Green Tea has been an integral part of health and culture in Asia for many centuries. As a matter of fact you can rarely find any restaurant in the U.S. that serves Asian Cuisine and does not offer green tea. Green Tea is produced by steeping the leaves (cut or whole) of the camelia sinensus tea plant. There are many claims being made about the health benefits of this long overlooked tea plant but, care should be taken with it’s use, as with any other type of health product. Moderation is always the proper course. With all that said I will relate my own personal experience with green tea.
Green tea has hit the U.S. weight consciousness scene like many others, with all types of claims about being the superfood of the ages. How many times have we heard that? I decided to try green tea to lose weight, just like thousands of other people across the country and, believe it or not I achieved some relatively good results from it. I don’t feel the green tea was solely responsible for my weight loss but it was an integral part of a regimen that certainly worked for me. I am 6′-2″ tall and at the time I started using green tea I weighed 275 lbs. Yeah, a real chubbo!!! I began to focus not only on how much I ate, but what I ate. I started eatin lots of fruits and vegetables (raw), didn’t cut back on red meat, chicken or fish but did stop eating french fries. I began eating apples, lots of apples. I eat between 2-5 apples a day. I prefer Fujis but also like Red Delicious.
However I think the absolute key to my success was EXERCISE! I began exercising and working harder. Over the course of the past year I have lost 50 lbs and have eliminated the joint problems I suffered with for years. Was this all from green tea? Probably not, but it was instrumental. Green tea increases your rate of metabolism through several chemical compounds, one of which is caffeine, as does the pectin in apple skins. The apples provide lots of good fiber, but when combined with green tea becomes a complex carb that makes your body work to digest it, therefore burning more calories. It also causes you to drink more water. What is water…H2O-hydrogen and oxygen, both of which are flammable elements. This truly aids in burning calories. Remember tis, “fire can’t burn without oxygen”. So when you exercise heavily you breathe hard infusing your body with oxygen and you perspire. Then when you hydrate you infuse your body with more oxygen. If the water you drink has green tea in it your metabolism spikes even higher.
Aside from the weight loss benefits green tea stimulates many of your body’s natural defense mechanisms, one of which is the rapid production of synovial fluid in your joints. Your shoulders, hips elbows and knees are all synovial joints, hence the reduction of problems in my joints.
I doubt that there is such a thing as a “superfood” although many manufacturers make just that claim. I feel that there are many superfoods, even chocolate, but to be effective they need to be taken in moderation and in conjunction with a variety of other healthy foods, habits and lots of exercise.
I hope this provided at least a little of the information you were seeking. Good luck and remember; moderation and lots of exercise.
