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ADD A PRE-WORKOUT SHAKE OR POST-WORKOUT DRINK TO YOUR REGIMEN

Every once in a while it’s fun to try something different in your workout. Most of us get told over and over that we need to exercise, but the thought of running on the treadmill and lifting weights doesn’t always have a lot of appeal. So what about trying something new – something that’s different, fun, and still a challenge?

Well that’s why we’re kicking off the “Workout of the Week” series. Here and there we’ll toss out a new idea for a simple, fun workout challenge. Try it out for a week and maybe you’ll get hooked – and you definitely won’t regret it.

So what’s up first? Balance.

Balance is something that most adults lack. It’s just not something we use a lot. Most able-bodied grown-ups can huff and puff their way through a short jog, or a couple of laps in the pool. But ask someone to balance and chances are they won’t make it 4 seconds without wobbling or putting their foot down.

Of course, you might be asking: Does balance really matter? Well, funnily enough, it does. Balance is a great indicator of overall muscle strength, and it’s a blind spot that many workout programs don’t target. When you try to hold your balance, you’re actually engaging whole groups of small muscles in your ankles and legs, as well as your core. When you wobble or shake, it’s because these fine muscles aren’t strong enough to work together and hold you in place. But when you develop these muscles, your balance pays off in lots of ways – plenty of everyday activities will become easier.

Good balance can even help prevent injuries. If you strengthen your ankle muscles with balance practice, you’re less likely to trip and more likely to walk away from a misstep that would give someone else a nasty sprain.

So how do you train for balance? The key is to focus on safety and fun:

• Start off on a soft mat or other safe surface, with no dangerous obstructions around.
• Lift one leg off the ground and hold it in the air. Aim for a slow count of 5 before setting it down.
• If needed, place one hand on a wall for added stability.
• Repeat this several times on each side. Feel that burn? That’s all of the micro-muscles you’ve never worked out before.
• Slowly build up to longer balance periods; 60 seconds on each side is great.

This is a fun workout because you’ll notice rapid improvement, and it only takes a few minutes. Want to get even more out of your workout? Add the Prograde pre-workout shake to maximize your results!

 

Many fat loss experts out there recommend cheat meals to help sustain fat loss and decrease the slowing down of the metabolism while following a low-calorie diet.  And to be honest, I agree with this strategy . . . mostly.  

The concept of a cheat meal, or cheat day, is substantiated by research as well as empirical evidence by people who use them.  But could they be sabotaging your results at all?

Cheat Meals Can Last For Months

[More]

Manipulate Blood Sugar With Coffee?

Please allow up to a minute for the video to load.. I promise it’s worth the wait

Today on our blog, Dr. Walsh explains the connection between blood sugar and belly fat.

Even better, as promised, Dr. Walsh will be available to answer your questions! Oh, and even better than that, Dr. Walsh will pick his favorite question and the person that submits it gets a FREE Prograde product of their choice!

PS – Please understand that Dr. Walsh is seeing patients at his practice, so he will get to your question as soon as he can!

Everyone knows one of the best ways to lose weight is through dieting and lifestyle changes.  Did you know there is another way to lose weight?  Yes! Simply put exercise can be a magic bullet.

Exercise does a couple things when we are trying to lose weight.  First, it helps burn more calories through continuous motion.  Those extra calories can add up and help you to drop a size or two.  Second, incorporating strength training in the mix, builds more lean muscle tissue, helping you burn more calories at rest. 

What is the best exercise(s) to burn the most calories?  This is a very good question, and there are many different answers. 

One thing to remember about exercise is intensity.  The higher the intensity, the more calories you burn even at rest.   If you are a beginner, any type of exercise will help burn extra calories.  When you move from a very sedentary lifestyle to an active lifestyle, your body is going to burn more calories just by adding extra activity to your day.

