The Health Benefits of Green Tea Extract

Do you know there are some amazing health benefits of taking diet green tea to lose weight? For as far back as 500o years, the Chinese have been drinking green tea for its health benefits as well as for pleasure. In fact, green tea started out as medicine and become a popular drink at a later point.

Even though China is attributed as being the birth place of green tea, it is the Japanese population that consumes the most green tea today. They’re high intake of green tea is one of the key factors considered to account for the very low cancer rates in Japan compared to the western world, and even China. So besides cancer prevention what are the health benefits of green tea extract, and what exactly is green tea extract?

Green tea extract is a condensed form of green tea that we take as a supplement, rather than drinking green tea. Just like green tea, green tea extract is loaded with the antioxidants that are found abundantly in fresh green tea. These antioxidants are known as catechins and they are the main reason behind the many health benefits of green tea.

As well as protection from many kinds of cancer, green tea extract can help to keep our heart and cardiovascular system in top notch shape by virtue of several different mechanisms. Green tea extract lowers LDL “bad” cholesterol levels, raises HDL “good” cholesterol levels, lowers high blood pressure levels, helps to prevent blood clots from forming and protects our arteries from plaque build ups (atherosclerosis)! Natural products don’t get a lot more heart friendly than green tea extract!

You may have heard of using green tea for weight loss, and for good reason – green tea really does help us lose weight. Many studies have found that giving green tea extract to overweight people daily helps them to lose weight by raising their metabolism. Green tea extract at daily doses of 600 – 900mg can raise our metabolic rate enough to burn an extra 80 calories a day – by doing nothing!