Lose Weight and Stay Warm with Tea

If the rising cost and shrinking size of your daily coffee is no longer "economically conducive," take another step towards becoming younger and thinner by making the switch to a cheaper, healthier alternative. Start thinking tea this winter. Hot or cold, this age-old beverage is a most beneficial weight loss and anti-aging tool.

Tea is packed with nutrients, namely polyphenols, which have powerful antioxidant properties that can improve your overall health. What's more, tea has absolutely no calories (if you don't drink it with milk or sugar) and can stimulate digestion, speed up your metabolism, cleanse the body, reduce inflammation, lower cholesterol, and give you lots of energy. Not only does it get you in the habit of drinking more fluids, you are simultaneously flushing out of your system the toxic foods your body is still hanging onto. These are all necessary for losing weight and reversing every aging part of your body.

The benefits of drinking tea add up fast, and if you get into the habit, will improve your health for years to come. Studies have shown that tea drinkers, those who consistently drink two cups or more a day, have:
• A lower risk of cancer
• Healthier intestinal flora, which inhibits bacteria
• A lower risk of heart disease
• Improved their glucose tolerance, preventing diabetes
• Continuously detoxified their liver

Different Teas, Different Benefits
The main types of tea (white, black, green, and oolong) all come from the same plant (Camellia sinensis). The differences in color and taste result from the degree of fermentation the tea leaves undergo after harvesting. The fermentation, in turn, determines the type and amounts of healthful polyphenols that are present. The darker teas have the greatest concentrations of polyphenols. Green and black teas have ten times the amount of antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables, the other most common sources of polyphenols in our diet.

The most significant nutritional research has focused on green teas. The high caffeine content in green tea has been found to increase metabolism, decrease appetite, and provide more energy for exercise. Green tea may reduce the absorption of dietary fats by approximately 40%. It may also help reduce the storage of body fat by inhibiting the effects of insulin, so that dietary sugars are sent directly to the muscles for instant use, instead of being stored.

However, one 2003 study from Japan's University of Tokushima School of Medicine reports that oolong tea has greater metabolism-boosting properties that green tea. Oolong tea may increase the number of calories burned by 10%, while green tea was shown to have a metabolic increase of 4%. Another Japanese study showed that oolong tea is able to reduce the absorption of fats, so that more dietary fat is passed through the body as waste instead of being digested. Oolong tea has about half the caffeine of green tea, so if you are caffeine sensitive or like to drink tea in the evening, it might be a better option. Remember, decaffeinated teas are just as healthy as their high-test cousins: the polyphenols are not removed with the caffeine.

Herbal teas are not officially teas at all, and should really be called "herbal infusions" or "tisanes." They are not made from the same plant as regular teas: instead they are brewed from the roots, stems, bark, leaves and flowers of other plants. Herbal teas are naturally decaffeinated and each have their own unique taste as well as their own set of reported health benefits. For example, rooibos herbal tea from South Africa is gaining popularity because of its pure nutrients. This tea is packed with vitamin C, and 50% more antioxidants than green tea.

Create Your Own "Designer" Teas
Drinking tea with a slice of fresh lemon adds even more nutrients to your beverage. The same is true if you take your tea with low-fat milk. But don't add sugar! If you need a sweetened taste, make a wise choice with a flavored herbal tea, like apple or berry, or add Truvia and PureVia, two new FDA-approved stevia-based products which are natural--and zero-calorie--sweeteners.

And stay away from bottled "designer" tea. Studies have shown that bottled teas have antioxidant levels that are 10 to 100 times lower than those in fresh brewed tea, and many of them are filled with sugar. Instead of drinking bottled teas, I brew it myself and often combine two or three different types of teas to get the most color, and therefore the most benefit. For example, I brew a pot that makes 3-4 cups, and I combine red rooibos, blueberry, and green tea.

