One of this most important health supplements of our time is green tea,and it is also one of the most studied supplements. The reason why it is so important is just like with fish oil,there are many many benefits that you can get from drinking green tea,or by using supplements which contain it.
Many of you have already heard that you can use green tea for weight loss,but that isn’t all it is good for –even though losing weight is very very healthy for a large number of people. Since losing adipose tissue has been shown to improve conditions anywhere from sleep apnea (1) to cardiovascular diseases (2) it is not a surprise that most weight loss supplements can be healthy.
Many studies have been performed and one compound in green tea has been identified as being behind many of the benefits of green tea. We can not say that this is all that green tea contains,as there are still probably thousands of compounds that we yet have been unable to identify. EGCG is the name of this compound (epigallocatechin-3 gallate).
To make it simple for all of you,here are listed some of the important health benefits of green tea. You can read the details below.
- Cancer prevention
- Help for chronic inflammation
- Rheumatoid arthritis relief
- Insulin sensitivity
- Obesity prevention
- Weight loss
- Reduction of elevated cortisol levels
- Reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases
What makes green tea special?
To get started,it is important to realize the fact that when something is found as preventative towards diseases,it is considered healthy. Just like when something makes you lose fat or make it easier to maintain your current weight,it is healthy based on numerous studies that prove obesity (1,2) is unhealthy,
Antioxidants are healthy
One important thing that people are always looking for healthy supplements is their antioxidant properties. Antioxidants like most of us know help fight free radicals in your body,which are highly reactive compounds that can cause damage to your DNA . This damage can then cause cancerous cells to form,and that is why many antioxidants have anti-cancerous properties (3,4).
The lack of antioxidants doesn’t directly cause oxidative stress,but it usually makes our bodies less effective at managing it. These days our bodies are constantly bombarded with chemicals such as organophosphorous compounds which can be found in pesticides for example. In fact,most “dangerous”exposures to these compounds occur accidentally when pesticides are present.
I put dangerous in quotes because these compounds accumulate in your body in the nerves,and long term exposure even in small quantities can cause the same problems. You can’t avoid this long term exposure these days,and that is why it is important to use supplements such as green tea to help your system deal with the added stress. It is always dangerous,and not just when you get a large exposure at one time.
Green tea has been shown to work against the stress of these compounds (5),and in fact it did so far better than other antioxidants tested. That is why it should be an important part of your health and wellness regime.
Insulin resistance is the biggest problem today
There are many things that can cause obesity,and many people are saying that it is simply the amount of foods that matter,but science knows there are many other things that contribute to the problem. Calories are not just calories,and basically your body doesn’t give a damn about calories.
One thing that researchers have noticed,is that obese people are in a state of chronic inflammation (6),and at the same time at an increased risk of cancer. At the same time they have insulin resistance.
What researchers have also found is that the activation of specific pro-inflammatory genes are linked to insulin resistance (7). Simplified,this means that the chronic inflammation contributes to the insulin resistance. Hence the reduction of inflammation should help fight insulin resistance.
This makes perfect sense since most of the foods that we eat today,cause rampant inflammation. For example,foods that contain sugar and omega-6 fatty acids cause inflammation (8). These fatty acids can often be found in vegetable oils that are commonly used for the manufacturing process of different sugary and high simple carbohydrate foods such as fast foods. Think about hamburgers,french fries,bread and so on.
One of the health benefits of green tea is that it suppresses the inflammatory response in your body (9). It is anti-inflammatory,in a healthy sense –not like anti-inflammatory medicine. Because of this anti-inflammatory effect,green tea can help one improve their insulin sensitivity.
This is not all. It has also been shown to have a more direct (10,11) effect on insulin sensitivity,and for this reason alone it should be in regular use in most people. If you already aren’t using a green tea supplement,or drinking it on a regular basis,please start doing so!
Effect of green tea on cardiovascular diseases
Cardiovascular diseases are the problem of many,and unfortunately this is also a part of western medicine which isn’t properly managed. Green tea is one of the supplements that have been shown to help people at risk for different CVD,and that is one of the reasons that makes it an important supplement for anyone interested in maintaining their health.
Coronary artery disease is familiar to people who are at a risk of getting it –some of their relatives perhaps had/have it. To make a long story short,it is the single most common heart disease there is. If you know someone who has problems with their heart,they most likely have it. The hardening and narrowing on the arteries that provide the heart muscle with blood reduces the blood flow,and makes it impossible to for the heart to adjust to an increase in work.
A recent meta-analysis came to the conclusion that based on the amount of research data the we have,the consumption of green tea reduces the risk (12) of such heart diseases. There are many,many different ways why it can do so,and many of the health benefits of green tea,work in a synergy to promote better vascular health.
Conclusions anyone?
To list all of the health benefits of green tea,we would need a very long medium,and the scope of this article unfortunately does not deal with all of the green tea health benefits. You can be sure that you will find more articles in this website about the subject.
1. Thorax. 2011 Jun Effect of weight loss on upper airway size and facial fat in men with obstructive sleep apnoea.
2. Methodist Debakey Cardiovasc J. 2010 Management of obesity in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
3. Biochem Pharmacol. 2011 Anticancer activity of thymoquinone in breast cancer cells:Possible involvement of PPAR-γ pathway.
4. Molecules. 2011 Curcumin:an anti-inflammatory molecule from a curry spice on the path to cancer treatment.
5. Arch Oral Biol. 2011 Prophylactic effect of green tea and Nigella sativa extracts against fenitrothion-induced toxicity in rat parotid gland.
6. Diabetol Metab Syndr. 2011 Visceral adiposity,insulin resistance and cancer risk.
7. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2011 NOD1 activation induces proinflammatory gene expression and insulin resistance in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
8. Am J Kidney Dis. 2011 Dietary Omega-3 Fatty Acid,Ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 Intake,Inflammation,and Survival in Long-term Hemodialysis Patients.
9. Arthritis Res Ther. 2011 Epigallocatechin-3-gallate suppresses the global interleukin-1beta-induced inflammatory response in human chondrocytes.
10. J Am Coll Nutr. 2009 Green tea extract decreases oxidative stress and improves insulin sensitivity in an animal model of insulin resistance,the fructose-fed rat.
11. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Green tea extract ingestion,fat oxidation,and glucose tolerance in healthy humans.
12. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Black and green tea consumption and the risk of coronary artery disease:a meta-analysis.