Tea and weight loss

Green tea and health

There has been quite some publicity recently in the media regarding the potential harmful effects of green tea supplements, such as this: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/health-warning-issued-about-risks-of-green-tea-supplements-1.3346467

Surprise? Not really. It is like giving someone a fishing sinker to swallow because he/she has anaemia. It does more harm than good.

Green tea health benefits can be seen as an extension of Chinese herbal medicine. The research of western science into its health benefits started a few decades ago – when it was realised that the infectious diseases as the main killer of our population were largely under control, but lifestyle related conditions such as obesity, cancers, cardio-vascular diseases and diabetes started affecting not only people’s life quantity but also quality. The surgery knifes and tablets were not all effective in providing much needed answers.

Researches and the interpretation of the results

The research findings, initially based on the lifestyles and health outcomes of people living in certain countries such as China and Japan, were as expected and exciting: green tea consumption is effective in preventing most of these lifestyle related conditions including obesity.

When opportunities presented as such, many merchants jumped on the wagon with the awareness of:

1. People are desperate to improve their lifestyle related conditions, especially obesity in our society.
2. Categorised as a beverage but not pharmaceutical, the regulation on green tea supplements are not anywhere as strict. Without backing up by evidence based science (be careful to distinguish between green tea and green tea supplements here!), many supplements of high concentration of catechins have appeared on the market, based on the assumption that ‘if it is good, the more the better’.

Chinese herbal medicine and its reflection on green tea's health benefits

To understand the differences between these supplements and the health benefits of green tea in its natural state, we have to understand a bit about traditional Chinese medicine. Chinese herbal medicine is an experimental science. It is a result of thousands of years of Chinese herbalists tasting, testing and experimenting with thousands of herbs, their combinations and effects on various stages of heath conditions. Anyone with experience with a Chinese herbalist (a professionally trained one), would know that the herbalist would assess the state of the health condition regularly and prescribe classically a group of herbs (5-10) at a time. They also adjust the weight of each herb, and the combination for each prescription. The theory is that the bio-medically active ingredients from these herbs work as big compounds within certain environment to produce their desired effects.

An example of this is that there has been a recent research project conducted by one of the leading universities in China attempting to isolate the ‘active compounds’ of Pu-erh tea. The started from the whole leaves and gradually break down to smaller and smaller components. What they discovered was that the studied health benefits were demolishing with these ‘breaking up’ until they disappeared completely.

Green tea's health benefits

What do we know about green teas’ health benefits so far, especially regarding weight management:

1. Green tea contains high levels of anti-oxidants with many health benefits towards various modern lifestyle related health conditions.
2. Most of the research results point to green tea catechins in combination with caffeine are effective in weight control through regulating body metabolism rate and fat oxidisation.
3. The above effect is reduced among habitual caffeine consumers.
4. Green tea is also beneficial during the weight maintaining stage after weight loss through counteracting the decrease in metabolic rate that occurs during weight loss.
5. The effect is moderate and should be combined with active lifestyle and healthy diet to achieve a sustainable and optimal result.
6. It is difficult to drink too much green tea. It is however certainly possible to overdose with green tea supplements.

For more research reports on green tea’s health benefits, please visit: Research findings about tea and weight control

Conclusion:

Green tea is a gift from the mother nature. It is a luscious beverage to be enjoyed first and the health benefits are by-products. We are all aware that swallowing pills and going under the surgery knifes are not the solution to our ‘lifestyle related health conditions’, but living a healthy lifestyle will, including enjoying your daily cup of premium tea.

Exercise is not the answer to weight loss?

If exercise is not the answer to weight loss, what is it? Weight management is a matter of concern for many in our society, 63% precisely according to Sydney Morning Herald (http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellbeing/fitness/why-is-exercise-useless-for-weight-loss-20170223-gujmzc.html). At the same time, the article claimed that ‘exercise is useless for weight loss’. Surprise to anyone? Well, we have seen so many who have lost it and put back more after.

So if this simple primary school math, we burn more than we eat, doesn’t work, anything else does? It does not take much to come up with a list of ‘quick fixes’ that have marketed as cure (including exercise), but rarely work: diet, supplements, and many more peculiar ones.

