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Green tea may aid weight loss

"The green tea extract may play a role in the control of body composition," Dr. Abdul Dulloo, of the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and colleagues write in the November issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Dufloo and colleagues studied the effects of green tea on 10 healthy young men, average age 25, who ranged from lean to mildly overweight. For 6 weeks, the men took two capsules at each meal: green tea extract plus 50 milligrams of caffeine; 50 milligrams of caffeine; or a placebo (inactive capsule).

The study participants were on a weight-maintenance diet of about 13% protein, 40% fat, and 47% carbohydrates, a "typical Western diet." Three times during the study, the men spent 24 hours in a special room where the investigators measured their respiration and energy expenditure.

Energy expenditure -- the number of calories used during a 24-hour period -- was higher for men taking green tea extract than for those taking caffine or placebo, the authors note. They also found evidence that men taking the green tea extract used more fat calories than those taking the placebo.

There was no difference between the caffeine users and the placebo users in terms of either overall calorie burning or fat calorie burning. Dulloo's team therefore concludes that the increased calorie burning in the green tea group cannot be explained by caffeine intake alone.

The study authors suggest that the caffeine interacted with natural substances in green tea called flavonoids to alter the body's use of norepinephrine, a chemical transmitter in the nervous system and increase the rate of calorie burning.

The researchers point out that, unlike some diet products, green tea does not contain high doses of caffeine, and it did not affect the heart rate in the study participants.

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1999;70:1040-1045.

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