Due to the popularity of recent findings, green tea diet has almost become a must for every person wanting to lose weight. The addition of green tea into diet pills and weight loss supplements is perhaps spurred by reports of harmful side-effects of other drugs like ephedra.

Why choose green tea diet?

For four thousand years, this type of dieting has been used all throughout Asia as a beneficial health and medicinal drink. It is different from all other tea diets because its liquid is extracted by steaming the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant as opposed to full oxidation. In this way, the tea manages to preserve a lot more antioxidants and keep them intact for the body to use.

Green tea diet is an excellent source of polycatechin polyphenols, a group of antioxidants that act on free radicals. These free radicals have harmful effects on the body since they are the major causes of diseases and aging. With green teas polycatechin polyphenols, a person has a better chance of avoiding ailments and keeping himself healthy for a much longer period of time.

Another antioxidant in green tea is also being studied as a potential cure for cancer. Epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG has been discovered to destroy cancer cells while keeping surrounding healthy cells unharmed.

The EGCG also acts with another compound, caffeine (a small amount of this is found in green tea). The interaction of these two compounds causes green tea to promote thermogenesis in the body.

It has been noted by a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that with the consumption of green tea, the bodys total 24-hour energy expenditure is increased by up to four percent. This is roughly equivalent to losing more than 10 pounds of weight a month.

Green tea diet helps increase the bodys metabolic rates too. With its thermogenic properties, it is only natural that it can also promote faster metabolism of fats and sugars. Excess glucose found in the body is turned into fats by the hormone insulin. Because green tea has an inhibiting effect on insulin, it therefore helps keep sugar from being stored as fats and instead, send them directly into the muscles for immediate use.

The downside to a green tea diet

Although this type of diet has a reputation for boosting health, scientific proofs of its health benefits are still somewhat mixed. However, in an article published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, American researchers collaborated with their Chinese counterparts to discuss the beneficial effects of green tea on cholesterol levels.

Using 240 men and women (average age 55) who possess mild to moderately high LDL cholesterol levels, the researchers instructed them to retain their usual low-fat diet, green tea diet intake, and activity levels. After twelve weeks, it was found that those who consumed green tea with their regular meals lost more than fifteen percent of their total LDL cholesterol levels.

Although the researchers never explained how the tea may influence cholesterol levels, previous studies have shown that certain compounds in green tea play a role in reducing the amount of cholesterol absorbed by the body, increasing amount of cholesterol excreted, and thus keeping cholesterol from being stored in the liver.

Subsequent studies were made to test the findings of the first group of researchers. Their results were contradictory. They found that green tea diet has no significant effect on the cholesterol profiles of their subjects.

There is no such thing as a miracle diet. Green tea diet, like all other diets, needs a lot of work and input from those who enroll in it. It required both discipline and heart for it to make any significant impact on your weight loss goals.