Tea For Weight Loss?
By Anthony Almada

Should you add oolong tea to your fat-lowering arsenal? Maybe yes, maybe no. Oolong is one step more processed than green tea, one step less than black tea. In one study with mice as the test subjects, powdered oolong tea leaves were added to a high-fat diet. Although food intake remained high, the tea appeared to prevent weight gain.

A recent study affirms these results. Twelve men each drank either plain water, caffeine-containing water, or half-strength or full-strength brewed oolong tea five times during one day. Both the full-strength tea and caffeine-water beverages produced significant increases in total calories burned over a 23-hour period. Caffeine water was the more potent calorie burner. However, the full-strength oolong tea—containing the same amount of caffeine as the caffeinated water—produced the greatest increase in fat oxidation among the men. As with green tea, what remains to be shown is whether ingesting teas or their extracts day after day could stimulate weight reduction and fat loss in overweight men and women.

Nutrition and exercise biochemist Anthony Almada, MS, has collaborated on more than 45 university-based studies, is cofounder of Experimental and Applied Sciences (EAS), and founder and chief scientific officer of IMAGINutrition (www.imaginutrition.com).