For people who are experienced exercisers, the intensity of the workout will determine the amount of calories you burn.  By increasing the intensity you will burn extra calories.  Doing quick, short bursts of activity with moderate intensity active rest time will keep your calorie-burning motor going during and after the workout.

The take-home message about strength training:  Always incorporate new exercises and vary the intensity of your workout.  This provides a new challenge, keeping your body engaged resulting in more calories burned.   Your body can get used to the same routine, so switch it up.  This keeps the body “confused” allowing for greater calorie expenditure.

So remember, if your goal is to lose weight fast and you have established a proper diet into your plan try adding more exercise.  You will see a big difference in your body.  The combination of both diet and exercise can be the best way to lose weight and keep it off.

Everyone struggles from time to time with weight loss.   You go to the internet to find the best ways to lose weight fast, and what happens, about a million different sites pop up claiming they can help you with weight loss and losing weight faster than the next site or program.   Here are four tips to help you lose weight fast and keep off the weight!

Tip #1-expend more calories- losing weight is not rocket science.   The concept of energy in EQUALs energy out is the take home message here.  You need to burn more calories than you take in in order to lose weight.    You can accomplish this by keeping track of your calories for each meal or snack, then determine from there where you might be able to cut a few calories.    Another tip to cutting calories: Exercise.  Exercise can burn more calories and build more muscle which will help with increasing metabolism

Tip #2-Eat more- now some people out there are going to look at this one and think what are they crazy?  But it is true!  If your body is constantly in starvation mode, your body will hold on to your fat and burn your protein stores, i.e. you muscle as fuel to keep your body going.     Increasing your calories intake with  whole foods, fruits and vegetables and lean proteins will provide the body the energy it need to keep moving and help burn more fat

Tip #3-drink more water- now this seems like a silly on to add in, but increasing your water intake does a lot in the body.   When your body is dehydrated all the systems of the body have to work harder, especially the liver, which can break down food into the proper nutrients.  All body processes require water to break things down.   Without water, the body has to work extra hard.   On a side note, drinking water in between meals can also give you a feeling of fullness, so you are less likely to grab something to snack on.

Tip #4-eat more protein- protein can come in a number of different ways, lean meats like steak, turkey, chicken and fish, but can also can come in supplement form as protein powder or protein drinks.  Protein helps to provide the building blocks for muscle but also can make us feel fuller for longer periods of time.    Protein also increases the thermic effect in the body.  For more on thermic effects, check out this article on the Thermic Effect of Protein.

Eating more calories if you are in a deficit, expending more calories through diet and exercise, increasing your water intake and increasing your protein intake will help you lose weight and keep it off.   These tips, in part with a balanced nutritious diet, will help you lose weight fast and get your to that sexy slim body you have been dreaming about.

A question heard over and over again is: can I really lose weight with Green Tea?  To answer some of those questions, here is a great article on the benefits of green tea on weight loss! 

Green tea has been used for centuries in China and the Far East as a herbal alternative for health and vitality.  Some people have also found that Green Tea can be useful In Cancer prevention, heart health and now in weight loss.   What secrets do these ancient people know that we do not?

Green tea has plenty of power packed antioxidants, the most noteworthy one being EGCG, which helps fire our metabolism for optimal fat burning potential.     The polyphenols in green tea can also be linked to the reduction in blood pressure and also for positive cholesterol reduction.

To gain the benefits from green tea, it has been shown that drinking 5 to 8 cups per day can significantly lead to reduction in blood pressure and also aid in weight management.    Green tea also contains caffeine which has also been shown to increase metabolism which can lead to extra calories burned throughout the day.

Drinking 5 to 8 cups a day seems like a lot of tea to me.  Wouldn’t it be easier to just take a supplement that provide a full day supply of green tea extract and other power packed anti-aging nutrients that will help with weight management.      So by drinking green tea, there is a higher chance that you will lose weight fast, than with diet alone.

