11.07.07
Posted in Green Tea in General, Health Benefits of Green Tea at 6:59 pm by site admin
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m definitely on a “roll” about anything having to do with green tea weight loss. My last blog entry was way back in August, yikes! Anyway, at the time I had lost thirteen pounds and thought it was great. As of today, however, I have lost 26 pounds of body weight. That number is a bit deceiving as I also gained about 7 pounds of muscle. In other words, since May 1st I have lost 33 pounds of FAT. So in case anyone is wondering why I am endorsing “Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle” lately, now you know why! There are not many products that I would consider endorsing on our site, but this is one that I do.
It may seem strange that I would re-directly potential green tea customers away from my site. Yeah, I do get a small commission if someone clicks on the ad and actually buys “burn the fat”, but I doubt it would equal what they would spend if they had purchased items from our store as our average sale is more than the books costs. Honestly, the “green tea and weight loss” thing has been more of a pain that it has been a blessing, at least for me. The amount of email it has generated has been something to deal with. Plus, not everyone is so kind after you tell them what they don’t want to hear - that it will not melt the pounds away. I’m just happy I have a place to send them that I know will do some good.
Don’t get me wrong - there is definitely a correlation between green tea and weight loss, it’s just not to the degree that some people (Okinawa) are hyping it up. For me, I am in the business for the long haul - we were in it before the hype and we plan to be in it long after it’s over. Besides, the other health benefits are reason enough to be drinking green tea.
Being both a dieter and also a green tea merchant who drinks his products on a daily basis has given me a lot of insight into what works and what doesn’t, and how green tea fits in with it all. I recently revamped the green tea and weight loss page of our site and I recommend anyone interested in the subject to give it a read. I do use our products as a weight loss aid but if it were all I were doing then I am sure I would not have had the success I have had. I like to drink iced green tea right before and during cardio exercise, I feel it gives me an extra “boost” so to speak. That would be in addition to the hot green tea I drink throughout the day.
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08.01.07
Posted in Green Tea in General, Health Benefits of Green Tea at 12:51 am by site admin
Let me start of by saying that the number one question I am asked regarding green tea has to be whether or not it will help one to lose weight. I mean, I get this daily. So does it? Well, kind of. It has caffeine in it, and caffeine does give your metabolism a slight boost. The effect is known as “thermogenesis.” To quote Wikipedia: Thermogenesis is the process of heat production in organisms. Then again, coffee has a lot more caffeine in it than green tea does, about 125mg versus just 30mg in green tea. Based on that, it would be reasonable to assume that coffee would boost metabolism more than green tea. Recent studies, however, seem to suggest that green tea produces slightly more of a metabolic boost than just the caffeine in it alone can account for. How much? While I don’t have the figures in front of me at the moment, it’s not a lot. The last reliable study I read suggests that if one were to change nothing about their diet or exercise regime and drink green tea 3 times a day, over a period of several months one could expect to lose a few pounds more than they would had they not been drinking green tea. Yeah, a few pounds. For sure, nothing anywhere near what those people pushing “Okinawan Tea” are claiming.
I hate to admit this, but last fall I found myself at 44 years old and about 25-30 pounds overweight, that while running a green tea business and drinking a lot of my own product. This alone is evidence (to me) that green tea in and of itself is not going to make one lose weight - other things must be done. Since December, however, I have lost about 19 pounds of fat and gained about 8 pounds of lean muscle. How did I do it? The first thing I did was to start lifting weights three times a week. Arms and shoulders on Mondays, legs on Wednesdays, chest, back, abs on Fridays. After doing that religiously for 5 months, I gained about 4 pounds of muscle and lost about the same amount of fat. I hadn’t modified my diet in anyway, just did straight weight training. An improvement, for sure, but I was still way too heavy. Then I ran across the most amazing e-book, which mostly focused on nutrition for bodybuilders. By simply modifying my diet, the weight started to come off instantly. It also advises cardio and weight training, but the focus is on proper nutrition. After just 3 months of following the regimen, I have lost 13 pounds of body weight and nearly 95% of that is fat.
Back to green tea - yes, I do love my green tea! I do use it in conjunction with my new nutrition program, and yes, I believe it does gives me an extra boost, I drink iced green tea while I do my cardio exercises.