Obesity is a lifestyle condition

Obesity is classified as a ‘lifestyle condition’ in public health, together with many other conditions such as cancers, cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes and arthritis just to name a few. If the conditions are caused by our modern lifestyle, it is not hard to imagine that the answers should lay at fixing the cause - lifestyle.

The solution

Fortunately we do not need to look too far. Our ancestors a couple of generations ahead of us had a significantly different lifestyle: no cars, everything was by foot, or bikes or horses if lucky; No fridges. All foods were from the markets or own fields straight to the kitchen (Walked to the market too!); Meat was only consumed on only limited and special occasions; Their diet was mainly freshly produced foods – raw and unprocessed. Ice cream or chips were certainly not part of the daily menu; Water, tea, maybe coffee were the beverages, no coca cola or red bull. The end results? They were actually healthier, both physically and mentally. (The main killers of their time were infections, but not the contemporary men made lifestyle conditions.)

Don’t get me wrong though, I am not here to suggest that we should all get rid of our cars and fridges and bring back the old farmers’ markets so that we can lose weight. I am simply suggesting there is a lot we can learn from our ancestors with regard to a healthy lifestyle: outdoor, active, diet, mentality, habits and so on. With some reflection and discipline, maybe we can use the modern facilities to our advantage when dealing with this seemly impossible chellanges of our era.

Remember, obesity is a lifestyle related condition. Unless we make some effort to change our lifestyle, it is here to stay.

Weight management is an uphill battle for many and green tea has been for quite some time in the talk.

Green tea keeps weight down?

Does green tea actually produce tangible results? How does it work?

Here is recent report from the School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism (NUTRIM), Maastricht University, the Netherlands: Nutraceuticals for body-weight management: The role of green tea catechins. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26836279)

Many researches have reported in the past that green tea consumption increases the energy expenditure of human body by elevating metabolism rate. This latest report have raised a very interesting prospect that green tea catechins (the main active compounds for the it’s many health benefits) also seems to have the capacity to counteract the decreased metabolism rate during the weight loss, which is a natural reaction of human body to maintain its established balance.

As we understand, weight gain or loss appears to be a simple equation: you intake more than you burn - you gain weight, and vice versa. The actual human biology is far more complicated. Where we are today is a body balance that has been established during our life time, regulated by our body biology and life style habits. Big or small, our bodies have a tendency to fight to maintain its current state. This can be a major obstacle for those trying to tip the balance and shift it to a lower point. This reported green tea’s potential to counter this ‘body fight back’ will put a smile on those faces who are struggling to hang on to their hard earned achievement.

Be aware some counter factors

The articles also mentions two factors that have already been previously reported elsewhere to have impact on the green tea’s effect on weight:

1. It is in the green tea natural state – coexistence of catechins and caffeine for green tea to be effective for weight reduction. (Green tea contains about ¼ of caffeine to equivalent amount of coffee.)
2. Ingestion of green tea with milk (dietary protein) will reduce its effect.

The good news

There have been many recent researches conducted to study the effectiveness of green tea on weight loss: different compounds, different mechanisms, in the laboratory and in clinical trials. What excites me is that this very ancient Chinese beverage has demonstrated from almost every single study and aspect to have such profound health benefits including weight loss, not by starvation or unnatural work outs, but by just sipping away a luscious cup of tea. Your next challenge may be to look for a good one.

To purchase exclusive quality green teas, please visit: Premium Loose Green Tea

Can tea drinking reduce body weight?

There have been various researches conducted in recent years regarding the association between tea drinking and weight loss and the results are promising and consistent: all teas (beverages made of Camellia sinensis) are effective in assisting in weight loss.

The reason behind tea and weight loss is that tea increases body metabolism rate, thus energy expenditure. In addition to many other health benefits of tea drinking, mainly due to their high anti-oxidant content, assisting in weight loss is the driving force for many taking up tea drinking as a new lifestyle fashion. Tea however is not a cure nor a magic. It need to be combined with other lifestyle changes, such as healthy diet and being active to product long term sustainable and desirable results.

