Credit score: Laboratory of Mobile Physiology and Molecular Biology of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Well being Sciences at Cruzeiro do Sul College
Inexperienced tea is an historical beverage acknowledged for its medicinal and antioxidant properties. It has been extensively studied for its helpful results on metabolic illnesses, similar to weight problems and kind 2 diabetes. Latest research have deepened our understanding of the mechanisms of motion of this infusion and revealed that inexperienced tea remedy lowered weight and considerably improved glucose sensitivity and insulin resistance in overweight mice. These outcomes reinforce the potential relevance of the beverage as an adjunct within the remedy of weight problems in people.
Rosemari Otton led the research from the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Well being Sciences at Cruzeiro do Sul College in São Paulo, Brazil. The scientist, who has devoted greater than 15 years to inexperienced tea analysis, explains that her preliminary motivation got here from curiosity concerning the reality behind the favored perception that the drink aids in weight reduction. The outcomes of her most up-to-date research are revealed within the journal Cell Biochemistry & Operate.
To check the consequences of inexperienced tea on weight problems, the analysis staff fed mice a high-calorie food plan for 4 weeks, with each fats and what they name a “cafeteria diet,” which mimics the Western food plan. “We give them chocolate, filled cookies, dulce de leche, condensed milk… In other words, the same type of food that many people consume on a daily basis,” says Otton.
After this preliminary section, the animals underwent the inexperienced tea experiment for an additional 12 weeks. Throughout this era, they continued on the high-calorie food plan, however a few of them started receiving standardized inexperienced tea extract at a dose of 500 mg per kilogram of physique weight, administered intragastrically (by way of gavage).
“It’s a method that ensures they all receive the exact dose we want to study. If we put it in water, for example, we’d have no way of knowing how much the animal actually ingested,” says the researcher. For people, this quantity could be equal to consuming about 3 grams of inexperienced tea per day, or three cups.
Nevertheless, in accordance with the researcher, not all business inexperienced tea meets the required high quality requirements. “Ready-made tea bags do not always guarantee the quantity or quality of the compounds. The ideal for consumption would be to use standardized green tea extract, like those found in compounding pharmacies. This is a concentrated way of using the plant, with a guarantee of the presence of flavonoids, which are the health-beneficial compounds present in the green tea plant,” Otton factors out.
One methodological distinction within the research was the managed room temperature. The animals have been stored in a thermoneutral atmosphere (28 °C) all through the experiment. Animal amenities usually preserve a mean temperature of twenty-two °C, which represents continual chilly for mice.
“Excessive cold activates compensatory regulatory mechanisms in the animals’ bodies, causing them to expend more energy to stay warm. This can mask the real effects of any substance,” explains the researcher. “If the animals are in a colder environment, the effect of the tea is enhanced by the activation of energy expenditure due to the cold. But by maintaining thermoneutrality, we were able to see the effects of green tea in a ‘clean’ way, without environmental interference,” she explains.
A earlier research revealed in August 2022 within the European Journal of Diet discovered that overweight mice handled with inexperienced tea skilled a discount of as much as 30% in physique weight. “If a person loses 5% to 10% of their body weight, that’s already a lot. So this result in animals is very significant,” says the professor.
Muscular impact
One other spotlight of the newest research was the preservation of muscle morphology. Weight problems sometimes causes a discount in muscle fiber diameter, however inexperienced tea prevented this muscle atrophy. “One way to assess muscle function is to look at fiber diameter. If it increases, we have more active muscle components. Green tea managed to maintain this diameter, showing that it protects muscle against the harmful effects of obesity,” Otton explains.
Along with morphological information, the researchers evaluated the expression of genes associated to glucose metabolism. Therapy with inexperienced tea elevated the expression of Insr, Irs1, Glut4, Hk1, and Pi3k—genes which might be vital for glucose uptake and use in muscular tissues. The exercise of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), an enzyme that’s important for glucose metabolism, was additionally restored.
In line with Otton, there’s proof indicating that inexperienced tea doesn’t have an effect on the burden of lean animals, suggesting that it acts selectively towards extra physique fats. “It makes obese animals lose weight but keeps lean animals at a balanced weight. This shows that the tea seems to need an environment with excess nutrients to act, which supports the hypothesis that it acts directly on fat cells.”
One other side investigated by the staff was the motion of the compounds in isolation. “Green tea is a complex matrix with dozens of bioactive compounds. We’ve tried to separate these compounds and study their effects individually, but the whole extract is always more effective. There’s a synergy between the compounds that we can’t reproduce when they’re isolated,” she says.
In line with the scientist, one speculation explaining the mechanism by which inexperienced tea impacts weight problems includes adiponectin, a protein produced by adipocytes that has anti-inflammatory and metabolic regulation capabilities. “We conducted a study with adiponectin-knockout mice, meaning they don’t produce it. And in these animals, green tea had no effect. This suggests that adiponectin is a key player in the mechanism of action of the tea,” she feedback.
Actual-life results
Regardless of the encouraging outcomes of the mouse research, Otton factors out that it isn’t but attainable to find out a secure and efficient dose of inexperienced tea for people. That is primarily as a result of variability of the extracts and the truth that every particular person behaves in another way. “The ideal is chronic consumption, as we see in Asian countries. In Japan, for example, people consume green tea every day, throughout their lives, and obesity rates are low. But this is different from drinking tea for five months and expecting a miraculous weight loss effect,” she says.
The researcher argues that pure and accessible remedies ought to achieve floor within the combat towards weight problems, particularly as alternate options to costly drugs that always have negative effects. “The idea is to have safe, natural, effective, and high-quality compounds. The Camellia sinensis plant offers this. We’re still studying all the compounds involved, but there’s no doubt that green tea, as a plant matrix rich in flavonoids, has important therapeutic potential.”
The researcher emphasizes that science at all times seeks to develop sensible options. “What we see in animals doesn’t always reproduce in humans. But if we want to make this translation to real life, we need to think about all the details, such as ambient temperature. It’s these precautions that increase the validity of our data. We’re far from having all the answers, but we’re getting closer and closer.”
Extra info:
Celso Pereira Batista Sousa‐Filho et al, Does Inexperienced Tea Ameliorate Weight problems in Mice Saved at Thermoneutrality by Modulating Skeletal Muscle Metabolism?, Cell Biochemistry and Operate (2025). DOI: 10.1002/cbf.70094
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Inexperienced tea improves insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in overweight mice (2025, September 10)
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