By Kevin DiDonato MS, CSCS, CES

Walking around the gym and working with clients there is a trend that I see.  Extra weight carried around the belly or people wanting to get the ripped “six pack” look are the typical gym client today.  What is the reason behind weight gain and why is it so hard to lose those extra pounds?

Here are the Top 10 reasons why people continue to gain weight

10. Medications

There are a growing number of people who are depressed or on medication for depression.  These medications decrease metabolism regardless of changes to the diet, and the medications can change hormone levels in the body.  This impacts our ability to lose weight and keep the weight off.

9. Underlying Disease/chronic disease

A growing number of people have underlying conditions like Thyroid Disease, Diabetes and Cushing’s disease (increased production of cortisol in the body) .  People end up gaining weight and medical treatment is necessary to help in weight loss or slowing weight gain down.   Due decreases in hormone levels, the body is unable to raise metabolism which burns extra calories

8. Genetics

Research shows that genetics may play a part in weight gain.  Evidence shows some people may have higher chances of weight gain.  However, even though genetics may play a role in weight gain, environmental factors and individual choices play a much bigger role in a person being overweight then genetics.

7. Stress

Our natural defense against stressors is the Fight or Flight system.  With increased stress levels, our bodies prepare for us to fight or run.  When stress levels rise, cortisol is released in the blood stream, causing changes in the body.   Cortisol helps release sugar, stored in the muscles and liver, into the blood stream for quick energy use. This hormone is responsible for accumulation of fat in the abdomen which is hard for the body to get rid of.  Cortisol suppresses the immune system making it harder to fight infections.  Stress is always there so our cortisol levels are always high.

6.  Portion Size

Have you ever super-sized your meal at a fast food chain? I am pretty sure most of us have.  Portion control is a leading factor in weight gain.  We tend to over eat foods that are high in fat and calories, and do it on a constant basis.    We have lost our control over our portion control.  Plates and cups are bigger, so taking in extra calories is easier.

5.  Skipping meals

Skipping a meal is just as bad as portion control.  It slows down your metabolism because of lack of calories and nutrients in the body to refuel us.  When you skip a meal, 9 out of 10 times we overeat when the next meal comes.  Food choices are usually affected and portion sizes become monstrous.  This leads to too many calories, lethargic moods and storing those calories being stored as fat.

4.  “low-fat” Labeling

How many of us have been duped into thinking that low fat is low calorie?  Low fat labeling means that there is 3 fat grams or less. Just because a label says low fat does not mean lower calorie.  So before you grab that low fat product, remember look at the label and see how many calories and what the serving size is.   We tend to over-eat low fat products, because we think low fat means low calories.  Sometimes, eating the “real deal” can be better for you because of the serving size.

3.  Lack of exercise

Strength training and cardiovascular exercise help increase the amount of calories that we burn.  We find ourselves doing less and less exercise and eating more calories.  The combination of lack of exercise and high calorie intake is why we gain weight.  The more strength training, the more muscle we have, which leads to higher metabolism.  This helps us burn more calories at rest and during exercise. 

2. Slower Metabolic Rate

A slower metabolic rate helps with weight gain.  Muscle is more metabolically active (meaning it burns more calories) than fat so we need more muscle than fat.    One common myth is that as we age, we lose more muscle.  If we stay active then this is not true.   Continuing to do strength and cardiovascular exercises will keep the lean mass on our bodies which keeps out metabolism burning.  Then we can continue to eat those extra calories and not worry about gaining weight.

And the Number 1 Reason why people gain weight is….

1. Unhealthy Diet

Let’s face the facts: generally our diets are not good.  Our diets are filled with processed foods that are easy to prepare and probably are not good for us.   Portions are out of control and meals are lacking essential foods like fruits and veggies, and complex carbohydrates that help fuel our bodies.  Fast food and prepackaged foods can lead to extra weight around the waist due to a lot of fat and extra calories.

Diet and exercise help monitor weight gain as we get older.  Making better food choices, monitoring your portions and not skipping meals will help you lose weight.  Substituting a healthy snack or meal replacement will help you not to skip meals and will give you plenty of nutrients to satisfy you until you eat again.

