Wednesday July 23, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study recently published in Journal of Nutrition suggests that drinking tea can help weight loss or prevent obesity.

The study shows that decaffeinated polyphenol extracts from green tea, black tea and oolong tea decreased body fat and inflammation in male mice fed a high fat, high sucrose diet (32% calories from fat and 25% energy from sugar).

Green tea and caffeine together have been shown to increase energy expenditure and fat oxidation, which means that they can promote weight loss or prevent obesity.

In the study, the dose of polyphenol from green tea, black tea or oolong tea was 0.25%.  Some mice were fed on a high fat high sugar diet while others ate a low fat high sugar diet both for 20 weeks.

The study finds that treatment with green tea polyphenols oolong tea polyphenols, black tea polyphenols and a low fat high sugar diet led to significantly lower body weight, total visceral fat and fat in the liver, compared with mice on the high fat high sugar diet.

(Some websites promote use of high fat low carb diet. This study suggests that high fat can be worse than high carbohydrates or even high sugar).

Additionally, the study also reveals that only treatment with green tea polyphenols reduced food intake by about 10%.

The study concludes "all 3 tea polyphenol extracts induced weight loss and anti-inflammatory and angiogenic effects, although the tissue content of polyphenol differed significantly."  (David Liu)

Reference: Heber D, Zhang Y, Yang J, Ma JE, Henning SM, Li Z.  Green Tea, Black Tea, and Oolong Tea Polyphenols Reduce Visceral Fat and Inflammation in Mice Fed High-Fat, High-Sucrose Obesogenic Diets.  J Nutr. 2014 Jul 16.