Tea, Weight & BF

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American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 81, No. 1, 122-129, January 2005

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION

Ingestion of a tea rich in catechins leads to a reduction in body fat and

malondialdehyde-modified LDL in men1,2,3

Tomonori Nagao, Yumiko Komine, Satoko Soga, Shinichi Meguro, Tadashi Hase,

Yukitaka Tanaka and Ichiro Tokimitsu

1 From Health Care Products Research Laboratories No.1, Kao Corporation, Tokyo

(TN, YK, SS, SM, TH, YT, and IT)

Background: Catechins, the major component of green tea extract, have various

physiologic effects. There are few studies, however, on the effects of catechins

on body fat reduction in humans. It has been reported that the body mass index

(BMI) correlates with the amount of malondialdehyde and thiobarbituric

acid-reactive substances in the blood.

Objective: We investigated the effect of catechins on body fat reduction and the

relation between oxidized LDL and body fat variables.

Design: After a 2-wk diet run-in period, healthy Japanese men were divided into

2 groups with similar BMI and waist circumference distributions. A 12-wk

double-blind study was performed in which the subjects ingested 1 bottle oolong

tea/d containing 690 mg catechins (green tea extract group; n = 17) or 1 bottle

oolong tea/d containing 22 mg catechins (control group; n = 18).

Results: Body weight, BMI, waist circumference, body fat mass, and subcutaneous

fat area were significantly lower in the green tea extract group than in the

control group. Changes in the concentrations of malondialdehyde-modified LDL

were positively associated with changes in body fat mass and total fat area in

the green tea extract group.

Conclusion: Daily consumption of tea containing 690 mg catechins for 12 wk

reduced body fat, which suggests that the ingestion of catechins might be useful

in the prevention and improvement of lifestyle-related diseases, mainly obesity.