There are a ton of weight loss supplements on store shelves now a days because everyone wants the miracle cure to their ever growing waistline.  The reality is that only a few weight loss supplements actually work.

Most ingredients are used based on theory and not science so no one knows for sure if they work or not.  Yet, millions of people will still buy the product because of the hope that it might work. 

Here are a few ingredients that are actually backed up by science and research to show that they do work in helping you lose more weight and get rid of that extra fat. 

These are actually ingredients that you can find on your store shelves. 



1.   Coffee (caffeine)


About 75% of the caffeine consumed in the United States comes from good old fashioned coffee. Caffeine has been shown for years to enhance alertness and performance. Research has also shown us that it contains calorie-burning properties. For instance, a study involving lean and overweight (obese) subjects reported that a single 100-mg dose of caffeine (equivalent to a little over 1 cup of coffee) was enough to raise their calorie-burning rate by up to 4% for 2.5 hours.




While a 4% increase may not seem like a big deal, it can turn into one. The researchers in this study explain, “…if it is assumed that there is no compensatory increase in food intake, the increase [in calorie-burning rate] after caffeine would represent an energy deficit of 75-110 kcal/day. These changes may be small but when consistent with consumption it can accumulate and lead to substantial changes in body weight.”


The other great thing about is is that evidence suggests that caffeine’s calorie-burning effects persist with consistent consumption.  The subjects in the above study were all mild to moderate consumers of caffeine, consuming anywhere from 250-500 mg per day, equivalent to ~3-6 cups of coffee. Yet they all enjoyed a calorie-burning boost from the relatively small dose given to them.  That is even better news for those who don't normally drink 3-6 cups of coffee a day.



2.   Hot Pepper (capsaicin)


Have you ever added cayenne pepper to any of your foods?  Did you get that warm feeling and maybe your body temperature increased a little?  For the next 30 minutes your calorie-burning rate is increased at 10% above baseline, equivalent to burning an additional 129 Calories per day, or 27% of the caloric value of the entire meal. Sounds too good to be true? This fictitious scenario became a reality at Kyoto University in Japan when scientists gave young women a 481-Calorie meal consisting of a yellow curry sauce containing 3 mg of capsaicin.


Capsaicin is what is responsible for sensation produced by eating hot red peppers. It’s also to blame for the sweat that forms from your temperature rising. This is the effect of capsaicin increasing your calorie-burning rate by stimulating a process known as thermogenesis. Thermogenesis essentially involves the release of calories in the form of heat.  Not only can capsaicin increase thermogenesis, capsaicin has also been found to improve fullness after a meal, which helps you from overeating throughout the day.  It has been reported to increase calorie-burning rate and reduce body fat.


Capsaicin may also boost calorie burning and increase your fat loss efforts when combined with exercise. When scientists gave healthy subjects capsaicin an hour before performing low-intensity exercise (stationary cycling), they burned more fat. The increase was impressive enough that the scientists suggested capsaicin be used as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of elevated blood lipid levels and/or obesity.


3.   Cinnamon


Who doesn't love cinnamon especially when it is on a dessert.  Ok I am not saying you need to start eating more desserts, but what if I told you that it may help “influence” more of those carbohydrates into lean muscle and away from fat cells?


Most of the carbohydrate calories you eat are eventually converted into blood sugar. The hormone insulin helps direct glucose into your body’s cells, including muscle cells. If your muscle cells are more sensitive to insulin, the more effective they can grab the extra glucose and store it for later use, such as providing your muscles with energy during exercise. If everything else is the same, this leaves less glucose available for your fat cells, which might otherwise use it to make body fat.


Of the many plants studied to date, cinnamon has been reported to be among the most powerful in terms of its ability to enhance insulin sensitivity and keep blood glucose levels in check. When added to a carbohydrate-rich meal, it reduces the rise in blood glucose normally experienced afterwards. While the effects on insulin sensitivity may take a couple of weeks to manifest, the improvements in blood glucose control appear virtually immediately.


