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Have you ever noticed how you feel a little hot and sweaty after eating a big meal?
Well, there’s more to it than just having a full stomach. When you eat, your body creates heat and energy. It’s called “diet-induced thermogenesis.”
Here’s how it works…
When you eat certain foods, the level of insulin in your body increases. And this creates energy and heat. As your body temperature goes up, your metabolism starts to kick into high gear. That’s when you start using the fat in your cells for energy.
The higher the thermic effect of the foods you eat, the easier it will be to get rid of any excess fat. Proteins are great for producing a high thermic effect. They take longer to process in your body and create more heat. But fat, on the other hand, is easily processed by your body and produces very little thermic effect.
The problem is, the common “diet” in our modern world is full of processed foods with little protein, so it can be difficult to trigger thermogenesis with the foods you eat alone.
A simple and quick way to activate thermogenesis is by drinking good old-fashioned tea. And there’s a certain type of tea that stands out from the rest when it comes to helping you melt away excess fat.
It’s called oolong tea.
The best way I can describe oolong tea is halfway between green and black teas. And while it may not be in a class of its own, oolong tea is the best of both worlds because you get the benefits of both.
When green tea is made, the tea leaves are dried, but still kept whole. And because of this technique, the leaves hold on to powerful antioxidants called catechins. The catechin in green tea is called EGCG. And EGCG is what helps your body trigger your internal thermogenesis switch to help your body heat up and melt fat for energy.1
Black tea is produced in a different way. The leaves are dried but then they are crushed up, which produces lots of different antioxidants called flavonoids. These antioxidants work in a different way to help you lose excess fat.
The catechins in green tea help you melt fat, but the flavonoids in black tea help you keep it off. Numerous studies show that these powerful antioxidants help block starches from being absorbed into your body.2,3 And if the starches aren’t absorbed, they can’t turn into fat.
Oolong tea falls somewhere in the middle of the two.
The leaves of oolong tea aren’t whole and they aren’t crushed, either… they’re bruised. This method of preparation enables it to hold on to both the EGCGs of green tea and the flavonoids of black tea for a double attack on your fat cells.
So not only will you trigger thermogenesis, you’ll also be working to keep the starches from turning to fat in your body.
One of the highest quality oolong teas I’ve found is called Wu-Long. The leaves come from extraordinarily rare plants produced at Mt. Wu Yi Shan in southeast China. It’s got a very dark, rich coloring to it.
The good thing is you can get Wu-Long in capsule form as well as in tea form. While I love a good cup of tea, the capsules are great if you’re on-the-go or don’t feel like brewing a cup.
Plus, I made an arrangement for you to get free shipping on your entire order. Click here to try it for yourself.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
1,1 Borchardt, R.T. and Huber, J.A. “Catechol Omethyltransferase. Structure-activity relationships for inhibition by Flavonoids,” J. Med. Chem. 1975;18: 120–122
2 Koh, L., Wong, L., Loo, Y., et al, “Evaluation of different teas against starch digestibility by mammalian glycosidases”
3 Hursel, R., Westerterp-Plantenga, M. “Thermogenic ingredients and body weight regulation,” Int. J. Obes (Lond). 2010;34(4):659-69
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