Here’s where I get to endorse something. First, I want everyone who reads this to know that I have never endorsed any other product outside of our own on my website before, this is a first. In this case, however, I can and do endorse the following product because I have downloaded it, I follow it, I have lost quite a bit of weight safely and consistently, and I can say with all confidence that this program works for weight loss. If you have come across this site looking for information regarding green tea and weight loss - yes, I’ll ask you to purchase our green tea products still! That said, I would highly recommend that you check out…
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07.21.05
Posted in Green Tea in General, Health Benefits of Green Tea at 8:04 pm by site admin
Not a week went by before another news report on green tea and cancer came, this time from US News & World Report. As I suspected, despite what the FDA says, the jury is still out on this topic - even these guys seem to agree. Read the article and you tell me? In reference to the FDA findings on green tea, I found the following part to be of particular interest:
One caveat: You have to drink a lot of tea to get enough EGCG to do any good. Just how much is not known, but it is somewhere between three to 10 cups a day. Because of its bitterness and the caffeine load of that much tea, that’s hard to do. No wonder that after a detailed analysis of numerous studies of green tea and cancer involving tens of thousands of patients, the Food and Drug Administration announced only two weeks ago that there is “no credible evidence” to support green tea’s health claims when it comes to cancer…
Well, that’s encouraging, but I have to disagree a little here. Three to ten cups a day isn’t hard to do at all, it’s not bitter if you make it right, and if you drank 3 cups of green tea you STILL wouldn’t have as much caffeine intake as a single cup of coffee.
I still want to know - what kind of green tea did they use? Anyway, here’s the article
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07.10.05
Posted in Green Tea in General, Health Benefits of Green Tea at 10:03 pm by site admin
You know what’s cool about having a blog? I get to say stuff that’s on my mind and not really worry too much if it’s politically correct or not. If are thinking that a rant is about to appear, you are right.
Not sure if you have heard it or not but a few days ago the FDA has decided that green tea doesn’t do a thing for cancer. You know, the folks that are worried about us dropping dead from “unsafe” American made drugs obtained at a reasonable cost in Canada? You know, the agency that mandates that before I send the pack of chewing gum I obtained at the local Japanese 7-11 down the street to my twelve year old niece in Mesa, AZ, I must first obtain prior notice from them? Well since the FDA says it doesn’t do anything for cancer, I guess that settles that, right? I don’t think so!
When it comes to green tea and health, there seems to be two main health concerns, weight loss and cancer. People have been hitting me up daily on green tea and weightloss thing for the last year or so, most likely because other companies have been hyping their green tea patches, capsules, and whatnot to those desperate to loose some pounds. We have never tried to sell anyone our products based on this because frankly, I’ve personally never seen a good study that suggests it’s really true. Maybe it’s out there, but I haven’t seen it yet. I mean, as much as I love the stuff, it hasn’t dropped any pounds for me and not many drink more of it than I do. I’m sure it can’t hurt for weight loss, but until I see a really good study on that, I will not tout it as a weight loss helper.
When it comes to cancer, however, that’s a whole different story. I’ve read literally dozens of studies that strongly suggest green tea as a possible cancer preventative. I have personally researched and read numerous studies in journals at the university. They’ve done the studies in Japan; they’ve done them in the USA and Europe. Study after study strongly suggesting green tea as possible/probable preventive for cancer, yet the FDA says it doesn’t do anything for cancer. Hey FDA people, are you calling all of these other scientists liars? This seems rather arrogant to me. I want to know, which green tea did they use? Was it that nasty stuff they sell at the grocery store? I want to know.
Why are they doing this? My best guess would be as a control method. They’ve sure done that with food - as I said earlier, you cannot send food bought in a store overseas and ship it to the USA now without getting permission first. This involving logging into the most tedious, ass backward website you’ve ever encountered and then filling out a bunch of nonsense online forms. We’re talking even for a chocolate bar. Supposedly, this is going to stop the next 9/11 (of course, crossing the border from Mexico into Arizona isn’t quite so complicated.) Now that they have decreed green tea non-effective for cancer, they’ll most likely start going after websites that claim green tea as a cancer cure. Fine by me, I’d like to see some of those people go down actually.
Since you have read this far, I think it’s only fair to leave you with a link. Keep in mind; this is just one of MANY studies out there. I think it’s safe to say that the BBC is considered to be a rather highly qualified journalism source. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3125469.stm
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