So cinnamon increases insulin sensitivity and improves blood glucose regulation.  It may also help you in other ways as well. Dr Richard Anderson (Ph.D.) at the US Department of Agriculture has conducted numerous studies on cinnamon.  He says that if cinnamon is consumed long-term, it can enhance lean body mass (this includes muscle) and reduce body fat, something he and his scientific colleagues demonstrated in a study performed in 2006.



4.   Green Tea


White, green and black varieties of tea all contain caffeine. The attention green tea is getting though is from its potential fat burning properties.  Its fat-burning effects are not due to the caffeine it contains. Thought weight loss supplements are including this ingredient into their formulas more and more.
 

In one frequently cited study, healthy young men were given a green tea extract three times per day. Their 24-hour calorie-burning rate was 3.5% higher than that of subjects taking a placebo. This was equivalent to burning an additional 200 Calories per day -more than enough to eventually produce substantial weight loss and reductions in body fat.


Not only did green tea cause the subjects to burn more calories, but a larger proportion of the calories burned were determined by the scientists to have come from fat. Various scientists’ comments were (they used the term “remarkable” to describe green tea’s effects), they seemed to be quite impressed. Indeed, green tea’s thermogenic effects in this study were as powerful as much larger doses of caffeine.

These are just a few of the ingredients found in a few weight loss supplements proven through science to help you actually burn more calories. 

 
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE

Dulloo et al. (1989). Am J Clin Nutr 49:44.

Matsumoto et al. (2000). J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo) 46(6): 309.

Shin and Moritani (2007). J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo) 53(2): 124.

Hlebowicz et al. (2007). Am J Clin Nutr 85: 1552.

Solomon and Blannin (2009). Eur J Appl Physiol 105(6): 969.

Ziegenfuss et al. (2006). J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 3:45.
Dr. Anderson’s comments were provided during personal communications conducted in March 2010.

Chim et al. (2008). J Anal Toxicol, 32(8): 702.

Dulloo et al. (1999). Am J Clin Nutr 70: 1040.

 

 

"How To Lose Weight Fast"

"Nobody, At Any Level, Should Be Allowed To Have
 Anything To Do With Healthy Weight Loss Until They 
Have Read This Page Seven Times"

Scientifically proven evidence showing you how to lose weight fast by simply consuming 4 simple ingredients.

>>> Proven to boost your metabolism and start melting the fat immediately.
>>>Real-world calorie burning methods — no goofy techniques.
>>> No undesirable side effects
>>>”Substantial” changes in body weight
>>>Reduces Your appetite for foods
>>> Naturally “exercise” your metabolism without actually exercising.

    Seriously, no exercise is required to lose weight using this method – unless you want to burn MORE FAT OFF FASTER!

Everyone’s Talking About The Same Thing.

“Slim down”, “lean up”, “drop a few pounds” –whichever words you use to talk about losing weight, you’re ultimately describing the same thing: reducing body fat.

Your body can be divided into two tissue compartments: fat mass and lean mass. Fat mass includes body fat, also known as adipose tissue. Lean mass includes skeletal muscle.

Few of us want to lose muscle when we lose weight. If anything, we’re in a constant struggle to hold on to it as we age.
Body fat, in contrast, is something we strive to get rid of.

Besides affecting how you look in a swimsuit and your level of comfort in front of cameras, body fat impacts your so-called “metabolic health” and, in turn, your risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases.

How to lose weight fast!

>>>>>Imagine that you’re standing around at work or seated in a classroom taking notes. Or, maybe you’re driving to your child’s first t-ball game of the season. 


What you’re NOT doing is sweating or gasping for air. 


Yet your metabolism is “exercising”: It’s burning more calories than it normally does at rest, and that means more fat loss. 

