Men who Drink Tea May Have Less Belly Fat
Medical science has told us for decades now that being overweight is unhealthy. In recent years, they have told us that fat concentrated around the abdomen is the worst. Having excessive belly fat puts a person at higher risk for ailments such as diabetes and heart disease. Even if they aren’t severely overweight elsewhere in their bodies, the excessive belly fat puts them in danger.
A number of studies have been conducted regarding how drinking tea and coffee affects obesity. It’s an important factor in our diets because 60% of adults drink coffee or tea, usually with something like sugar added. Until recently, none of these studies specifically focused on abdominal fat. However, last week the first study about coffee, tea, and waistlines was presented at the First International Congress on Abdominal Obesity in Hong Kong.
The study examined the results of the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Survey that included 3,823 participants. Scientists took a close look at the relationship between drinking tea and coffee and abdominal obesity. They found that men who drank two cups or more of tea a day had two inches less of waistline than men who drank coffee or who drank neither coffee nor tea.
The study included some other interesting findings regarding what people put in the tea that they drank. Men who added sugar to their tea had waistlines that were 1 inch smaller. Men who used artificial sweetener had waistlines that were two inches larger than men who didn’t drink tea at all. This seems very odd considering the fact that sugar adds calories. It’s an area of research scientists want to investigate at a later date.
Oddly, for women whether they drank coffee, tea, or neither seemed to have no effect at all. However, drinking tea with milk was associated with women having waistlines that were two thirds of an inch smaller. Women who used artificial sweeteners had a waistline an average of one inch larger than those who drank tea without it or who didn’t drink tea at all. Scientists were unable to determine why tea drinking affected women differently than men. They want to look into the cause of this at a later date as well.
brewed on Feb 4th, 2010
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