Using Tea to Jumpstart Weight Loss
Tea can be effectively used to jumpstart weight loss as evidenced by the different varieties of tea and tea extracts that have come out in the market. The Chinese, have for centuries, prepared and consumed tea on different casual or formal occasions. It has also been used as a traditional Chinese medicine for specific ailments as well as an ingredient for cooking. But do we really know what tea is and what its properties are?
What is tea?
The usual or standard tea that is made into a drink is the dried, loose leaves of Cha (in Chinese) or Camellia sinensis (in Latin). The Camellia sinensis is a small tree with yellow or white flowers. The tea leaves and leaf buds are dried and brewed in hot water to make what we commonly call as tea. Even its stems and twigs are also dried and used to make a different variant of tea. Nowadays, we have been overloaded with all kinds of teas from the elegantly served English tea in dainty tea cups, the traditional Japanese tea served in rituals, the convenient American tea bags to the Chinese herbal teas and tea extracts used for curing all sorts of ailments including cancer and even weight loss. But still we do not know so much about tea except the ones that we have been familiar with or used to.
Categories of Tea
The origin of all teas is still the Cha or Camellia sinensis leaves or buds and they are categorized based on how the tea leaves or buds and how long they are withered (start of oxidation process), steamed or pan fried (slow the oxidation process), fermented, rolled and dried (reduces moisture content):
Category 1: Steaming or Pan Frying -> Rolling -> Drying - includes Green Tea and White Tea
Category 2: Withering -> Partial Fermenting -> Pan Frying or Drying – includes Oolong tea
Category 3: Withering -> Full Fermenting -> Drying – includes Black Tea, Yellow Tea, Red Tea
The various kinds of tea produced by each category are either high-grade, medium grade or medium-low grade. The grade and quality of the tea also determines the price it can fetch from a high of $30,000 to a low of $500.
Jumpstart Weight Loss
Each kind of tea also has its own medicinal function or use. Some can cure common illnesses like headaches or stomach pains and ailments such as high blood pressure or diabetes while some promotes health and well being. One of its most popular and well known uses is that of being a jumpstart for weight loss. Some types of tea are excellent for loosing weight because they detoxify the body, dissolves body fat and cholesterol by acting as a diuretic and releases excess body heat. Some teas that can be used to jumpstart weight loss are green tea, white tea, oolong tea, tie guanyin, puer tea, wulong tea, wu yi tea and some herbal tea or tea extracts. These teas we enumerated have one thing in common, they all help to reduce body weight and dissolve body fats and cholesterol to make you a slimmer you.