How many more calories is it burning? By the start of the next day, it will be as many as an athlete might burn by running at over 9 miles per hour on a treadmill for nearly 10 minutes straight (~19 calories per minute). 


And it's all because of one ingredient tucked inside a natural product that’s available from any supermarket and is said to be second only to water in terms of its worldwide consumption¹.

Here’s another supermarket wonder. This naturally-occurring amino acid has the potential to reduce your caloric intake by as much as 8%. In one study², subjects who took it ate almost 100 fewer calories.

No undesirable side effects.

It simply reduced their appetite for food. Needless to say, avoiding overeating is a critical component of losing body fat and the one many of us find the most difficult to accomplish.

Let’s add a third to the mix. When subjects took a single dose of this popular ingredient, their calorie-burning rate was boosted by as much as 4% for the next two and a half hours, a change that could lead to “substantial” changes in body weight, according to the scientists who conducted the study³.

This May Be The Most Important Secret.

Perhaps the most important secret to losing body fat is “exercising” your metabolism. Physical activities like walking, lifting weights, swimming and the like can push your metabolism to work harder and thereby burn more calories.

And increasing your calorie-burning rate (a.k.a. metabolic rate) is the first step towards achieving negative fat balance, a technical term for the state of affairs in which your body is burning more fat than it’s storing.

No matter how hard you work out or how healthy you eat, if you’re not in negative fat balance, then you’re not losing body fat.

Of course, at some point during the day most of us have to stop exercising in the conventional sense of the word and make a living. The moment you do that (or consume a meal), your calorie-burning rate plummets and it becomes far more difficult to achieve negative fat balance.

This presents a problem: Similar to how you gain body fat when you remain in positive fat balance for a long period of time, losing fat requires that you remain in negative fat balance for a long period of time.  

For most mortals, working out all day isn’t an option.

Fortunately, there are natural products capable of keeping your metabolism “exercising” at rest, thereby elevating your calorie-burning rate and making it easier to achieve negative fat balance.

Four of the most studied of these products are coffee, hot red pepper, cinnamon and green tea. We’ve all passed by them in the supermarket.

Few of us, however, are aware of the metabolic properties displayed by particular ingredients found inside each, and how these properties may help you simplify the process of losing body fat. Below is just a small sample of what human studies (no furry animals) have reported:

•    A single 50-mg dose of caffeine, equivalent to a little over ½ a cup of coffee, was found to increase the calorie-burning rate of healthy male subjects by 6%².*
•    Women given a meal containing capsaicin, the compound responsible for the painful experience of eating hot red pepper, experienced an increase in calorie-burning rate of 10% after the meal⁴.*
•    Pre-diabetic subjects given a cinnamon extract reduced their body fat by 0.7% and increased their lean mass by 1.1%. No such changes were observed in subjects receiving a placebo⁵.*
•    Men and women given a green tea extract increased their calorie-burning rate by 3.5%⁶.*
•    Green tea: The results of this study are more impressive. Subjects who took the extract received a daily dose equivalent to 3-4 cups of brewed green tea⁸.

Their calorie-burning rate rose by 3.5%, not just for an hour or two, but for twenty-four hours.*

This meant they burned anywhere from 63.5-200 additional Calories a day (average 78.3 Calories).

Burning Calories In The “Real World”

A considerable amount of scientific research suggests that key ingredients in coffee (caffeine), hot red pepper (capsaicin), cinnamon (polyphenols) and green tea (catechins) have a modest ability to increase your calorie-burning rate or in some other way assist with weight loss and protection against obesity.*

  Here are a couple of examples.

As scientists who have studied capsaicin point out, most Westerners would find it very difficult if not impossible to get enough of his compound from the diet (e.g. as by adding hot red pepper to meals) to achieve a fat-reducing effect⁹. It’s just too painful.
Studies on cinnamon, for example, have used the equivalent of anywhere from 1-10 g of cinnamon powder, quantities not ordinarily used in food. While it may be possible to get enough cinnamon from the diet to lose body fat, USDA scientist Dr. Richard Anderson (Ph.D.) explains that cinnamon obtained this way may be “inactivated” by polyphenol-binding proteins secreted by your salivary glands¹⁰.