A few facts and tips for using tea to help with weight loss:

1. The difference in weight loss effects of different teas is minimum (more overlap than differences), should it be green tea, white tea, Oolong tea, black tea or pu-erh tea.
2. Take a long term approach for a desirable result. My advice to tea drinkers is always to pick a tea you really enjoy drinking and make it part of your lifestyle. The weight reduction and many other health benefits will come naturally as the by-products.
3. There are some herbal remedies which include conventional teas, such as our lotus leaf slimming tea which include 15% Oolong tea plus 5 other herbal ingredients recorded in Chinese medicine with weight reducing effects, are more potent than using one single tea (for example Oolong tea) alone.
4. For coffee and fizzy drink consumers, it is a good idea tying to replace some part of your daily intake by tea and gradually increase the tea proportion. 
5. Tea preparation is important when it comes to premium teas: you cannot improve poor quality teas, but can reduce the premium teas to a lower grade if not prepared probably. Tea preparation does NOT have to be complicated. Lean some basics and the rest is more personal preference than skills.
6. There are also tea accessories to facilitate loose tea (better quality generally speaking) drinking in the office, such as the tea infuser-all-in one: http://www.valleygreentea.com.au/tea-infuser/view-all-products.html

Conclusion:

Remember there is NO magic bullet for weight loss, but shedding a few kilos is absolutely achievable and sustainable. Taking small but consist and solid steps, as the Chinese ancient wisdom says ‘a river is made of individual small drops of water’!

We all know that to be able to achieve something, we needs to set goals. When it comes to trying to lose a few kilos, simply saying I would like to be 5 kilos lighter is not good enough.

I would recommend the first step being to set some goals of behaviour change that are achievable and sustainable, small ones that are not overly ambitious.

Weight gain and weight loss is a simple balance sum. If you lose 10g a day, you will lose 1kg in 100 days, the same with weight gain.

The three main areas a weight loss can be achieved without involving medical procedures:

• Diet
• Exercise
• Supplements

Some ‘not so hard’ behaviour change examples:

• Diet: Instead of eating dessert every day after dinner, reduce it to once every second day; instead of buy high energy take away lunch, pack yourself a salad/tuna lunch every second day, combined with a small treat to reward yourself.
• Exercise: Instead of being driven to the station to go to work, walk or park the car further away from the station; if at home, walk to the local shops or post office instead of driving. (I personal love bikes, time saving and exercise at the same time.)
• Supplements: natural supplements PROVEN to be effective are highly recommended. Because I am a tea lover, tea drinking to me is a must try. (We will publish a separate blog shortly on how to use different teas to assist in weight loss.)

It is obvious that all above changes are highly individual. The main target should be taking small, but achievable steps and follow them through. These steps hopefully will become habit changes of your lifestyle and here to stay. A negative weight balance not matter how small will eventually take you to your ultimate goal of weight loss.

To be avoided:

vigorous work outs that produce hunger and bigger appetite. The worst possible outcome of this is to lose your muscle mass and replace it by fat once this unsustainable regime has stopped.

A repeatedly inflated and deflated body is not anyone’s desire.

I am writing up this blog know the full potential of being criticized as being condescending and judgemental, but will take the risk and call it what it is.

I believe our ancestors from the hunting and gathering days ate to acquire the essential nutrients needed by their bodies. There were days of plenty and days of shortage, but somehow it managed to even out and the human society has surveyed and progressed.

What I was seeing the other day in a supermarket was however quite a different story. I was shopping for family dinner and there was a lady in front of me at the checkout. I am afraid to say she was already twice the size of me. I was rather stunned when I noticed what was in her shopping trolley: a hot chicken, 6 blocks of Canterbury chocolate (quite a substantial stack!), 2 packs of Tim Tam, 3 packs of chocolate waffle. The only item which could be classified as ‘vegetable’ was a bottled pasta source. I could not help it to think from a biochemical point of view that her arteries are already quite clogged up, and her lifestyle habit keeps adding to it.

This is when eating starts harming a body. There will also be a vicious circle after this, the more obese one becomes-> the more burdened his/her heart is -> the less active he/she will be -> more obese he/she will become.

Valley Green Tea will attempt to offer some practical advice on how to break this vicious circle to step into a productive one in a few future blog posts.

