leaves. But it's only been in the last three decades that researchers have immersed themselves in the science behind tea's purported health benefits. Over the centuries, as C. sinensis plants grew in the sun, they protected themselves against photosynthetic stressors by forming chemicals known as polyphenols. This group of beneficial compounds includes flavonoids?the same class of compounds that give many fruits and vegetables their antioxidant boost. It is perhaps because of tea's high antioxidant activity that tea research is taking such a variety of turns.
Physiologist William Rumpler is investigating the ancient Chinese belief that oolong tea is effective in controlling body weight. Rumpler is with ARS' Diet and Human Performance Laboratory (DHPL), one of seven laboratories that make up the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC), Beltsville, Maryland.
"Our data suggested that a component of tea other than caffeine might have promoted preferential use of fat as an energy source," says Beverly Clevidence, a study coauthor and head of the DHPL. The results showed that the EE of volunteers was about 3 percent higher after they drank either the caffeinated water or the full-strength tea than after they drank the colored water. On average, the volunteers burned an additional 67 calories a day when they drank tea instead of an equal amount of water. Perhaps most interesting was that fat oxidation was a significant 12 percent higher after the full-strength tea treatment than after the water treatment. Some scientists speculate that caffeine and EGCG?a highly active catechin in tea?may act together to increase fat oxidation.
Further, his research showed that in green and oolong teas, the catechin EGCG was largely responsible for the results. In black tea, active ingredients included tannins and theaflavins, in addition to EGCG. And it's all natural, no side effects and you will enjoy a great taste plus a better quality of life. www.in-nature.com
