In a U.S. study, it was found that by taking green tea, either in capsule form or drunk, actually reduced cholesterol readings. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. It revealed that about 5-6 points were trimmed from the total cholesterol levels of individuals who used it, compared to other types of treatments and dummy capsules.
The green tea compounds called catechins are the ones that are thought of responsible for the decrease in cholesterol levels.
The assistant professor of pharmacy at Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, California, Olivia Phung, who was also a senior researcher stated that green tea drank in a cup was more effective than the capsules. She also stated that, “If someone is already taking medication for their cholesterol, they should stick with it and not try to trade it for green tea, either capsules or the beverage.”
She also said that if you add green tea to your diet, it could help improve cholesterol readings. While green tea helped in decreasing bad cholesterol levels, it didn’t clearly show if green tea boosted good cholesterol levels.
Twenty clinical trials, which involve 1,415 adults, were pooled by Phung’s team. The participants were assigned to use green tea each day, either in capsule or as beverage. Some were also tasked to be part of the control group that took in placebo capsules or simply downed water or other low – catechin drinks. The trials took place between 3 to 6 months and the benefits were quite limited to those individuals who had high levels of cholesterol when they participated in the study.
On the overall, tea was more effective than capsules, although it cannot exactly be determined whether the beverage is more advantageous than the extract.
In terms of dosage, Phung’s team was not able to test for the response of the body to particular dosage of green tea intake.
Green tea has always been considered as safe as long as taken in moderate amounts. However, since it contains caffeine, some people who would suffer complications when taking in too much caffeine would simply have to avoid it.
Study Finds Green Tea Can Possibly Help in Trimming Bad Cholesterol is a post from: Natural Health Magazine