Weight management is a question, desire, dream, challenge, quest, game, journey, investment, and disappointment for so many in our date’s society.  For some commercial companies, this desperate yearning of being fit and healthy also becomes a profit making vehicle that only leads to an end that see either no result or unsustainable results. An article published today with a title ‘Why diets don’t work – three things you need to know (Sydney Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/why-diets-don8217t-work-8211-three-things-you-need-to-know-20140820-1069er.html )’ with an analysis of interaction between one’s mind and body, and how a desire is not necessarily leading to a desirable result, is a restatement of our previous blog ‘Weight management 1 – why we put it on? ’, with some further recommendation on how to achieve a successful result without breaking your back and pockets. This lead to what we have always also been advocating – making SUSTAINABLE lifestyle changes, should it be diet, exercise and supplements. It is an absolute heartache to see desperate people being led to false promises and the only lesson learnt is not to try again.

Weight management is an industry itself. As someone mentioned to me earlier, ‘as soon as you mention a weight loss product, the women (she surprisingly did not know that the long term consumers of our Natural Shape – Lotus Leaf Herbal Slimming Tea are just as many men are women) will have their hands in their purses immediately’.

Obesity is life style issue and is an inevitable by-product of our modern society, long working hours, high level of stress, lack of time for home cooking and excessive consumption of sugar rich beverages just to name a few. People look for solution naturally: some pay (pills, surgeries, pre-prepared frozen foods), some work hard (parks are full of working out people before and after business hours) and some simply give up (after failed attempts or unsustainable results). It is so easy said than done to just say ‘change your life style’. When you have bills to pay, you work. When you work, you do not have time to shop, cook, exercise, relax and when you are stressed, you reach out for comfort food. It is not my intention to offer advice here to quit work and live as a saint. There are however small steps to be taken as part of one’s comprehensive approach to combat this threat that has gone far beyond than just an image issue – it is turning into one of the biggest killers of our contemporary era.

The herbal slimming tea we offer is made of six traditional Chinese herbs all with slimming functions, but affecting human metabolism from various angles. The herbs have been proven by Chinese medicine to have not only slimming effects, but many other health benefits: for examples, reducing blood cholesterol level and thus preventing high blood pressure, enhancing body immune system, cancer preventive, anti-inflammatory and adoptogenic etc. See Lotus Leaf Slimming Tea for more information. When you are at work and stressed, instead of reaching out for a coffee or biscuits, make yourself a cup of warm herbal tea and drink as many to your heart’s content. We recommend to drink 3-5 tea bags a day to lose weight. Many of our customers drink less than that on a regular base for their health benefits. You may think to lose weight and stay healthy is too good to be true, yet this is what we (Chinese) have been doing for a long time. We believe both health and diseases come from what you put in your mouth and the theory has stood the test of time.

Understanding weight gain through human history.

Much attention is given to losing weight, with many techniques and approaches advocated. Why such an issue? The human body will gain weight when we consume more energy than we can expend. It’s a simple flow equation. For most of human history the odds were heavily stacked against this flow ever being positive or sustainable. For our unfortunate ancestors, food, especially high energy food was generally scarce or took lots of energy and risk to hunt down, had to be shared widely across the tribe, or would be putrid or stolen in a couple of days. It made sense to totally gorge when food was on. Bodies that could accommodate the additional energy had better survival rates during the inevitable shortages that followed. Those whose appetites and stomachs adjusted to accommodate larger meals when available, shortened survival odds. In more recent times human society, aided by labour saving devices of all sorts has tipped the battle for survival in our favour. The flow equation is now easily positive all the time for large numbers of people - especially in the west. The human body however remains as adapted as ever for those periods of food shortage, except they mostly now don’t happen! With all the food now so easily available, appetites expand with waistlines true to design. When we reduce the flow we immediately feel hungry. The body’s response from history is to attempt to maintain body size via increased appetite. Our brains complain - "just one more major food experience is normal - indulge and live!". I understand that people who deliberately “supersize” experience greater difficulties in getting weight off than anticipated. So what to do in the modern age when diets aren’t enforceable by “kind” mother nature? Our subsequent posts will attempt to discuss some strategies.