Others, like Dr. Andrew Blannin (Ph.D.) think that it would be extremely hard to consume enough cinnamon to produce improvements in insulin sensitivity without taking supplements¹¹.*

In light of everything we’ve discussed, it could be argued that the most sensible approach is to take just enough of each ingredient to produce a small calorie-burning effect so that the overall effect is that much greater.

Unfortunately, based on studies like those referred to here, putting such a “team approach” into practice by relying on the diet only could amount to drinking 3-4 cups of green tea, adding hot red peppers to several meals and swallowing 10 g of cinnamon, all followed by at least one, if not 2, 3, 4 or more, cups of black coffee.

If that doesn’t sound delicious, then we don’t know what does. There’s got to be a simpler way.

 

SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE

1. Grove and Lambert (2010). J Nutr 140(3): 446.

2. Belza et al. (2009). Eur J Clin Nutr 63: 57.1.  [Note that the reduction in food intake associated with tyrosine ingestion did not achieve statistical significance. The scientists suggested this might be due to the small number of subjects use. The increase in fat-burning (subjects burned more calories from fat) associated with tyrosine ingestion was statistically significant, on the other hand, albeit small.]

3. Dulloo et al. (1989). Am J Clin Nutr 49:44.

4. Matsumoto et al. (2000). J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo) 46(6): 309.

5. Ziegenfuss et al. (2006). J Int Soc Sports Nutr 3:45.

6. Dulloo et al. (1999). Am J Clin Nutr 70: 1040.

7. Moritani (2010). Personal communication.
8. Dulloo (2010). Personal communication.

9. Belza (2010). Personal communication.

10. Anderson (2010). Personal communication.

11. Blannin (2010). Personal communication.

12. Astrup et al. (1990). Am J Clin Nutr 51(5): 759.

13. Yoshioka M et al. British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 91 , Issue 06 , Jun 2004 , pp 991-995

We know that the digestive process is responsible for breaking down foods and then absorbing the nutrients so we can utilize them. 

Some recent research in the Journal of Phytomedicine shows that the protective properties of green tea may actually be better than we think because of digestion.  This means the benefits of green tea may be greater than what already think about it. 

The polyphenols in green tea help us in many ways and one of those ways is by protecting the cells in our brain by binding to hydrogen peroxide and amyloid beta.  These are toxic compounds that increase in numbers for those who have Alzheimers. 

What was very impressive with this study was that when green tea was digested by enzymes in the gut the compounds from the polyphenols in green tea were actually more effective fighting off key triggers of Alzheimers. 

Dr. Okello also found that the digested compounds from green tea had anticancer properties, which slowed down the growth of tumor cells that they were using in their experiments. 

He mentioned that the digested compounds protected the cells and didn’t allow the toxins to destroy the cells.  They also slowed down the growth of the cancer cells. 

This is very interesting research because we know the benefits of green tea and how it has been used in alternative medicine for hundreds of years.  This shows though why it may be so effective against some diseases. 

So drink your green tea or obtain the green tea extracts through supplementation and start benefiting from it powerful benefits. 

Other related articles on the benefits of Green Tea

Green Tea and Blood Sugar Control

Benefits Of Green Tea For Weight Loss

Green Tea Slows Down Aging

 

 

 

Resource:

E.J. Okello, G.J. McDougall, S. Kumar, C.J. Seal, In vitro protective effects of colon-available extract of Camellia sinensis (tea) against hydrogen peroxide and beta-amyloid (A[beta](1-42)) induced cytotoxicity in differentiated PC12 cells, Phytomedicine, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 22 December 2010, ISSN 0944-7113, DOI: 10.1016/j.phymed.2010.11.004.