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Green Tea Increases "Brown Fat
Burning"
Study description: The researchers
wanted to find out how green tea extract suppressed body fat and weight gain in
lab animals, even when they were deliberately overfed.
Type of study: Animal
Study methods: Lab rats were fed a
high-fat diet plus green tea extract.
What happened: The researchers discovered that adding the green tea extract to
the diet increased the protein content of the animals' brown fat - a kind of fat
that burns calories at a very high rate. This, in turn, increased the animals'
energy expenditure. The green tea extract also appeared to reduce fat
digestibility slightly, which could decrease the calorie load.
Researchers' conclusion: "...green tea exerts
potent body fat-suppressive effects in rats fed on a high-fat diet and the
effect was resulted in part from the reduction in digestibility and to much
greater extent from an "increase in brown adipose tissue thermogenesis".
In other words, the green tea extract interfered with the conversion of some
dietary fat into calories, but more importantly, it revved up the rats'
calorie-burning capacity.
Citation: Choo JJ. Green tea reduces body fat
accretion caused by high-fat diet in rats through beta-adrenoceptor activation
of thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue. Journal of Nutritional
Biochemistry
2003;14(11):671-6. (Click here to read PubMed study
abstract.)
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Nadine Taylor, M.S., R.D. presents
GreenTeaLibrary.com, the most comprehensive collection of scientific
information describing the health benefits of green tea.
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