Wednesday, August 22, 2007 Green fat buster, Part 1 By Zosimo T. Literatus, R.M.T. Breakthroughs
“THE only way to get thin,” advised Cyril Connolly in The Unquiet Grave, “is to re-establish purpose in life.”
And part of that grand purpose might be to drink green tea regularly as you would water. This is an apparent good news for green tea manufacturers.
A recent study shows that green tea can reduce fatty buildup in the body.
Thus reported researchers S. Wolfram, Y. Wang, and F. Thielecke in the February 2006 issue of the Molecular Nutrition and Food Research. Wolfram, Wang and Thielecke are scientists at the Department of Human Nutrition and Health of the DSM Nutritional Products based in Basel, Switzerland.
While this may sound a bit self-serving, as DSM is a manufacturer of a green tea product, the results of their study might be worth the attentive ears, or eyes.
In the last few years, health authorities have considered the ever-growing cases of obesity around the world. Studies conducted by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases observed that almost 70 percent of heart disease cases in the United States alone are linked to excess body fat.
Obese people are more than twice as likely to develop hypertension.
The risk of these complications increases when body fat is distributed around the waist (especially around the abdomen), a type of body fat distribution that is more common in men than in women.
Without intending to cause any alarm—just to inform on data obtained through the scientific use of statistical probability in understanding demographic behavior—obese women are at nearly twice the risk for developing breast cancer. All obese people also have a 42 percent higher chance of developing colorectal cancer. Almost 80 percent of Type-2 diabetes mellitus patients are obese.
More importantly, the Wolfram-Wang-Thielecke study was a meta-analysis (i.e., large-scale review of available studies) and does not involve an intervention procedure, which makes the results credible on its face under the assumption that the studies reviewed were indedd credible.
The active ingredients in green tea are attributed for its anti-obesity function.
These are known as catechins, particularly Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).
Catechins are yellow crystalline substances abundant in fruits and vegetables and have bioactive properties. EGCG is the most active component of green tea and it targets fat tissues, liver, and intestines.
Next week, we will learn more about catechins and EGCG and go through the results of this meta-analysis to understand the facts of EGCG’s effects on body fat. (zim_breakthrough@yahoo.com or text to 0927-872-3821)
