If you do a Web search for the terms “tea” and “weight loss” or “green tea” and “weight loss” you’ll find any number of merchants anxious to convince you of the miraculous ways in which tea and related products can help you to drop pounds. But is there really any basis to these claims? Well, the reality of the situation might not match up with the sometimes extravagant claims made for tea, but there is actually research that suggests that green tea might be of use for anyone looking to shed a few pounds.

Three of these studies were highlighted in a recent newsletter circulated by the Tea Advisory Panel, an organization supported by the UK Tea Council. In one of the more recent studies on the connection between green tea and weight loss, researchers in the United States found that consuming a beneficial component in green tea known as green tea catechins (GTC), along with caffeine, tended to result in some reductions in body mass index (BMI) and body weight.

The results of another study, “Green tea catechins, caffeine and body-weight regulation,” were published earlier in 2010. The research was carried out by scientists in The Netherlands, who found that caffeine and green tea “may increase energy expenditure and have been proposed to counteract the decrease in metabolic rate that is present during weight loss.” They also concluded that “taken together, these functional ingredients have the potential to produce significant effects on metabolic targets such as thermogenesis, and fat oxidation.”

Similar results were brought to light in yet another study on green tea, the results of which appeared in the International Journal of Obesity, in 2009. For even more information on the possible connections between tea and weight loss, refer to this previous article posted on the English Tea Blog.