Sham: Green Tea Consumption for Weight Loss

The March 30th issue of the American Botanical Council's "HerbClip" reports on a new study conducted in the Netherlands to determine the validity of Green Tea use as a weight loss maintenance tool. The results of this moderately large study (120 individuals) are very interesting in light of all the press that Green Tea has gotten in the diet world. Do a Google search on Green Tea for diets and you'll find everyone and their brother has included Green Tea in their diet formulas. Even Oprah has been seen to tout this tea as a diet ingredient.

This trial involved overweight or moderately obese, but otherwise healthy, men and women aged 18 to 60 years, and was conducted at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. The trial was reported on in the British Journal of Nutrition.

American Botanical Council's reporter, Brenda Milot, writes that the results indicate that green tea consumption does NOT improve weight-loss maintenance relative to placebo. The metabolic and blood variables measured were not significantly different between the green tea and the placebo groups.

It appears, based on this study, that Green Tea falls into the SHAM category, at least for weight management after body-weight loss. Of course, we all know that Green Tea has other heath benefits -- but as a diet aid to maintain weight loss, forget it.

Dave