Oprah Green Tea and Dr. Perricone - Green Tea Diet and Weight Loss

My wife mentioned that Oprah re-ran her show with Dr. Perricone concerning Green Tea as an aid for diet and weight loss.  Unfortunately, she forgot to record that episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show: "Look 10 Years Younger in 10 Days" - Nov 10, 2004.

However, I did find a quote from Dr. Perricone concerning his statement on green tea, which I believe is a bit hyped.  I quote the following information from The Oprah Winfrey Show:

 

The Oprah Winfrey Show

“Oprah: Now I've read in your book that you said if I just replaced coffee with green tea instead, that I could lose 10 pounds in six weeks.

Dr. Perricone: Absolutely.

Oprah: Now really. How could that -- what is the big deal about this?

Dr Perricone: Coffee has organic acids that raise your blood sugar, raise insulin. Insulin puts a lock on body fat. When you switch over to green tea, you get your caffeine, you're all set, but you will drop your insulin levels and body fat will fall very rapidly. So 10 pounds in six weeks, I will guarantee it.

Oprah: I'm gonna do that. OK. That is so good! Whoo! That is great.”

 

If you read Dr. Perricone's “advice”, he is not suggesting that green tea helps with diet and weight loss.  Dr. Perricone says that switching from coffee to green tea will assist you in weight loss.  Although I am no expert and can't substantiate Dr. Perricone's statements above, I personally feel that green tea is a much more healthy beverage than coffee based upon all the health claims about green tea from various studies.

As for drinking green tea for diet and weight loss, I only know of one study that seems to suggest green tea may have some benefit to those that are looking for help in losing weight.  There is a study posted by The American Journal of Clinical Study that says:

Conclusions: Green tea has thermogenic properties and promotes fat oxidation beyond that explained by its caffeine content per se. The green tea extract may play a role in the control of body composition via sympathetic activation of thermogenesis, fat oxidation, or both.” - Read More.

All I can say is that there is a lot of technical mumbo jumbo in that article that I just can't understand.  Although I highly recommend drinking high quality green tea, I tend to believe that it won't do much for diet and weight loss.  Let's just say that I drink green tea daily and my weight constantly fluctuates.  At any given point I could benefit from losing a good 10 pounds of extra body fat.

If you are interested in drinking quality japanese green tea or chinese green tea, I recommend drinking a good Sencha Green Tea instead of coffee to aid in better health compared to coffee.

Green Tea Information:

 

posted on Friday, September 02, 2005 1:51 PM

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