Green Tea Improves Lipids, Glucose Metabolism and
Syndrome X
Green tea intervention can significantly decrease
visceral fat depot and increase the insulin's sensitivity.
Metabolic Syndrome X, also known as Insulin Resistance
Syndrome, is thought to run in families with a history
of type 2 diabetes. Excessive caloric intake is thought
to be one of the root causes. Consequently, physicians
have prescribed weight loss, exercise and a healthy
diet to combat it. A new weapon might eventually
be added to the arsenal: consumption of green tea,
a tea polyphenols product containing in excess of
65 percent tea catechins, derived from the green
tea leaf. The results of a new animal model study
reveal the benefits of green tea in improving lipid
and glucose metabolisms, enhancing insulin sensitivity,
and balancing the metabolic rate of fat deposit and
fat burning.
The authors
of a new study, "Tegreen Improves
glucose and lipid metabolism in obese rats that have
features similar to Metabolic Syndrome X," are
Hong Yu, Zhigang Zhu and Weiti Yin, a . The findings
will be presented at Experimental Biology 2003, a
meeting sponsored by the American Physiological Society,
being held April 11-15, 2003, at the San Diego Convention
Center, San Diego, CA.
The researchers made the following observations:
Establishment of Metabolic Syndrome X: Rats fed
the high-calorie diet significantly increased their
weight of abdominal adipose tissue and ratio of Insulin:Glucagon,
indicating increased adipose lipogenesis and deposit,
and decreased fat burning. The glucose-insulin index
was lowered by 13 percent in rats on the high calorie
diet, indicating reduced insulin sensitivity or insulin
resistance and excessive visceral adipose accumulation.
These metabolic changes suggested that rats on the
experimental diet developed Metabolism Syndrome X.
Decreases in fasting blood glucose: After the eight-week
green tea treatment, fasting blood glucose was decreased
significantly (by 21.5 percent and 15.7 percent,
respectively) in rats given Tegreen at a dose of
25 or 75 mg/kg.
Fasting plasma insulin was decreased by 40.7 percent.
The insulin index was increased significantly. Decreases
in fasting serum triglycerides (TG): fasting serum
TG was significantly decreased (31 percent and 54.3
percent, respectively). Decreases in visceral depot
fat and fasting plasma glucagon was increased slightly
This
study revealed that oral administration of green
tea is capable of improving glucose and lipid
metabolisms in an obese rat model induced by a high-calorie
diet.