There are many other great combinations. Here are some of my favorites:
• Green tea, peach, and black cherry
• Green tea, orange spice, and cinnamon apple
• Oolong tea, orange spice
• Lemongrass green tea, and rooibos
• Green tea, mint, chamomile

Tea Strategy for Weight Loss
Whichever type of tea you prefer, you need to drink a cup of tea, or more, after each meal to achieve the greatest affect. By doing so, I believe that you can lose 5% more weight. Follow these suggestions for best results.
• Breakfast: within two hours of waking, drink green tea after breakfast
• Mid-morning: keep energy going with a cup of flavored black tea
• Lunch: follow this meal with a strong cup of oolong tea
• Mid-day: improve digestion with a cup of peppermint tea
• Dinner: no later than three hours before bedtime, drink a cup of white tea
• Before Bed: A cup of chamomile tea to help you relax before bedtime.

Comments

[RichardBaxterMD]

It really is time to give tea its due as a healthful drink, but the data on it isn't quite as consistent as with red wine. Both are great sources of polyphenol antioxidants. With both beverages, we rely on patterns associated with regular consumption to infer what the benefits are. This is where it gets tricky: for example, a lot of the data on tea consumption and health is from Asian countries such as Japan, where the diet is high in fish and low in fat. This makes it hard to know how much of the benefit is actually from the tea. It is a similar story with wine, but there is a lot more data to back up the case that wine is an independent factor in benefiting health. So let's say tea with breakfast and lunch, red wine with dinner!

[zizyphus]

Plain tea is also an emetic, you should have mentioned that. If I drink any green or black tea on an empty stomach, it makes me throw up. Black coffee doesn't have that effect. Also, coffee is one of the main sources of antioxidants in many people's diets. I like rooibos tea for an anytime beverage. It is loaded with antioxidants, has a brilliant color, and is delicious.

Teas as a therapy for maintaining health are overlooked, as is most of our ancient knowledge of plant medicine. People would be far better off drinking tea made of citrus peels, than any bottled beverage on the store shelves.

[benne]

Can we ever have a column about being healthy where healthy doesn't mean losing weight? It's so sad that all this diet talk encourages yo-yo or extreme dieting as it has the effect of keeping some fat folk out of the gym. What are people going to do to counter the fat-stigma and out-and-out fat stigma that make people call fat people names when they have the audacity to go work out or even to walk down the street?

[gfk]

I'm sorry but the only thing keeping "fat folk" out of the gym, are themselves. You want to blame diet articles for that? Wow.

[Laserbeam]

Which of these are decaf? Is oolong decaf? I was recently hospitalized and off work for three months and am now on a brand-new, doctor's orders, permanent new diet that excl,udes caffeine, amngst other things.

[2nd-mpj]

herbal teas generally have no caffeine (unless they are blended with another tea), and can be quite tasty even without sweetener. Peppermint is one of my favorites.
most other teas have some level of caffeine as they are all (black, green, and white) from the same plant. they are just harvested at different times. levels vary. Here's some info from the Mayo Clinic website:
Type of tea: Caffeine (milligrams)
Black tea, brewed, 8 ounces (oz.): 47
Decaffeinated, black tea, 8 oz:. 2
Green tea, brewed, 8 oz:. 30-50
(i think oolong is in the Green tea level)
Lipton Brisk Iced Tea, lemon flavored, 12 oz: 10
Nestea, sweetened or unsweetened, 12 oz:. 17
Snapple Iced Tea, 16 oz:. 18
Sobe Green Tea, 8 oz: 14
Starbucks Tazo Chai Tea Latte, 12 oz:. 75

[zizyphus]

What is so bad about caffeine? Is it life threatening now?

[timezone]

I found matcha tea really helps me. The easiest way I prepare it is after drinking most of the water in a water bottle, adding about 10 ounces of orange juice to bottle and putting a teaspoon of matcha tea powder in and shaking. Once in the morning, once in the afternoon and it gives sustained energy plus it's more filling to me than other teas.

[jasonowalker]

What I find is people try to get into tea but aren't certain of the best way to prepare it.

Also, make sure you choose a tea that looks and tastes like it should. There are affordable teas, and make sure you choose one that will not put you off teas because of it's sub-standard quality.

Jason Walker
walkerteareview.com