Tag Archives: weight loss

Black tea may help with weight loss, too

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UCLA researchers have demonstrated for the first time that black tea may promote weight loss and other health benefits by changing bacteria in the gut. In a study of mice, the scientists showed that black tea alters energy metabolism in the liver by changing gut metabolites.

The research is published in the European Journal of Nutrition.

The study found that both black and green tea changed the ratio of intestinal bacteria in the animals: The percentage of bacteria associated with obesity decreased, while bacteria associated with lean body mass increased.

Previous studies indicated that chemicals in green tea called polyphenols are absorbed and alter the energy metabolism in the liver. The new findings show that black tea polyphenols, which are too large to be absorbed in the small intestine, stimulate the growth of gut bacterium and the formation of short-chain fatty acids, a type of bacterial metabolites that has been shown to alter the energy metabolism in the liver.

“It was known that green tea polyphenols are more effective and offer more health benefits than black tea polyphenols since green tea chemicals are absorbed into the blood and tissue,” said Susanne Henning, the study’s lead author and an adjunct professor at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, which is part of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “Our new findings suggest that black tea, through a specific mechanism through the gut microbiome, may also contribute to good health and weight loss in humans.”

“The results suggest that both green and black teas are prebiotics, substances that induce the growth of good microorganisms that contribute to a person’s well-being,” she said.

In the study, four groups of mice received different diets — two of which were supplemented with green tea or black tea extracts:

Low-fat, high-sugar
High-fat, high-sugar

High-fat, high-sugar and green tea extract

High-fat, high-sugar and black tea extract

After four weeks, the weights of the mice that were given green or black tea extracts dropped to the same levels as those of the mice that received the low-fat diet throughout the study.

The researchers also collected samples from the mice’s large intestines (to measure bacteria content) and liver tissues (to measure fat deposits). In the mice that consumed either type of tea extract, there was less of the type of bacteria associated with obesity and more of the bacteria associated with lean body mass.

However, only the mice that consumed black tea extract had an increase in a type of bacteria called Pseudobutyrivibrio, which could help explain the difference between how black tea and green tea change energy metabolism.

Dr. Zhaoping Li, director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, chief of the UCLA Division of Clinical Nutrition and the study’s senior author, said the findings suggest that the health benefits of both green tea and black tea go beyond their antioxidant benefits, and that both teas have a strong impact on the gut microbiome.

“For black tea lovers, there may be a new reason to keep drinking it,” she said.

The findings build on a 2015 UCLA study that demonstrated that both green tea and black tea helped prevent obesity in mice that consumed a high-fat, high-sugar diet.

Weight loss for adults at any age leads to cost savings, study suggests

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Helping an adult lose weight leads to significant cost savings at any age, with those savings peaking at age 50, suggests a new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study.

The findings, which will be published online September 26 in the journal Obesity, suggests that a 20-year-old adult who goes from being obese to overweight would save an average of $17,655 in direct medical costs and productivity losses over their lifetime. If the same person were to go from being obese to a healthy weight, an average savings of $28,020 in direct medical costs and productivity losses can occur. Helping a 40-year-old adult go from being obese to overweight can save an average of $18,262. If the same person went from being obese to normal weight, an average savings of $31,447 can follow.

A high body mass index (BMI) is linked to a higher risk of serious conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers. Subsequently, a high BMI and associated conditions can lead to high medical and societal costs and productivity losses. More than 70 percent of adults in the U.S. are considered to be overweight or obese, which in direct medical expenses alone costs nearly $210 billion per year.

“Over half the costs of being overweight can be from productivity losses, mainly due to missed work days but also productivity losses. This means that just focusing on medical costs misses a big part of the picture, though they’re a consideration, too,” says Bruce Y. Lee, MD, MBA, executive director of the Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) at the Bloomberg School. “Productivity losses affect businesses, which in turn affects the economy, which then affects everyone.”

When absenteeism occurs in the workforce, others, at times, have to take on a larger workload. This all funnels downstream and adds to the societal costs of obesity. And health insurance premiums increase across the board, even for healthy patients, as insurers spread the cost of obesity and its associated conditions.

