A cup of tea black offers many comforts – especially during these cold bleak winter days. But it also does positively impact your quest for weight loss, research says.
The online conversation about weight loss seems to be endless. However most of the tips you find on the internet, whether they are shamanic grandma recipes of new-age tips by Instagram influencers, are not backed up by serious research. Surprisingly, the solution might be closer than you think: one key to a lean silhouette might be the regular box of black tea that you have sitting in your kitchen. A study published in the European Journal of Nutrition on September 30th 2017 indeed found that, black tea polyphenols decrease weight gain and alter microbiome populations in the gut.
“Our new findings suggest that black tea, through a specific mechanism through the gut microbiome, may contribute to good health and weight loss in humans. The results also suggest that both green and black teas are prebiotics, substances that induce the growth of good microorganisms that contribute to a person’s well-being”, Lead study author Susanne Henning explains. Black tea, specifically, was found to have a significant effect increasing the relative proportion of Pseudobutyrivibrio (lean mass-supporting bacteria,) and intestinal formation of short-chain fatty acids.
From birth on, the human intestines harbour over 100 trillion microorganisms. They are vital to the development of your immune system and are associated with various important neurobiological and physiological functions. As it is, relative proportions of Blautia, Bryantella, Collinsella, Lactobacillus, Marvinbryantia, Turicibacter, Barnesiella, and Parabacteroides are significantly correlated with weight regulation. And black tea triggers a change in the ratio of gut bacteria, decreasing the percentages of a type previously linked to obesity, and increasing bacteria associated with lean body mass.
In short, what black tea does is positively influence energy metabolism and may be responsible for modest weight loss. Surprisingly, the study from the University of California found no evidence that green tea, like black tea, can help people lose weight. This might come as a surprise, as green teas are often perceived as being more “diet-friendly”, and as the both originate from the same tree (Camellia Sinensis). This is because green tea works via your bloodstream and black tea via your gut bacteria, the study concludes.
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