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.

Natural and sustainable health

There have been a couple of recent reports in Sydney Morning Herald that I found interesting:

1. Processed meats cause cancer and red meat probably does too: World Health Organisation (http://www.smh.com.au/world/processed-meats-cause-cancer-and-red-meat-probably-does-too-world-health-organisation-20151026-gkj2pf.html )
2. Is this the optimal exercise for staying slim? (Conclusion: They then compared the waist circumference and body mass index (BMI) data of the people and found that those who regularly walked were leaner.) http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/is-this-the-optimal-exercise-for-staying-slim-20151111-gkw5eb.html )

When it comes to health and fitness, we have to ask two important questions:

1. the fastest way to achieve the goals
2. are the results sustainable

Many have gone through some big swings, from one extreme to the other and found themselves going around the circles, like some of the ‘Biggest losers’. 

What history tells us

If we turn around and have a look where are from and where we are heading to historically, we might be able to see the imbalances in our lives. Our history tells us that our ancestors’ main staple food was vegetarian and periodically consumed meat when the hunting was successful. This periodical meat consumption provided us with the necessary protein and other essential nutrients such as iron. Overweight almost did not exist due to their active life style and diet and theist mortalities were mainly caused by infections. Since farming was industrialised in modern history, fast produced meat is readily available and has been consumed in an unprecedented scale. We have invented this whole class of what we call ‘life style related conditions’, such as cancers and cardio-vascular diseases. They are the leading killers of our modern society – we are being killed by what we have produced and the rates are on the raise. 

We then rush to the gym (one of the fastest growing industry currently) trying to burn off what we have consumed. This high speed energy burning unfortunately can only last - once the mill stops, everything bounces back.

Mother nature provides

I am not suggesting here that the history should be turned back and we should all go to live in the bush, hunt and gather. Living a more balanced life style is however not that impossible: walk more instead of drive, replace part of the meat diet with vegetables, or even add a few cups of green tea a day to your diet will yield many benefits. 

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.

Many are drinking green tea these days due to their overwhelming health benefits researched and reported. Many however turn up at the local supermarket and grab a box of teabags. The scenario is often they find them difficult to swallow let alone enjoy and can only put up with them for so long. A few hints to help you to find your cup of green tea:

1. Unlikely commercial tea bags, there are many varieties of premium loose leaf pure green teas (unblended). There are more than 300 alone in China recorded, many times more folk teas have never made it to the record. The teas are made in different areas, using different sub-species of plants grown under different climate conditions and processed by different traditional methods. The end results are teas looking different and tastes different. Try a variety of them and the chances are there will be one that is your favourite.
2. Purchase the right teas from the right supplier. Premium pure tea is an art of its’ own and a supplier who understands premium teas will certainly help in the teas they source. If you are not sure, ask for samples and a genuine supplier will be more than proud to show off their teas.
3. Lean to make premium green teas the right way. The traditional English tea making with a big teapot and soak the tea for a long time will ruin the green tea no matter how good quality it is. On the other hand however, you do not need a tea ceremony to make a cup of green tea.  Just a few cautions, such as tea leaf amount, water temperature and brewing time, and after that it is all in your hands. Experiment until you get your perfect cup of tea.
4. Select the right tea vessel. Teas are very delicate in flavours and will take any odors and flavours around them. Avoid anything that is modern, such plastic, iron or aluminum to store or brew teas where possible. A cupper with the plastic taste is not a flavour for anyone for sure.

Green teas are extremely refreshing. A good quality one will make you wanting to come back for more and more, especially after a rich meal. I remember my village born and died (when she was nearly 100 years old) grandmother could not live a day without her tea. Green tea could be a lifestyle change with plenty of the enjoyment, so do not drink to put up with it! We Chinese have enjoyed for about 2000 years.