For the study, the researchers developed a computational simulation model to represent the U.S. adult population to show the lifetime costs and health effects for an individual with obesity, overweight and healthy weight statuses at ages 20 through 80 in increments of 10. The model used data from the Coronary Artery Disease Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) studies and included 15 mutually exclusive health statuses that represented every combination of three BMI categories (normal weight, overweight and obesity) and five chronic health stages.

The model simulated the weight and health status of an adult as he or she ages year by year throughout his or her lifetime to track the individual medical costs and productivity losses of each person. The estimated direct medical costs to the insurer and health care facility, productivity losses and sick time were included.

The research team found that cost savings peak at age 50 with an average total savings of $36,278. After age 50, the largest cost savings occur when an individual with obesity moves to the normal weight category as opposed to the overweight category, emphasizing the importance of weight loss as people age. This finding is important because people aged 50 and older make up more than 60% incremental societal costs, which includes higher taxes to support government insurance and higher copays and other out-of-pocket expenses.

“Most previous models have taken into account one or a few health risks associated with obesity. Subsequently, the forecasted costs may be unrealistic,” says Saeideh Fallah-Fini, PhD, a former GOPC visiting scholar who was part of the research team. “In our study, the model we developed takes into account a range of immediate health complications associated with body weight, like hypertension or diabetes, as well as all major long-term adverse health outcomes, including heart disease and some types of cancer, in forecasting the incremental health effects and costs to give a realistic calculation.”

Results from this study could inform policymakers about the specific implications and costs associated with obesity in order to design more successful interventions that are tailored to specific groups (defined by age, current health condition and weight). Understanding the resulting lifetime costs and health effects for an individual with obesity at different ages can also aid physicians and other health care professionals in implementing more targeted preventive management decisions for patients with high BMIs and associated health conditions. On the flip side, it could be beneficial for patients to better understand the health outcomes associated with potential future health risks and impending medical costs, given their existing BMI status and health condition.

Finally, realizing the reverberating effects of obesity on the productivity of their employees and consequently their profits, employers may look to redesign or sponsor healthy lifestyle programs with weight-loss initiatives. In turn, this could decrease absenteeism and poor performance. “In the end, the heart of a business is its employees,” says Lee. “Having employees who are overweight and unhealthy is akin to a football team trying to compete with chronically injured players.”

Weight Loss, Diabetes Interlinked, Says New Study

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Since diabetes can only be controlled by an individual either by medicines, diet contrl or regular exercise, experts have come out with the finding that diabetes can be reversed if people who reversed it keep their weight considerably low.

A study by Roy Taylor at the Newcastle University showed that those with Type 2 diabetes who were able to loose their weight could also successfully reverse the chronic ailment because the excess fat remooved from the pancreas helped normal production of insulin.

The researchers studied 30 volunteers who have Type 2 diabetes for 10 years or less and found that it may not apply to those with more than 10 years of chronic ailment. Out of 30 volunteers, 12 had the ailment for less than 10 years and were able to reverse their condition and remain free from diabetes after six months, said the study published in Diabetes Care.

The volunteers reducedd their weight by a strict diet of 600 to 700 calories per day, mostly consisting of three diet shakes per day and 240 grams of non-starchy vegetables for 8 weeks. Later they returned to their normal food but within the control regime for next two weeks. Later, they ate only one-third of their normal food to maintain their weight loss.

For those who had diabetes for over 10 years, Taylor has an advice: “If you had the diagnosis for longer than that, then don’t give up hope – major improvement in blood sugar control is possible.”

Explaining the Personal Fat Threshold theory, he said:“If a person gains more weight than they personally can tolerate, then diabetes is triggered, but if they lose that amount of weight then they go back to normal.” It depends on each individual as to how much weight they can afford to keep their metabolism in tact, said Taylor.

Even 70% of those who are obese are not necessarily diabetics. Even the 13 volunteers who reversed their condition were either overweight or obese, but their insulin production levels remained the same, he explained. Taylor is planning a bigger sample of 280 volunteers to study the finding in-depth.

About two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, facing an increased risk for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, osteoarthritis, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, while India is also increasingly facing the problem of obesity and overweight, thanks to modern life and TV viewing by kids and adults alike.