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Lose Weight & Increase Energy Expenditure. |
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Tea and Weight ControlPhysiologist William Rumpler is investigating the ancient Chinese belief that tea is effective in controlling body weight. Rumpler is with the ARS' Diet and Human Performance Laboratory, one of seven laboratories that make up the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC) in Beltsville, Maryland."Our data suggested that a component of tea other than caffeine might have promoted preferential use of fat as an energy source," says Beverly Clevidence. The results showed that the energy expenditure of volunteers was about 3 percent higher after they drank either the caffeinated water or the full-strength tea than after they drank the colored water. On average, the volunteers burned an additional 67 calories a day when they drank tea instead of an equal amount of water. Perhaps most interesting was that fat oxidation was a significant 12 percent higher after the full-strength tea treatment than after the water treatment. It is universally accepted that caffeinated tea raises metabolic rate because caffeine is a stimulant. "The interesting part of our study, which agreed with findings from a similar study in England, was that when you drink tea you turn on the fat-burning spigot a little bit more than when you drink caffeinated water," says Rumpler. Some scientists speculate that caffeine combined with highly active catechin found in tea may act together to increase fat oxidation. |
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